Community Corner
Last of WWII ‘Hooligan Navy’ to Lead Maritime Parade
Jack Fisher of Greenport may be the last surviving member of the civilian picket patrol that helped the U.S. Navy located German U-Boats during World War II.
When Jack Fisher was 19, a bum knee from a football injury kept him from joining the armed forces during World War II.
That’s until 1942, when the opportunity came about to join the Corsair Fleet — or "Hooligan Navy," a little-known band of civilian yachtsmen and fishermen called upon to patrol the Atlantic when Germany’s U-boat attacks were destroying merchant ships along the East Coast of the U.S., throwing the unprepared U.S. Navy off guard.
Fisher, who will lead this year’s Greenport Maritime Festival , route: {:controller=>"events", :action=>"show", :id=>"greenport-maritime-festival-2012"} -->Parade as Grand Marshal, was only one of 300 young but experienced seamen to join the crew, which was headquarted at in Greenport. He is originally from Brooklyn and grew up summering in New Suffolk. After the war, he worked as a yacht broker and later became an automobile dealer in Bergenfield and has two daughters and a son. Fisher was also one of the key players who helped establish the
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