First Footage in 73 years of Hidden WWII Cadet Cast Stone Relief in USMMA’s Delano Hall
Every Kings Pointer who attended the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy since 1945 remembers the large painting of the S.S. America in Delano Hall where midshipmen are served their meals. However very few know that behind that painting is a cast stone relief of a cadet firing an anti-aircraft gun at German aircraft along with a plaque listing the names of fallen cadets, added to the relief as they were killed during the war. As this list approached 100, Superintendent RADM Giles C. Stedman ordered the relief to be covered up with the large S.S. America painting because it was felt that the growing list of dead classmates was adversely affecting regimental morale.
Recently, an effort to uncover this relief was initiated at the academy in cooperation with the American Merchant Marine Museum.