An overdue honor: St. Johns County WWII veterans receive Congressional Gold Medals

It was a long overdue recognition, officials said, and one that was marked with standing ovations and emotional speeches.

Retired U.S. Army Col. William Pruitt, 102, and Edward Trester, 95, held up their Congressional Gold Medals in front of the crowd at the St. Johns County Auditorium on Thursday night.

Both risked their lives by serving in the U.S. Merchant Marine during World War II.

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Merchant mariners bring supplies to worldwide ports and can be called upon to serve during emergencies and war, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. Close to 250,000 merchant mariners served as part of the U.S. military during WWII, taking not only supplies but also armed forces to foreign countries.

"Roughly 4% of those who served were killed, a higher casualty rate than that of any of the American military services during World War II. … Though they did not see combat, mariners risked their lives supplying the various branches of the armed forces and joint operations with the tools needed to win the war," according to The National WWII Museum in New Orleans.

Congress passed and then-President Donald Trump signed the Merchant Mariners of World War II Congressional Gold Medal Act in 2020 to honor them for their service.

The Congressional Gold Medal will be displayed at the American Merchant Marine Museum in Kings Point, New York, and surviving merchant mariners will receive a bronze replica of the award, according to the Department of Defense.

The U.S. Capitol hosted a ceremony in May with WWII merchant mariners present.

But Trester and Pruitt, both St. Johns County residents, chose to receive their awards in front of their hometown crowd on Thursday surrounded by family, friends, neighbors and other supporters, including elected officials and fellow veterans.

Congressman Mike Waltz, a combat veteran and former Green Beret, presented the medals.

"A quarter million of (merchant mariners) stepped up in our time of need to go into those ships in the frigid Atlantic, often completely unarmed when Hitler had a strategy of starving Europe, starving Britain, winning the battle of Britain, by what? By sinking those ships and by sinking so many of those ships that Britain and the United States would just throw up their hands," Waltz said.

Waltz saluted Pruitt and Trester and thanked them for their service.

The Congressional Gold Medal is the top honor given by the U.S. Congress.

"We do not give out many Congressional Gold Medals," Waltz said. "And it is really my honor to give it to these two gentlemen."

'Too few people know'

Trester was 17 when WWII was "raging," and he wanted to do something to help, he said.

Somewhat of a brash young kid, he quit high school and went down to a U.S. Navy recruiting office in Brooklyn, New York, he said. The man told him to go back to school.

But he went to a Merchant Marine office and came away with paperwork for his parents to sign.

After a tough conversation with his dad, he walked away with his parents' blessings. He was quickly sent to training and then assigned a liberty ship, he said.

"As I was walking down the dock to join the ship, I noticed they were loading bombs into the hull of the ship," he said.

He recalled on a trip to a North African port seeing ships "as far as your eye could see," and two ships were hit with torpedoes in the convoy, he said.

Trester stayed in the Merchant Marine until around 1950.

Following that, he worked for MetLife in New York City and in the late '70s headed a district office for the firm in Jacksonville.

Trester co-founded the St. Augustine Jazz Society, which awards music scholarship to high school students. His longtime friend Lorri Gill, who sings in his jazz band, accompanied him at the ceremony.

"I feel very proud and very honored … to be recognized because the merchant service over the years has never really been recognized by our government, and too few people know about the Merchant Marine," Trester said.

Crossing the Atlantic

Pruitt's story began in Alabama, where he was born and raised. After graduating from high school, he worked for the Department of Defense in Birmingham, Alabama, and went into the Merchant Marine in 1942.

"I crossed the Atlantic four round-trips on the way to the Mediterranean Sea," he said.

The journeys carried tanks, personnel, munitions and other supplies for the European and North African theaters, according to a biography provided by his daughter, Dinah.

Pruitt served as a purser, handling customs, signing people aboard, running ship stores and paying the crew, he said. He reached the rank of lieutenant, junior grade.

He came to St. Augustine in 1950 to work with the state's Military Department and was a Florida National Guard member, according to his biography. He reached the rank of full colonel after becoming the United States Property and Fiscal Officer for the state, and he retired on May 31, 1980.

Pruitt remained involved in the community after retiring, including serving on the advisory board for Flagler College at its creation.

He thanked everyone in the crowd for celebrating his award.

"I have so very, very many friends, and they've made my life in St. Augustine the last 72 years wonderful, these citizens of St. Augustine and St. Johns County," he said.

Waiting for recognition

After the war, the Merchant Marine still transported men and supplies for the occupation of Japan, according to the National WWII Museum.

Despite their war and post-war efforts, "The Department of Defense maintained that mariners did not qualify as veterans not because their duties were not perilous, but because they did not meet its criteria based upon training and the organization of the service.

"In 1988, however, a U.S. District Judge ruled that the Department of Defense’s views were arbitrary and unfair, prompting recognition of mariners who served in specific defense capabilities between 1941-1945 as veterans and eligible for GI Bill benefits," according to The National WWII Museum.

Waltz said the merchant mariners were in many ways forgotten over the last 70 years.

"And things that their Navy brothers and sisters got automatically and men in women in uniform got, like the GI bill in 1944, the Merchant Marine did not get then and that outrage has never been corrected," he said. "They never received it. It wasn't until 1988 that they finally received VA benefits."

Waltz said he was honored to help get Trester and Pruitt, and other merchant mariners during that era, the recognition they deserve.

"To you two gentlemen, we will never forget," Waltz said.

'Eternally grateful'

One by one officials came forward to honor the two men on Thursday. They sat, Pruitt in a wheelchair and Trester on a chair next to him, in front of a nearly packed auditorium room.

During the speeches, St. Augustine Beach Commissioner Dylan Rumrell called the men "national treasures."

Among the officials in the audience were members of the Veterans Council of St. Johns County, which hosted the event, as well as State Rep. Cyndi Stevenson, and officials representing Congressman John Rutherford, Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, and State Rep. Paul Renner.

"I think often as an elected official of the privilege that we have to choose our own representatives, and that we should very well work to be worthy of the sacrifices that have happened over hundreds of years here," Stevenson said. "But to think it was a young 17-year-old man and volunteers like him who were the thin line that held our success together for WWII … I am eternally grateful."

This article originally appeared on St. Augustine Record: WW2 merchant mariners receive Congressional Gold Medal in St. Johns