How a Tri-Cities veteran worked to get Merchant Mariners recognized on memorials

Ken Azeltine respected veterans memorials he visited around the nation.

He was just not content with them.

Most, he felt, did not tell the full story of veterans.

The story needed to include Merchant Marine veterans, and he estimates 98% of memorials he visited did not.

So, he went to work on correcting what he perceived as a misstep through the making of a memorial of his own design in Kennewick.

One that would include merchant mariners.

For 16 years it has been recognized by the U.S. government and by Washington state as an official veterans memorial.

This Memorial Day, it celebrates the 16th year of its dedication on Memorial Day 2006 on an island at the parking lot entrance of the Church of the Nazarene at 2402 S. Union St. in Kennewick.

It features six polished basalt columns with a 45-degree cut engraved with the identities of the six branches of service at the time, including the Merchant Marine.

They run left to right from the oldest to the most recent as of 2006, with the date they were formed engraved on each.

The Merchant Marine is the oldest, he said, created on April 19, 1775, followed by the Army in June 1775, the Navy in October 1775, the Marines in November 1775, the Coast Guard in August 1790 and the Air Force in September 1947.

The U.S. Space Force became the newest U.S. military service branch in August 29, 2019.

Kennewick memorial

A 40-foot flag pole rises from the center back of the memorial with a large basalt rock resting at its base. The engraving includes a reminder that “old Glory” is both majestic and a solemn reminder to Americans that a great price has been paid through the years for freedoms they enjoy.

“I was not happy with many of the memorials,” said Azeltine, a 1962 Kennewick High grad. “I would say 98 percent of them excluded the Merchant Marines.”

The Merchant Marine is a civilian merchant fleet that helps the U.S. military by moving cargo and people.

Particularly in World War II, U.S. merchant mariners played a vital role in Allied success on the high seas, often being the first in and last out of critical military engagements on the world’s oceans.

“One out of every 34 killed were with the Merchant Marine,” Azeltine said.

According to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana, there were 11,324 merchant mariners lost at sea to Axis submarine attacks, particularly by German U-boats.

That number is small compared to losses in other branches of the U.S. armed forces, but because far fewer men served in the Merchant Marine than the Army, Navy and Marines, it represented a higher percentage of men lost than with the other three individually.

The idea of a memorial came out of a request in 2005 by a cousin who wanted to present a flag to the Church of the Nazarene in Kennewick, where Azeltine is a member, although he now resides in Arizona with his wife, Vivian.

The cousin wanted the flag given in the name of his father, Ken’s uncle, who had served in the Merchant Marine at its most storied time, World War II.

To complement the gift of the flag, he asked Ken to place a flag pole on the grounds.

“I told him, ’Gene, I think we’re falling short of what this could be,’” Azeltine said.

“A little at a time I had ideas,” Azeltine said. “You needed something honoring people who have sacrificed so much.”

As his ideas formulated, Azeltine went searching the church grounds for a site. He found it near the welcoming sign.

“There was enough room there that I knew I could incorporate that whole structure,” Azeltine said. “It was a little island and it fit nicely.”

“It’s like God had a pre-plan.”

Military permission

First, he needed to get official U.S. government permission to reduplicate the seals of the military branches, and that meant going through various channels, getting permission along the way.

“Just before the dedication they sent a letter of authority that we had been recorded on the rolls (as an official veterans memorial),” Azeltine said.

He knew in constructing the memorial he wanted to use stone highlighting its features.

“I knew basalt could get the job done,” Ken said.

Visiting Bedrock, a Kennewick business specializing in rock, he selected long columns of basalt on which the company did all the cutting meeting Azeltine’s requirements for the look he wanted. They squared the bottoms and inscripted the facings with a sandblaster.

The columns were transported to the site, positioned in place, and concrete was laid around their bases.

A craftsman then polished the column facings to eliminate any hint of a course surface.

Navy service

Azeltine grew up in Kennewick and after attending Columbia Basin College, he went to work for Boeing on Lake Union where he pondered his future. Whatever it was to be, he wanted military service to be included.

He joined the U.S. Navy and was undergoing boot training in San Diego on the first wedding anniversary of being married to Vivian.

His four-year tour included duty on the aircraft carrier USS Bon Homme Richard which he boarded in The Philippine Islands after a flight from Miramar Naval Air Station in California. He was discharged with the equivalent army rank of sergeant.

Today, Azeltine wears a veterans cap with “Navy” stitched on its facing, and appreciates “thank you’s” he receives from passersbys.

“I enjoyed my service and I made the best of what I could,” he noted.

Azeltine retired after a 25-year career with Western Airlines which became Delta Airlines while he was still with the company, with duty stations including Alaska and Tri-Cities Airport in Pasco.

He maintains to this day an abiding appreciation for veterans, feelings that went into his memorial and which he shares with Vivian.

She was born on V-E (Victory Europe) Day on May 8, 1945 and her patriotic parents gave Vivian the middle name of VE.

“I didn’t have to do what so many of our men and women did,” said Ken, still moved by the music and words of the National Anthem. “I have respect and honor for what the fighters of our nation did.”