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Rutgers Oral History Archives

  • Deitz, Morton
  • College/Year: NLAW '55
  • Links to Oral History Sessions: Deitz, Morton Part 1 (June 12, 2009)
    Deitz, Morton Part 2 (August 21, 2009)
  • Conflict(s): World War II
  • Military Branch & Unit: Navy & Merchant Marines
  • Theater(s): European
  • US Merchant Marines Other : Mr. Deitz was a USNR midshipman training with the Merchant Marines
  • Navy Ship: SS John Drayton

Description:

Morton Dietz was born and raised in Trenton, NJ, where his father owned a jewelry store. He graduated from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce in 1942. He enlisted in the US Navy Reserve on June 25, 1942. While training as a midshipman at the Merchant Marine Cadet Corps School, he was assigned to duty aboard the SS John Drayton. On April 21, 1943, in the Indian Ocean south of Madagascar, German U-boats sunk the SS John Drayton. Deitz and twenty-three other survivors escaped aboard a lifeboat designed for twelve.   When they were rescued after thirty days at sea, only five remained alive. After recovering in Durban, South Africa, for two months, Deitz was returned to the United States, though physical and mental results of the ordeal would affect him severely for the rest of his life. He was tapped to participate in the Third War Loan cross-country bond drive tour in the Fall of 1943, along with Boatswain's Mate Ward L. Gemmer, Medal of Honor recipient Sergeant John Basilone, of Raritan, NJ, Machinist's Mate Robert J. Croak, Sergeant Schiller Cohen and celebrities Gene Lockhart, Virginia Grey and John Garfield. After the war, Deitz was deprived of his veteran's status since the US Navy claimed he was technically part of the Merchant Marine (whose members did not win recognition as veterans until 1988) at the time of the sinking. He spent many decades trying to rectify this injustice. Deitz worked as both a CPA and an IRS agent before graduating from the Rutgers School of Law in Newark in 1955. He practiced as an attorney in Princeton and Trenton and served as first chairman of the New Jersey State Bar Association Section on Taxation.

Targum Cover 11 22 1963a

 

"HERE IS A BULLETIN...": Memories of the Day Camelot Died

 

This month marks the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas.

Images from that day and the events that followed remain etched in our collective consciousness—the open-top Presidential limo traveling down the people-lined streets of Dallas; President Lyndon Baines Johnson taking the oath of office on Air Force One beside a shaken First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy; John, Jr. saluting his father's passing casket at the funeral in DC.

Those who lived through that traumatic period can recall both their initial shock and the nuances of their reactions.

In "HERE IS A BULLETIN...": Memories of the Day Camelot Died, ROHA presents a sampling of stories related to the Kennedy tragedy, a touchstone event for multiple generations.

The Rutgers Targum (campus newspaper) cover from its November 22, 1963 issue. (Image courtesy of Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries.)

 

Voices of Veterans Banner 1

Voices of Veterans

 

Voices of Veterans is an online exhibit showcasing passages from oral history interviews of veterans who served in the Second World War and in wars in Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan. ROHA created this exhibit in commemoration of Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1941.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT MORE ONLINE EXHIBITS 

 

 

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