Summary

The names of the Port Chicago 50 are listed at the beginning of the book.

First Hero – Mess Attendant Dorie Miller, a black native of Texas, was on board the USS West Virginia in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, doing laundry when the naval installation came under surprise attack by the Japanese on December 7, 1941. Miller began to help move wounded men, then manned an antiaircraft gun. As the West Virginia began to sink, the dying captain ordered everyone to abandon ship. For his heroic actions, Miller was given the Navy Cross, the highest decoration possible in the Navy. Admiral Chester Nimitz himself pinned the medal on Miller, saying it was the first time a black man has received such an award in the Pacific Fleet, and that he did not believe it would be the last. Miller then went back to doing laundry...