Survived 22 Days in Life Boat

From the Feb. 22nd Grosse Point (Mi) Today "Grosse Pointe FYI: Remembering Ray Laenen: World War II lifeboat survivor, beloved Rotarian" by Ben Burns.

Ray Laenen died Feb. 19th at age 86. During the war, he spent 22 days on a 26-foot long, 10 foot wide life boat that was so crowded the survivors had to sit shoulder-to-shoulder as there was no where to lie down. The feat was written about in Joseph N. Mazzra's 2005 book "Liberty Ship Survivor, Why Ray Laenen Is So Proud To Be An American."

Mr. Laenen was aboard the Liberty Ship SS Peter Silvester when it was torpedoed by German U-boat 862 at 9:00 PM on February 6, 1945, in the Indian Ocean and the ordeal began.

Water was rationed the first day. All the men had for food were small cans of pemmican, a little chocolate, some hard crackers and a few days' worth of malted milk tablets.

But, they survived.

Fifty-five years later, Mr. Laenen attended an annual reunion of the U-262 in Germany as a gesture of "friendship and forgiveness."

One of the Greatest Generation. --GreGen