By Luke Lorenz
Manager of Government Affairs
Navy League of the United States
This is part of an ongoing series, where we look at the lives and legacies of U.S. sea service men and women.
For some, giving all you’ve got is a credo taken literally. Mark Oncale has lived those words since he was a child, working tough jobs long before he was old enough to drive. Mark recalls how his family of nine (two parents and seven children) never had six eggs to split between them. But that didn’t stop him from hauling wood for the local wood stover to help provide. This experience would profoundly shape his life.
When he joined the Merchant Marine at 16 years old, he asked his captain to send his entire paycheck back to his family. The captain refused, saying that Sailors needed to keep some wages for themselves. So Mark literally sent back the maximum amount he was allowed to send. He would learn the opposite lesson on his first trip to the galley when he discovered that for the first time he could have as much food as he wanted. For a boy who had grown up poor, this was too good to be true. He asked the cook how many eggs he could have. The cook responded that he could have as many eggs as he wanted. So, he asked for six eggs. The cook asked if he wanted any flapjacks. Mark asked if he would lose his eggs by ordering flapjacks. The cook said he could have both, so Mark sat down to a joyful meal of six eggs and three flapjacks. There was good eating to be had in the Merchant Marine.
Mark’s experience with both lack of food and abundance would stir in him as his ship delivered grain to the starving people of Greece. The warring armies had eaten or destroyed all of their crops, and the people were desperate for food. When Mark’s ship arrived they found no functioning port equipment for unloading the grain so they had to dump it on the pier where Greeks shoveled it by hand into bags as local bishops and cardinals blessed the food and the Merchant Marine who had brought it.
On another trip, they transported German and Italian prisoners of war from Egypt to Europe. The German POWs were taken to France where they were transported over ground back to Germany. The Italian POWs were taken to Naples. Later, Mark would be asked if he had to carry weapons to defend himself against these POWs during the voyage. He responds that he did not. The POWs were just happy to be alive after the devastating war.
Taking great effort to educate himself and move up the professional ranks, Mark taught himself how to be an oiler and maintain the ship’s engines. He took some initial grief because he was new, but soon everyone saw that he was good at his job and he was a hard worker. This made him an essential member of the crew, something that Mark had worked toward from the day he set foot on his first ship.
Mark would meet his wife in 1950, but the Merchant Marine had little time to grant them for marriage. Another war was starting in Korea and the French were fighting in southeast Asia. Initially, Mark wanted to join the Army but as his commanders told him “we’ve got plenty of guys to shoot the guns but not enough guys to carry them over there.” They needed him in the Merchant Marine, and after two weeks for his wedding and honeymoon he was back on a ship headed for Japan. He made ammunition deliveries to Korea at a time when things were very fraught in the port city of Pusan. They made their delivery and headed to Siam (modern-day Thailand) to bring weaponry to the French.
At that time, the water routes in southeast Asia were very dangerous. Actually, the land was not much safer. As Mark recalls, he was told that the French owned the cities by day but the rebels owned them by night. On the water, enemy forces would attempt to swim up to the boats with hand grenades to throw into the ammunition-filled holds. Mark’s ship did not fall victim to this tactic but a sister ship running the exact same route was attacked, blown up and left no survivors.
After his wife became pregnant with their first child, Mark left the Merchant Marine. He became an electrician and would later help to build a pumping station in Liberia. But his greatest success came from his fishing company. He hauled in huge takes of crab and made more money than he ever saw as an electrician. This would allow him to retire and take up long-distance bike riding which included several trips across the entire country while Mark was in his 70s. This amazing feat would earn him recognition from the New Orleans Saints as well as countless media outlets.
As I asked Mark if there was anything else that he wanted me to include in this article, he teared up a bit. “My greatest pleasure was my time with the Merchant Marine,” he said. “With no education, I got to see the world and was an essential member of the crew. … I take my hat off to the Merchant Marine. I have my veteran’s hat on while sitting here. I have a banner on the front porch that says ‘Let’s finish the job!’ for the Merchant Marine. I wouldn’t take nothing for the experience.” If it hadn’t been for his happy marriage (which would eventually provide him with three children, nine grandchildren, fifteen great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild) he probably would have stayed in the Merchant Marine until he retired.