Newest NLUS Council Focuses On
Support of the Merchant Marine
By PETER ATKINSON, Deputy Editor
The Navy League’s newest
council was launched late last
year in San Francisco, becoming
just the second council to highlight the emphasis of its support
for the U.S.-flag Merchant Marine,
the nation’s maritime industry and
maritime trade organizations.
Kerry C. O’Brien, president of the
Pacific Merchant Marine Council,
accepts the council’s chartering document from Navy League National
President John A. Panneton.
Panneton is flanked by Rear Adm.
Frank X. Johnston, the Maritime
Administration’s western administrator, left, and Don Hale, Pacific
Central Region president, at the
Pacific Merchant Marine Council
chartering ceremony.
ANDREW M. PALLAS ANDREW M. PALLAS
More than 100 Navy Leaguers and
guests attended the Dec. 11 ceremony to charter the Pacific Merchant
Marine Council, the organization’s
270th council, aboard the National
Liberty Ship Memorial SS Jeremiah
O’Brien at San Francisco’s Pier 45.
Among those who joined the council’s 44 charter members for the
luncheon event were Navy League
National President John A. Panneton,
who was the featured guest speaker;
Rear Adm. Frank X. Johnston, the
Maritime Administration’s western
administrator; Albert J. Herberger,
the Navy League’s national corporate
secretary and chairman of the
Merchant Marine Committee; National Director Michelle Lockwood,
who serves on the Merchant Marine
and Maritime Policy Committees;
and Don Hale, Pacific Central Region
president.
Jeremiah O’Brien, which sailed as
part of the armada that stormed
Normandy, France, on D-Day, provided a fitting setting for the ceremony, according to Hale. A national
historic landmark, Jeremiah O’Brien
is a living museum of Merchant
Marine heritage, and the only active
Merchant Marine Liberty Ship left in
its original configuration. The ship
remains fully seaworthy, although it
did not sail for the ceremony.
The council’s chartering now provides the Merchant Marine with a
recognizable Navy League presence
on both coasts. The other Merchant
Marine-focused council is the
Merchant Marine and U.S. Navy
Armed Guard Council in New Jersey,
which was chartered in October
1991. That council now boasts about
40 members, with George R. Searle
as its current president.
Kerry C. O’Brien, a retired Merchant Mariner who helped found the
Pacific Merchant Marine Council, is
its first president. He envisions the
council as a truly “Pacific” — or at
least U.S. West Coast — entity that,
given the unique, often far-flung
nature of the Merchant Marine, can
attract members and community
affiliates from along the coast who
otherwise might not be inclined to
join an organization like the Navy
League, which already has a number
of councils in the region.
“We will draw from an entirely
different gene pool than your ‘
average’ Navy League council,” which
typically recruits people and busi-nesses from the local community
with an interest in supporting the
sea services, O’Brien said.
This “gene pool” can include
maritime industry executives and
port employees, union officials,
mariners and members of other
small Merchant Marine groups
interested in coming together
under Navy League umbrella
through the council.
“The Merchant Marine is a different animal” than the other sea services, said O’Brien, because its infrastructure is primarily private industry and Merchant Mariners are civilians except during time of war,
when they are effectively considered
military personnel. “It’s a different
kind of challenge, but our main goal
is to serve our people and do some
real good for the Merchant Marine,”
he said.
The U.S.-flag Merchant Marine
comprises the tankers, cargo carriers, container ships and other vessels that make up the American
commercial maritime transporta-
