When the troops came home from World War II, they got not only parades, but perks: They went to college on the GI Bill, and they bought houses with low-interest VA-backed loans.

But all Jack Cochran took away from the experience were his tattoos — on his right arm a seahorse, on his left a ship and the initials “USMM.”

Now, he and the other 10,000 or so surviving World War II-era veterans of the U.S. Merchant Marine want a makeup call. They back a bill in Washington that would pay them $1,000 a month for life.

It would cost about $120 million the first year and diminish in following years, since the recipients are in their 80s and 90s.

“This isn’t about the money,” said Cochran, who lives comfortably with his wife of 60 years, Nona Joan, in a three-bedroom ranch in Perry Township. “It’s about the recognition.”

The bill cleared the House and is now before the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., has signed on as a co-author. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., is uncommitted. “We’re awaiting the committee’s recommendations,” said Mark Hayes, a Lugar spokesman.

The 250,000 merchant mariners who served during World War II were civilian seamen. Many, like Cochran, joined because they were too young to join the military. The minimum age was 16; Cochran slipped in at age 15. “I turned 16 in Naples, Italy!” he said.

Merchant mariners didn’t carry weapons or wear uniforms. But they sailed the submarine-infested waters of the Atlantic and Pacific, delivering troops and supplies to war zones. More than 6,000 were killed; thousands more were injured or captured.

Don Ellwood, Pendleton, was in a convoy that lost 30 ships to German torpedoes in one attack. “For some reason, it didn’t feel scary. I didn’t know any better.”

The ships were lightly armed — practically defenseless.

“Our drill was, if you saw a sub, you turned right for it and hoped to sink it by ramming it,” said Gene Taylor, Fairland, who was a helmsman on a ship in the Pacific as a merchant crewman. “It was basically all you could do.”

When the war ended and Taylor and the others came home to no fanfare and no benefits, they didn’t react to the slight. “Back then, you just got on with life,” he said.

“We were Depression people,” said Cochran. “You just tried to get your life back together — you moved on. You didn’t complain.”

Four decades later, though, the merchant mariners did complain. In 1988, after a long legal battle, they were officially classified as veterans. That allowed them access to Department of Veterans Affairs medical care.

A bill to give them $1,000 a month has failed in Congress each year since 2004, but earlier bills allowed a veteran’s widow to receive the money. Under the current bill, the payments would cease with the veteran’s death.

Besides the cost, anticipated at $440 million over five years, the other stumbling block has been concern that other, non-U.S. military World War II groups would demand similar payment, such as the Flying Tigers airmen and the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs.

“That could be true,” said Sindy Raymond, a spokesman for the Ferndale, Calif.-based American Merchant Marine Association. “But that shouldn’t be held against the mariners.”

Regardless of how things turn out in Washington, Cochran said, he has no regrets about his service in the Merchant Marine. “I did my part,” he said, and he saw the world in the process.

But he does feel snubbed. “We just want people’s respect.”

In August, he and a handful of Merchant Marine veterans buttonholed people on Monument Circle, getting signatures for a petition in support of the pending legislation.

Few in the lunch-hour crowd had even heard of the Merchant Marine. They stared quizzically at the veterans.

“That was pretty sad,” Cochran said. “No one seemed to know what we were talking about.”