The woman leading the legal charge against Butler County commissioners on behalf of an aging and ailing group of World War II Merchant Marines said the battle is not over.

Beverly Schenck, of Center said she was disappointed by Butler County Judge Michael Yeager's decision Oct. 3 to dismiss a lawsuit on the issue.

"We're not going to let them off the hook. There are other things we can do and we will do something,'' said Ms. Schenck.

The lawsuit had been filed in August by three Merchant Marine veterans, seeking to force the prominent placement of a plaque in honor of the Merchant Marine on a WWII memorial in Diamond Park across Main Street from the county courthouse.

The eight-year battle over how to recognize Merchant Marines has been raging longer than the war itself.

The local memorial was funded by a volunteer committee that raised about $450,000 to build it.

The Merchant Marine veterans are angry because what they perceive as their "branch of the military" is not represented on the front of the monument along with plaques for the Army, Army Air Corps, Marine Corps, Navy and Coast Guard. Rather, the Merchant Marine is mentioned along with 27 other groups on the back of the monument.

Ms. Schenck, a paralegal, has asked county commissioners to step in. She contends they are the real owners of the monument because it sits on county-owned property, and therefore they can force another plaque to be installed on it. The monument was dedicated Dec. 7, 2004.

The commissioners have refused to become involved, though they have expressed frustration that the parties could not come up with an agreement that satisfies everyone. Ms. Schenck criticized them at a public meeting Wednesday for doing "everything in your power to avoid acting." She said they have lost her respect.

John Cyprian, the county's director of veterans' services and a member of the committee that raised the monument money, has said the committee designed a monument to those who were considered veterans of official branches of the military at the time of WWII. He said recognition of the Merchant Marines by the U.S. Congress didn't occur until the 1980s, when they were given veteran status and awarded the right to be buried in a national cemetery.

The Merchant Marine was established to recruit and train sailors to man the cargo ships fueling the war effort in the European and Pacific theaters. Although trained by the Coast Guard, merchant mariners were civilians paid by the owners of the ships they sailed. More than 6,000 perished during the war, 11,000 were wounded and 604 were taken prisoner.