August 14, 2014
August 14, 2014
From Sacramento, CA we drive through heavy rush hour traffic toward San Francisco. We are heading there to see Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial, a site that sits on an active naval base. It has limited public access because it is a munitions loading port. It is only open a handful of days a year. Several weeks ago in Idaho, I checked the park website and discovered it would be open today; we quickly signed up and rerouted our trip to go past the bay area.
Our meeting point is the John Muir National Historic Site in the suburb of Martinez. We arrive early so we have a chance to visit the remodeled Visitor Center and watch the park movie. John Muir, the founder of the Sierra Club, is considered by some to be the father of the National Park System.
At 12:30 we meet for the Port Chicago tour. The park ranger starts with a ten-minute film about the event. During WWII Port Chicago was the primary spot where munitions were loaded onto ships for transport to the Pacific theater. Because it was a dangerous and backbreaking job, it was assigned exclusively to Negro troops. Like all tasks during war, it was rushed, short cuts were taken, and safety precautions often ignored. As a result a massive explosion occurred on July 17, 1944. 320 sailors and civilians were killed, the majority black. The surviving black troops were ordered to start loading again with no change in procedures. They refused. Even after threat of death by firing squad, 50 remained adamant. They were court-martialed and sentenced to prison.
After the movie, we were driven by the park service onto the nearby base. The remnants of the destroyed wharf still sit offshore with a memorial built onshore. The ranger talk gave us more details of the munitions loading process and the aftermath of the event. The tragic details remind me that more Americans lost their lives during WWII from accidents than at the hands of the enemy. This includes my uncle who was killed while constructing a base in the Pacific. My father had a near death experience when his brand-new bomber developed an engine oil leak over Oklahoma on the way to the Pacific.
From the Bay area we left town in heavy traffic and spent the night at a private park in Santa Nella, CA.
From Sacramento, CA we drive through heavy rush hour traffic toward San Francisco. We are heading there to see Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial, a site that sits on an active naval base. It has limited public access because it is a munitions loading port. It is only open a handful of days a year. Several weeks ago in Idaho, I checked the park website and discovered it would be open today; we quickly signed up and rerouted our trip to go past the bay area.
Our meeting point is the John Muir National Historic Site in the suburb of Martinez. We arrive early so we have a chance to visit the remodeled Visitor Center and watch the park movie. John Muir, the founder of the Sierra Club, is considered by some to be the father of the National Park System.
At 12:30 we meet for the Port Chicago tour. The park ranger starts with a ten-minute film about the event. During WWII Port Chicago was the primary spot where munitions were loaded onto ships for transport to the Pacific theater. Because it was a dangerous and backbreaking job, it was assigned exclusively to Negro troops. Like all tasks during war, it was rushed, short cuts were taken, and safety precautions often ignored. As a result a massive explosion occurred on July 17, 1944. 320 sailors and civilians were killed, the majority black. The surviving black troops were ordered to start loading again with no change in procedures. They refused. Even after threat of death by firing squad, 50 remained adamant. They were court-martialed and sentenced to prison.
From the Bay area we left town in heavy traffic and spent the night at a private park in Santa Nella, CA.
posted by Mike and Aimee at 10:56 AM
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