Thank you so much for the reply. The Merchant Marine's name is Vincent Albert Fitzgerald. He was raised in the Sheepshead Bay area on Long Island and enlisted in that area. He was barely 16 when he signed up. Vinnie lost his discharge papers along the way so we have been working through the VA, Coast Guard, etc to try to get a copy of his papers. All this work actually started last year and after 6 months of searching and lots of help,we got the DD Form 214 (Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty) which states that it establishes active duty service for the purpose of VA benefits. That document is where we got the name of the ship SS Sweepstakes. It says he served on that ship from March 23, 1945 to May 15, 1945. The problem is that this one ship does not establish the 90 of active service that he needs to qualify for benefits but it is a starting point. There is a family story that we are hoping will lead to another ship he served on before March 1945. The way the story goes, Vinnie was sitting "high and dry" on an ammo ship in Antwerp getting ready to be blown sky high if Patton hadn't broken through. Since that march happened in early 1945, Vinnie would have had to be in service before then to be sitting on a ship in Antwerp. The family thinks he went in sometime in 1944 and if we can establish that he was on a ship in early 1945, that would prove that he had more than 90 days of service and that he was definitely in a war zone. If any of the story sounds familiar, all help would be greatly appreciated. Besides Alzheimer's, Vinnie's kidneys are failing so we are trying as quickly as we can to get him help. Thank you again so much for taking the time to answer me.
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