DECEMBER 16 • 2021 | 25

V

eterans Day is always
an extremely busy
time for WWII
Jewish War Veteran (JWV)
Arthur “
Art” Fishman. The
94-year old Oak Park resi-
dent’s calendar is filled with
nonstop events.
His week in and around
Veterans Day this year includ-
ed participating in Detroit’s
annual Veterans Day parade,
attending the annual Veterans
Shabbat service at Shaarey
Zedek and representing the
JWV at a ceremony at Great
Lakes National Cemetery
in Holly. But it’s safe to say
one additional gathering the
week following Veterans Day
turned out to be a more per-
sonal experience.

On Nov. 17, Art broke bread
at a special lunch with two of
his lifelong Michigan naval
veteran buddies — Jack Stone
and Marty Myers. The gath-

ering was inspired by a phone
conversation between Art
and Jack during which Stone
announced he was moving
permanently to Florida. Over
the years, Art had not seen
Jack as frequently as Marty, so
he knew the time was right for
a reunion among these three
sailors before Jack relocated to
his new home.
The three men, all
approaching their 95th birth-
days, have a history dating
back to when they were
classmates at both Durfee
Intermediate School and
Central High School. This
“Band of Sailors” stayed con-
nected upon graduation when
the three entered the Navy and
began training at the Great
Lakes Naval Training Station
in Great Lakes, Illinois.
By some accounts, more
than a million “Bluejackets,”

or approximately one-third of
the men trained in the Navy
during WWII, went through
Great Lakes.
At one time or anoth-
er, all three sailors served
in the Pacific. Stone and
Myers would both ship off
to Okinawa — Stone aboard
the troop ship USS Riverside
and Myers aboard the supply
ship USS Ajax. Fishman was
assigned to the USS Robinson
as a Fireman 3rd Class and
engineer apprentice, later
joining the Yangtze River
Patrol for mine sweeping
duty at the port of Shanghai,
China, among his several
other assignments.
This trio of lifelong friends,
whose lives in so many ways
mirrored each other, would
complete their service to their
country and all would even-
tually be discharged within a
five-week period during the
summer of 1946.
Upon returning stateside,
Art, Jack and Marty’s lives,
for a time, would lead them
in different directions and
different cities. Eventually
though, they all would return
to Detroit where they would
work, raise their families and
renew the friendships they
had forged since their child-
hood.
Many of those shared expe-
riences would be recalled
during Fishman, Stone and
Myer’s Nov. 17 lunch date.
It was an afternoon of remi-
niscing at a local restaurant,
sharing their lifes’ journeys
and recounting decades of
experiences, from schoolyards
to shipyards. It was a post-
Veterans Day reunion the trio
won’t soon forget.

Michigan WWII Jewish
War Veterans Jack
Stone, Marty Myers
and Art Fishman enjoy
a “sailors” reunion.

ART FISHMAN

Three WWII sailors reminisce at
lunch before one moves to Florida.

Lifelong
Friends

ALAN MUSKOVITZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER