My father was a merchant seaman beginning in 1939 and was 2 days out of Pearl on his way there from SF on 12/7/41. His ship was about 200 miles south of this ship, the first American casualties of the Pearl Harbor attack:
and heard her distress calls. He pulled into Pearl on Dec. 9th to find out he had a critical job skill and a draft deferment for the entire war. His critical job skill was taking troops to invasion beaches and dropping them off. As a merchant seaman, he took part in the invasions of Attu, Kiska, North Africa, Sicily, Salerno, Anzio and Iwo Jima invasions as well as the Japanese occupation. He was shot at by representatives of all three AXIS powers and only used a firearm in the commission of two armed robberies which netted him a year in San Quentin from mid-43 to mid-44. After the war, he was drafted in the Army in 1946 for about 3 months before obtaining a hardship discharge.
His brother, my Uncle Emmett, was a Lt. Cdr in the Naval Reserve and was port captain in Noumea during the war.