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

