[QUOTE=cmjeff;175153]Just use the link John Posted: http://bit.ly/1ooJYLQ
I did most of my xmas shopping with them this year and got some great deals.[/QUOTE]
FYI GovX now carries Benchmade knives at a steep discount!
I just want to add something to the conversation. If you didnāt serve in the armedforces you shouldnāt receive the benefits.
Thatās why all those Police/EMTs/Firefighters shouldnāt get special treatment either, right?
If you served in the MM, sailing deep sea. You served your country. If you worked for MSC, or as a ConMar going back and fourth to the Middle East for months you served your country. The MM has always been the 4th arm of defense. In the words of President FDR, when addressing congress about the GI Bill, "I trust Congress will soon provide similar opportunities to members of the merchant marine who have risked their lives time and time again during war for the welfare of their country."
He wasnāt just talking about WWII, but every major conflict our nation has known. In the majority of conflicts the MM has been the first hit by enemy combatants and the hardest. Going back to our founding as John Adams said, āNo group of individuals did more for establishing our country than the American Merchant Seamen and Privateers. Their record speaks eloquently of their devotion and sacrifices.ā
Iām not the kind of person who tries to scam my way to cool discounts or anything like that, or try to present myself as something Iām not, but if a company wants to extend courtesy to professional mariners then thatās a good thing. Time and again the USMM has been forgotten and abandoned by the public and the governement. After wars theyāve been called draft dodgers, socialists, malcontents, and generally held in disrepute.
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Absentee voting. Now theres something.
https://www.justice.gov/crt/uniformed-and-overseas-citizens-absentee-voting-act
I agree with those personel that you stated but everyone that has a
merchant mariner license didnāt work for the MSC or ConMar those are the
ones Iām talking about. Those that work for those organizations deserve
those benefits and I thank them because they brought the supplies we needed
in Afghanistan to fight a war.
I by no means feel I deserve military benefits for doing my job on an MSP vessel, but you may want to rethink how all of that gear to support a war got to Afghanistan. A lot of stuff moved on plain old U.S. cargo ships. Anything from the containers of coca cola to those filled with blood plasma. Not as glamorous as a grey hulled MSC ship, but useful nonetheless.
Again, Iāve never felt entitled to military benefits. Iām just happy to have my job and sometimes happier to feel like Iāve helped in some way.
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The government should take very good care of its veterans, including merchant mariners, by providing all the properly earned āveteranās benefits.ā
However, this āveteranās preferenceā (I have more rights to future jobs, future government contracts, store discounts, and other things, than other American citizens) nonesense has gotten way way out of hand. Veteransā āpreferencesā need to be cut back.
Free passports.
I found this on Facebook and canāt verify itās true. Hopefully it works. Anybody tried it yet?
Itās true. Itās been brought up early on in this thread I think too. Only problem is, you canāt get the passport with more pages through that, so if you fill them up fast, itās probably better to just pay for it.
Greetings all, and my respects to anyone who served in any capacity.
My dad was 15 years old when he signed on in March of 1942. He came from the deepest depression in Mississippi, came to serve and not to starve. He got a woman to swear to the recruiter that she was his aunt, that he was 16 (they took them that young in WWII), and he signed on and left San Francisco in April. During his service he made the Murmansk run (after 6 months in the Pacific), was wounded off the coast of Oran, and nearly died off of North Carolina when a torpedo struck his vessel and he fell from a mast. At Oran a Stuka dive-bombed his vessel and he took a piece of shrapnel to the head that ripped open his scalp and for 30 minutes made him literally crazy. A fellow shipman from Mississippi saved his life by forcing him into the ambulance, then saved it again by cradling him in his arms on the way to the hospital to avoid more blows to the head. The British doctor who saw him said ādear God, weāre fighting the war with children!ā and started to weep. Dad say in his toughest voice āIām no kid Iām a man!ā The doctor said āshut up kid, you should be home with your mother!ā By the end of the war Dad had worked for both the Navy and the Army and has discharge papers from both branches.
I guess my thought is that in whatever way you serve your country when she needs you is deserving of reward. I donāt think any person is ever rewarded sufficiently for accepting the responsibility of willingly putting yourself in harms way. In whatever way you give to our country, there should be some recognition for your contribution to our country.
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You canāt get insurance as non-military or dependent but you can get a lot of their other servicesā¦
But you can try for a second passport if you can prove that waiting on a visa will hamper your employment (i.e. If you are waiting for an Angolan visa)
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What other USAA services do you use?
I have insurance because my grandfather was retired army but I also use banking, investment and car buying service. I would encourage people to check and see if they can become members. I got in because my mom was a dependent of my grandfatherā¦ my kids will get it because Iām a member. If your parent or grandparent was honorably discharged, you very well might qualify.
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John, Great Info, Steinbrenner made a few bucks with the old Tampa Shipyard, was that his at one point. There was a 20/20 or 60 minutes on how they laid up two of the TAO hulls there waiting to be finished and they were paying his some major funds. I canāt afford Yankee tickets I go to sea for a living.
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Iām both a mariner and now, a volunteer EMT- when home I run shifts on an ambulance. I find that there are a lot of small bennies that come with the badge. Mostly, they are discounts offered to first responders by local businesses for things like food or lodging. Itās a nice gesture of appreciation from the businesses that do it, and I take advantage from time to time.
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I called and asked because my dad was 100% disabled from Agent Orange in Vietnam and was decorated highly enough to be burried in Arlington.
No go. The customer service rep told me that if he was still alive I would certainly quaifyā¦ 
I asked if I could join considering my grandfather is a member? She said, yes certainly , but my dad needs to first join under my grandfatherās policyā¦
I also asked about merchant marine considering my wife was aboard a prep positioned ship that deployed to kuwait at the start of the war.
They said yes, merchant marine qualify under certain conditions! Great!!! What are the conditions I asked? Thereās only one, she said. You have to have been employed by or retired from a position at the US Merchant marine Academyā¦
What about Merchant Marine veterans of World War II I askedā¦ the reaponse was: Yes, certainly! But only if they worked at the Maritime Academy after the warā¦
What if they worked at one of the other Maritime Academies? āYou mean One of the state schools?ā She said. Yes! I replied. To which she said āI know the answer to that. Itās no. I know that because my dad was a merchant mariner and taught at one and he doesnāt for our insurance.ā 
So then she asked if I have a DD214 in my name. I said yes I have three and can get more! She said howās that possible. I said because Iām John Adam Konrad Vāth and 1-5 all served on active duty. She asked if one of those also had my social security #. I said yes! She said great, email it to me. I did. She called back and said, wow, I hate to tell you but you still donāt qualify 
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That sucks!!.. the lineage thing is crappyā¦ maybe you can reach up the chain as gcaptain and make a fussā¦ If KP qualifies, why wouldnāt other MMā¦ I tried to get life insurance when I was on the rigs and it was 6x as expensive as a local company because I could be called to fight a fireā¦
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I might just do that. Not for myself but certainly the WWII vets should qualify!
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I get itā¦ I do butā¦ if you would qualify if youāre dad was alive youād think that youād qualify if he was dead and buried with militay honors.