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Edwin O’Hara dies a hero

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

Just when it appeared that all hands would be lost, a 19-year-old cadet still in training ran to the ship’s big gun and began firing. Edwin J. O’Hara died that day, but not before his actions saved many of his fellow crewmen and earned him a place in World War II history.
Edwin J. O?Hara was born in 1923 in Lindsay, Calif. He entered the Merchant Marine’s Cadet Basic School near San Francisco in January 1942, just weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Following six months of basic training he was sent to sea aboard the Stephen Hopkins, a Liberty Ship carrying supplies in the South Atlantic. He was still a cadet and this first assignment was intended to offer him real-life training.
The reality of war was brought home to O’Hara and his fellow crewmen on Sept. 27, 1942. The war for the U.S. was less than a year old and the Liberty Ship Stephen Hopkins was tasked with delivering shipments of bauxite, a material needed to make aluminum for military aircraft. Sometime in midmorning the Hopkins was intercepted by the German cruiser Steir and raider Tannenfels. Much better armed, the two ships blasted the Hopkins with its big guns while its machinegunners raked its decks. Return fire disabled the Tannenfels, but the Hopkins was soon on fire and dead in the water. The gun crew of the Hopkins’ lone 4-inch gun lay dead. The Steir moved in for the kill, firing at the Hopkins crewmen who were putting over lifeboats.
Suddenly, Edwin O’Hara appeared on deck. He raced to the stern and moved the bodies of his dead comrades away from the 4-inch gun and with his rudimentary training in gunnery, began firing. There were only five shells, but one of them scored a direct hit on the Steir, disabling the cruiser and eventually sending it to the bottom. But not before O’Hara was hit and killed by machinegun fire. He had no way of knowing that his heroism saved the lives of more than a dozen crewmen who were able to get into lifeboats. Nor could he have known that he would hold by war’s end the distinction of being the only American to sink a German surface vessel during the entire conflict.
Although the captain and first mate were killed, along with dozens more, 19 survivors managed to get aboard a lifeboat. Clusters of other survivors were seen nearby on a raft and some debris. Unfortunately, the radio operator of the Hopkins was killed before he could get a distress signal out, so no one knew when or where the vessel went down or that there were survivors. The lifeboat floated for 30 days on the open sea before reaching Brazil on Oct. 27, 1942. Four had died of their wounds during the ordeal, making the final number of survivors 15.
Several months later, on March 15, 1943, at ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Merchant Marine Cadet Corps, Cadet Edwin O?Hara was posthumously awarded the service’s Distinguished Service Medal by President Franklin Roosevelt. According to the official citation for the honor, “The magnificent courage of this young cadet constitutes a degree of heroism which will be an enduring inspiration to seamen of the United States Merchant Marine everywhere.” After the war, the U.S. Maritime Commission awarded the Hopkins and its crew (one of only 10 ships so honored) with a Gallant Ship Award for their great courage and behavior under fire.
Despite these honors, many at the time (and for decades since) believed that O’Hara deserved a Congressional Medal of Honor. His actions, they argue, clearly fit the honor’s criteria. The only thing working against O’Hara was the fact that he served in the Merchant Marine, instead of the Army, Navy, or Marines. The Merchant Marine was held in disdain by the brass in the three main services and at the Pentagon. Mariners were disparaged as draft dodgers who earned higher pay than men in the Navy. Both charges were false. Merchant Marine service was extremely hazardous duty, most of it involving the transport of vital supplies across the hostile waters of the Atlantic to the Allies in Europe. Of some 240,000 mariners who served during World War II, 8,430 died (1 in 28) — the highest percentage of men killed in any branch of the military. In addition, 142 cadets like O’Hara were killed in action, compared with none lost by the other service academies, Annapolis and West Point. Despite this record of exemplary service, mariners were refused entrance to Red Cross and USO clubs and after the war were not eligible for the G.I. Bill. One underlying cause of his shabby treatment may have been the fact that the Merchant Marine was comprised of 20 percent African Americans and 20 percent Jews — numbers far greater compared to the other services.
Despite the disappointment many feel at O’Hara’s being overlooked for the Medal of Honor, there is no taking away either his place in history or the esteem in which he has been held by mariners ever since his death. To them, he is the embodiment of the Merchant Marine’s motto, Acta Non Verba — “Actions Not Words.”
Note: Ben Hammer, a Merchant Marine veteran living in Brooklyn, continues the fight to win a Medal of Honor for O’Hara. For more information on this effort, contact the Edwin J. O’Hara Chapter of the American Merchant Marine at
www. usmm.org/ohara.htm. A memorial to those killed in the Merchant Marine during World War II is in Manhattan’s Battery Park.

HIBERNIAN HISTORY WEEK
Sept. 22, 1927: Heavyweight champion Gene Tunney survives the famous “long count” knockdown and goes on defeat former champion Jack Dempsey in their celebrated rematch.
Sept. 24, 1880: Tenant farmers begin to shun Captain Charles Boycott, a practice that soon gives rise to the term “boycott.”

HIBERNIAN BIRTHDATES
Sept. 24, 1896: Novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald is born in St. Paul.
Sept 27, 1837: Labor priest Father Edward McGlynn is born in New York City.
Sept. 28, 1901: TV show host Ed Sullivan is born in New York City.

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