about the book
Six foot three, 225-pound Texan sailor, Dorie Millar was stationed aboard the USS West Virginia in Honolulu, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. With his battle station destroyed, he began helping injured men. Spotting an abandoned aircraft gun, he took out an enemy plane. When the ship began to sink, he helped the wounded safely into the water. For his bravery, he was awarded the prestigious Navy Cross from Admiral Nimitz…and then Dorie, a black sailor, returned to his regular duties, collecting dirty laundry.
Three years later, segregation was still rampant in the Navy. Thirty-five miles north of San Francisco at the Navy’s Port Chicago, only black sailors were tasked with the dangerous job of loading explosive munitions aboard waiting ships. The port ran 24/7, training was nil, and speed-loading competitions were encouraged by the white officers.
On July 17, 1944, the SS Quinault Victory was moored across from the SS. E.A. Bryan. Three hundred and twenty men were working that night and all were encouraged to race to see which ship could be loaded the fastest. The Bryan’s holds were packed with 4,606 tons of ammunition, depth charges, incendiary bombs, and high explosives. On the rails between the two ships, another 429 tons waited in sixteen rail cars.
At 10:18 pm the Bryan blew in one massive explosion!
The seismic shock was felt as far away as Boulder City, Nevada. A fire pillar shot over two miles into the sky, tossing chunks of white hot metal as big as houses. All across the base, 390 were wounded by flying shards of glass and molten debris. The structures on the pier as well as the Bryan were completely destroyed. All 320 men working on that pier were killed instantly.
The munitions port was essential to the war effort and was immediately rebuilt. When the black sailors were ordered to once again load the dangerous explosives, 244 men refused until proper training and safety measures could be put into place.
Fifty of those men faced mutiny charges and were found guilty. Some were given dishonorable discharges, others served decades of jail time. This is their true story; one that most readers, both black and white, have probably never heard. Learn the startling truth in this thrilling narrative, garnered from interviews, trial transcripts, archival photos, and the men’s own accounts.
about the author
Steve Sheinkin used to write history text books. Now that part of his life is over, and he writes history books that he hopes people will want to read, not because a teacher told them to do it. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and has lived in Mississippi and Colorado as well.
Growing up, Steve’s favorite books were action and adventure stories, things with treasure searches and man-eating sharks. His favorite, though, was a historical book Mutiny on the Bounty, which was about a real mutiny that took place in the 1700s on a British ship. Also, baseball. Steve likes baseball.
Steve went to college at Syracuse University, then moved to Washington, D.C., and worked with the National Audubon Society—an environmental group. After this he and his brother moved to Austin, Texas, to try to become screenwriters. When that didn’t pan out, Steve moved back to Brooklyn in order to figure out how to make a living as a writer. That is how he got his job editing and writing history text books.
After a few years doing that, he had collected hundreds of historical stories in his head that he was not allowed to include in the history books that he read and edited. He decided he was going to turn all those bits of info into books with his own unique spin. His first book was about building the atomic bomb. His book The Port Chicago 50 also has a few bombs. D’ya think Steve has a thing about bombs too?
These days, Steve and his wife Rachel and their two young kids live in Saratoga Springs, New York, just down the road from where the notorious Benedict Arnold battled. Steve wrote about him, too!
Source:
Author website
Also by Steve Sheinkin:
Bomb : The Race to Build – and Steal – the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon. Flash Point. 2012.
The Notorious Benedict Arnold : A True Story of Adventure, Heroism, & Treachery. Flash Point. 2010.
The Adventures of Rabbi Harvey : A Graphic Novel of Jewish Wisdom and Wit in the Wild West. Jewish Lights Publishing. 2006.
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