A tribute to our nation’s Fourth Arm of Defense

On Nov. 10, the day before Veterans Day, I had the honor of participating in a celebration of another group of veterans whose contributions as the nation’s Fourth Arm of Defense is not widely known: The Merchant Marine.

The U.S. Merchant Marine emblem was added to Veterans Memorial Plaza in Anacortes in a brief ceremony attended by Xochitl Castaneda, Pacific Northwest and Alaska Gateway director of the U.S. Maritime Administration.

The contribution of the Merchant Marine to our nation’s defense is a story that is not told enough. Experienced mariners are necessary for the transport of people and cargo in inland waters, along our coasts and across the oceans. And the United States has always known that it can count on those mariners to put their experience to work supporting our defense efforts in time of peril.

The privateers, as the Merchant Marine was known at the time, stepped forward to defend our new country in the Revolutionary War -- 1,697 privateer ships compared to 64 Continental Navy ships. Without the privateers, we would have been hard pressed to become a nation.

In the War of 1812, privateers stepped forward again to fight for our country, with 517 ships compared