Now here is a post for all of my custom US Navy ring personnel. I had to research this one before I wrote about it but I have enough for the uninitiated. I have heard of the Merchant Marines but I really did not understand what they were until I studied for this post. Now the military ring man can impart some information to you. 

The Merchant marines consists of the fleet of US civilian owned merchant vessels which are used to transport goods and services on our nations waterways.

During wartime they are converted to an auxilary to the US Navy which makes the mariners servicemen. They may be required to wear uniforms during time of war although they wouldn't wear the same uniforms as regular sailors. There will be some differences.

There are approximately 465 ships and 69,000 personnel in the Merchant Marines. I remember times when we were deployed to various places from here. Merchant marine vessels transported the majority of our equipment to the middle east.