Merchant marine flag displayed at Fortuna veteran’s hall – Times-Standard

Michael S. Lee, Captain, U.S. Merchant Marine and U.S. Navy Reserve, retired (right), has donated a Merchant Marine flag which has been put on display at the Fortuna veteran’s building. Also pictured is Al Dunnegan, Senior Chief, U.S. Navy, retired. (Mary Bullwinkel/For the Times-Standard)

A new military services flag is now on display at the Fortuna Veterans Memorial building. It is a U.S. Merchant Marine flag, and it was donated by Michael S. Lee. Lee is a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Merchant Marine and the U.S. Navy Reserve.

“I’ve had the flag for years,” Lee said, “and it was presented to me when I was serving as chief mate on a U.S. Flag Ship in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2023.”

Lee said he had noticed that there were several other armed services flags on display at the Fortuna veteran’s hall, but none representing the U.S. Merchant Marine.

Although the U.S. Merchant Marine is not an armed service, it has always been considered the fifth arm of defense.

“Most Americans have no idea what the merchant marine is or what we do,” Lee said. “I donated the flag to let people know that America’s merchant marines are a vital part of our nation’s defense,” he added.

During the 1970s, both Lee’s father and grandfather were fishermen out of Eureka.

Lee graduated from the California Maritime Academy in 1991, and upon graduation was commissioned an Ensign in the U.S. Navy Reserve in a unique program bridging the gap between commercial mariners and U.S. Navy mariners. In 2010 Lee left the U.S. Navy Reserve as a Lt. Commander.

The program under which Lee had been serving was replaced with a strategic sealift officer program, under which he sailed as a commercial mariner with his last command on the U.S. Naval Ship Watson.

For the first 15 years of his career Lee worked on various military sealift command and maritime administration vessels at sea and for the final 15 years of his career, worked on oil tankers, car carriers, container ships and break-bulk ships.

All the time he was at sea, Lee said he was a “proud member” of the International Organization of Masters, Mates, and Pilots.

Having lived in Fortuna since 2003, Lee retired from the U.S Merchant Marines in the summer of 2023. His current plans are to move very soon to Astoria, Oregon.