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Don Horton of North Carolina started his career on barges during World War II at the age of 10. His father, mother, sister and brothers all worked on U.S. merchant marine coastwise tugs and barges during the war. In 1942 his eldest brother, William Lee Horton, Jr., was killed when a German U-boat attacked his tug, nine miles of the coast of Virginia. The Merchant Mariners Act of 1988 granted veterans status to merchant mariners who served during WWII. However, the small group of merchant mariners who served on tugs and barges, like the Horton family, moving bulk materials for the war effort up and down the U.S. coast, have largely been prevented from being recognized as veterans. Records for coastwise mariners in many cases were either not issued or destroyed. Today, Don Horton is 78 years old and heading up an effort to get some 10,000 coastwise merchant seaman of WWII recognized for their service. Horton’s story shows that coastal and inland mariners have been unsung heroes as far back as the last world war. “Those seamen who worked on coastwise barges were a small, dedicated and mostly unknown group who served in the U.S. Merchant Marine. They made little news but played a very important role during WWII. ... History has passed them by and carried their records along with it.” “In 1988 I was thinking about my brother just before the anniversary of his death,” Horton said. “I wanted a picture of his tugboat, so I started scouring the web. That’s where I found out that I could apply for veterans’ status for my family for our services during WWII. I sent in five applications: one for my mother, one for my father, one each for my two brothers and myself. (I didn’t, at that time, send in one for my sister, which I regretted later. I didn’t think that she’d served enough time to be eligible.) In any case, all applications came back indicating no records were available to show we had any service. I knew that had to be wrong. My father served from 1939 to about 1953. At the time I applied, they didn’t even con- sider my brother, who was killed by a German sub, to be a veteran.” After more research, Horton provided the Coast Guard with casualty reports for his deceased brother. “They accepted that,” he said, “but they wouldn’t accept the other members of my family. That’s when I decided to start doing some grass-roots efforts to get a bill forwarded to Congress to recognize these seamen who served on these tugs and barges.” The Horton Family Tradition “Collectively our family had about 153 months in the war zone [the waters off the East Coast of the U.S. during WWII],” Horton said. “I have firsthand knowledge of this because I was there. I’m 78 years old. I went on those barges at 10 years old. I was on the payroll at 12 and social security was taken out of my pay, as it was out of my mother’s and brother’s. This was the case with all the other families we knew on the barges at the time.” While wait- ing for their barge to be loaded or unloaded, Horton said, “sometimes we would tie upside along another barge and have some quality time visiting with other families. That’s when we recognized that there were quite a few families in LEFT: Mother and barge cook, Sadie O. Horton, holding a baby from the barge tied alongside. This type of opportunity for fel- lowship between barging families was rare. The USCG identification card issued to Sadie O. Horton, Don Horton’s mother, in 1942. Although the Coast Guard allowed her to work aboard a merchant marine vessel, they denied her mariner credentials because she was a woman. www.marinelink.com MN 51 Story by Raina Clark Images courtesy Don Horton
