United States Merchant Marine

The United States Merchant Marine is portrayed as a civilian wartime shipping service that carries cargo rather than weapons, not as part of the U.S. armed forces. Its distinction from military service reassures Bucky Glazer’s wife when he sails for Australia in 1944, yet the voyage exposes the peril hidden behind that reassurance: merchant ships are repeatedly attacked by enemy submarines and aircraft.

Wartime Service and Mission

Bucky tells his wife that he has enlisted in the United States Merchant Marine and expects to ship out within about a month, probably for Australia. He frames his decision as a response to the historical moment and a man’s duty to serve his country, while also insisting that his enlistment does not diminish his love for her or his happiness in their marriage. He wants something beyond their honeymoon, and merchant service gives him a way to take part in the war.

The account distinguishes the Merchant Marine from the armed forces through the work its ships perform. The Liberty ship carrying Bucky is not a warship and does not transport bombers; it carries goods rather than weapons. Bucky therefore will not, in his wife’s understanding, take part in military actions or be sent into battle. The distinction describes the service’s civilian role, but it does not make its routes safe.

Bucky’s Departure

In late April 1944, Bucky leaves aboard a Liberty ship bound for Australia as part of a convoy of steamships. The precise terms of his service are secret, and no one knows when he will be granted leave in the United States; the family expects he will be away for at least eight months. The possibility of an imminent invasion of Japan lends urgency to the departure, even as its timing and duration remain uncertain.

At the dock on Catalina Island, Bucky embraces his family and clings especially to his wife. He asks her to write every day and tells her that he will miss her. His promise that they can have children after the war turns the separation toward an imagined future together. She answers the departure with a blue cotton dress, white heels, and a gardenia in her hair, maintaining a composed appearance while the send-off makes the cost of his enlistment visible.

Risk and Narrative Irony

His wife believes the Merchant Marine’s nonmilitary status sets Bucky apart from husbands who might be sent into combat. She does not seem to know that merchant vessels are continually attacked by enemy submarines and aircraft, and she reasons that her husband is unarmed and carries cargo, not weapons. Her confidence is therefore built on a true distinction—the service is not the armed forces—but draws a false conclusion about the danger he faces.

The departure also changes her place in the family: she can now display the blue star placed in the windows of soldiers’ mothers and wives. On the journey home to Mission Hills, Mrs. Glazer recognizes that she is in shock, takes her cold fingers in her hands, and offers her a place to stay as a daughter of the family. The Merchant Marine’s wartime role thus reaches beyond the ship and its cargo: enlistment separates a young couple, reshapes the household left behind, and makes the boundary between civilian service and wartime peril painfully uncertain.