{"id":80969,"date":"2026-05-19T21:03:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T04:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=80969"},"modified":"2026-05-19T21:03:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T04:03:22","slug":"hahn-puts-forward-motion-to-proclaim-maritime-day-to-honor-u-s-merchant-mariners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=80969","title":{"rendered":"Hahn Puts Forward Motion to Proclaim Maritime Day to Honor U.S. Merchant Mariners"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p align=\"left\"><strong>Los Angeles,\u00a0CA\u00a0<\/strong>\u2014 Today, Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn introduced a motion to proclaim May 22,\u00a02026\u00a0as\u00a0National Maritime Day in Los Angeles County to honor the service and sacrifice of\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Merchant Mariners.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">\u201cMerchant Mariners have served our country in every major conflict, often at extraordinary personal risk, yet too few Americans know their story,\u201d\u00a0<strong>said Hahn.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cThese brave men and women transported troops, fuel, supplies, and military cargo across dangerous waters to ensure our armed forces had what they needed to fight and survive. On Maritime Day, Los Angeles County will honor their courage, sacrifice, and indispensable service to our nation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">National Maritime Day is\u00a0observed\u00a0annually on May 22 to recognize the maritime industry\u2019s contributions to the nation\u2019s defense and economic prosperity. During World War II, 243,000 Merchant Mariners served transporting troops and supplies through hostile waters and suffered the highest casualty rate per capita of any branch of service during the war. During the Vietnam War, Merchant Mariners carried 95 percent of the supplies used by U.S. forces.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Hahn highlighted Los Angeles County\u2019s deep ties to the Merchant Marine community, including the Merchant Marine Memorial in San Pedro, the first national memorial dedicated to merchant\u00a0seamen. The memorial honors Merchant Mariners who served in all wars and recognizes the sacrifices made by \u201cthose brave men and women of all races, creeds and colors who answered that call to serve.\u201d\u00a0Hahn will\u00a0participate\u00a0in the annual Maritime Day ceremony at the memorial this Friday at 11 am.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Hahn also spoke personally about her family\u2019s connection to the Merchant Marine. Her uncle, Gordon Hahn, served as a Merchant Mariner during World War II while her father, Kenneth Hahn, served on a supply ship in the Navy.\u00a0\u00a0Although they had very similar roles in the war, as a Merchant Mariner her uncle was excluded from the G.I. Bill while her father was not. WWII Merchant Mariners were not formally recognized as veterans until 1988.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">While serving in Congress, Hahn authored legislation to provide compensation to surviving World War II Merchant Mariners\u00a0who were\u00a0long\u00a0denied veterans\u2019 benefits and\u00a0championed\u00a0bipartisan legislation awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to World War II Merchant Mariners.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">\u201cThough Merchant Mariners have stood beside our troops in times of war and peace, they are still not recognized as an official branch of the United States Military,\u201d<strong>\u00a0Hahn said.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cMay 22 is their day. We honor them, we acknowledge them, and we thank them for their sacrifices.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p align=\"left\">The motion will return for a vote before the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors at its next meeting on June 9.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Los Angeles,\u00a0CA\u00a0\u2014 Today, Los Angeles County&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ca-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80969"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80970,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80969\/revisions\/80970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}