Sunday, December 7, 2014

12/7/1941-12/7/2014 WAR HAS NOT CHANGED MUCH EXCEPT BECOME MORE PROFITABLE





IN THE VOICE OF ANOTHER
In the mourning red dawn
I was blown from my decks
in the oily grown watery berths lawn.
I lived my life under a flag
that deserved my defense
and yet a black man,
when that war was done
I was given no chance to share
in the prosperity and patriotic cover
when the death was over,
and the peace had come.

© M Durfee
12.7.2014

Doris "Dorie" Miller (October 12, 1919 – November 24, 1943) was a Messman (cook)Third Class in the United States Navy noted for his bravery during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He was the first African American to be awarded the Navy Cross, the third highest honor awarded by the U.S. Navy at the time, after the Medal of Honor and the Navy Distinguished Service Medal. The Navy Cross now precedes the Navy Distinguished Service Medal.[2] Miller's acts were heavily publicized in the black press, making him the iconic emblem of the war for blacks—their "Number One Hero"—thereby energizing black support for the war effort against a colored Japanese enemy.[3] Nearly two years after Pearl Harbor, he was killed in action when the USS Liscome Bay was sunk by a Japanese submarine during the Battle of Makin.


Had Doris Miller not been killed in action in the pacific he would have returned not as a hero of America but to a racially segregated country that would not have offered him much by way of a living. He fought under the same flag as all of the other 400,000 plus dead Americans did, can you tell me what the difference between him and his brothers in arms were? Death knows no color.


4 comments:

  1. So sad because so true. We're no closer now than then.

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  2. Too many wasted lives, within wars and without. So sad.

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  3. I didn't know that. Thanks, Mark. xo

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  4. pretty sad when you think they were willing to give their life, yet what thanks would they have gotten...

    hey, galen passed away this morning...thought you might want to know...

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So Walking Man I was thinking...