By David Fleet

Editor

Christmas Eve 1944 about 850 miles west of the Philippines in the South Pacific. That night, Mike Diviney was a 16-year-old merchent marine deckhand aboard the 455-foot Ethiopia Victory ship that sailed from Aberdeen, Wash. in early November. Aboard his ship was more than 10,000 tons of munitions to supply troops in battle with the empire of Japan.

“I was in the middle of a big poker game at the time,” said Diviney, now an 88-year-old Brandon Township resident. “We had unloaded about 5,000 tons of bombs on the small island of Palau and joined up with a convoy, which included Navy ships to refuel. A Navy signalmen on board our ship came below deck and hand delivered a message from my father wishing me a Merry Christmas. I had no idea dad was on another ship and part of the same convoy I was in the Pacific heading to refuel at a Navy port at Ulithi Atoll. I later learned that mom had written my dad about the ship and then he recognized the Ethiopia in the convoy. The Navy let me send a message back to dad, too. At the holidays now I still remember that Christmas night during World War II.”

Mike and his father’s south Pacific Christmas time encounter was forged about a year earlier in Detroit.

Patrick Diviney, Sr. was a World War I Army engineer who was 18-years-old when he enlisted and served in France. He returned to his home in Troy, N.Y. and later moved to Detroit, finding employment in the Dodge Hamtramck plant.

Patrick and wife Marian had four children.

“Dad was part of the 1937 sit-down strike,” said Diviney. “I remember mom delivering sandwiches to him and other workers by hoisting a basket on a rope up the side of a building.”

According to UAW records, on March 8, 1937 about 10,000 Dodge Main workers began a two-week sitdown strike to win company recognition of the United Automobile Workers. The strike, the largest sitdown in American history, ended on March 25 and on April 7, the Chrysler Corporation recognized the union.

Born in 1928, Mike Diviney was 13-years-old when World War II started. He was in the ninth grade at East Detroit High School.

“I tried to join the Navy when I was 15-years-old,” said Diviney. “We’d take the trolley from 8 Mile Road and Gratiot (Avenue) downtown to the federal building to enlist,” he said. The military at the enlistment office got to know me so they turned me down all the time. I wanted to join (the Navy) because my brother, Patrick, Jr., was in the Navy and I really just wanted to do my part for the country. Rather than going to classes we’d skip and spend the day collecting scrap metal for the war effort.”

The Merchant Marine offered a new opportunity for Diviney to join the war effort.

The Merchant Marine ships imports and exports during peacetime. However, during wartime the Merchant Marine becomes a naval auxiliary to deliver troops and war material.

“The Germans were sinking supply ships heading to Europe as fast as Americans could build them,” he said. “So the Merchant Marine needed men and lowered the age to 16-years-old. I was 15 and could finally pass for a year older. So I signed up.”

In the summer of 1944 Diviney was sent to the United States Maritime Service Training Station at Sheepshead Bay, N.Y. According to the U.S. Navy, the facility which opened on Sept. 1, 1942, was the largest maritime training station during World War II. It closed on Feb. 28, 1954.

“That same summer my dad also signed on with the merchant marines to be a night cook and baker,” he said. “Dad and I were both at Sheepshead together. At 44-years-old, dad was too old for the Navy in World War II. So, he left my mother at home in East Detroit with my sisters Maureen and Kathleen before joining the Merchant Marines.”

Following training at Sheepshead, Mike Diviney was transported via train west to the Ethiopia Victory ship on the west coast. Due to poor mail service he lost track of his father after the encounter.

In 1944, the Ethiopia was one of the new Victory Ships with top speeds of more than 20 knots or about 23 miles per hour.

“The ship was brand new when I boarded in Washington,” he recalled. “You could smell the new paint—our crew of 28 was the first to sail on it. We sailed all alone, no escort for 38 days across the Pacific to New Guinea. It took forever because we changed course every 20 minutes to avoid the Japanese submarines. But we never saw any.”

Diviney recalls seeing his first B-29 on the island of Saipan.

“I realized we were hauling bombs for the massive B-29 Superfortress for raids over mainland Japan,” he said. “About a month later after we left Saipan they invaded Iwo Jima in March 1945.”

Mike, his brother Patrick, Jr., and father all returned home after the war.

Mike stayed on with the Merchant Marines until 1948.

“I was on several other ships including a ship in a convoy to Europe in 1945,” he recall. “We picked up about 500 German and Italian prisoners. We had about 20 Army guards on board our ship. But if you think about it, just where were the POWs going to run off to? We’re in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.”

In 1948 Mike joined the Army for a three year stint.

“I was part of the occupation forces of Germany,” he said. “When I arrived the streets of the cities like Munich and Berlin were cleared off, but there were many burned out buildings. I was stationed on the Austrian border and worked with setting up police in Germany.”

Mike married Patricia in 1955 and they had six children. The couple moved to Ortonville in 1998. He was employed at the General Motor Tech Center in Warren and retired in 2004.

Patricia died in 2005.