My father had a childhood friend who served in the merchant marine in WW2.

My dad was a little kid 10-14 years old during the war and one of the big boys from the street came home. He didn’t have any of his peers to talk to, they were either working long shifts or away at war and he confided in my dad he was running away. He had seven merchant ships shot out from underneath him and he couldn’t go back to sea. He gave my dad all of his possessions, The toys he was too old for and clothes. This was a big deal with rationing, nobody got anything new.

That was the last my dad ever heard of him… Mexico wasn’t in the war, that was the plan. He said he had done his part!

I hope he made it, seven ships shot out from under him.