Port Chicago: American Tragedy, Prejudice, and Mutiny During World War II

[@geographicstravel]

Check out Squarespace: squarespace.com/geographics for 10% off on your first purchase of a website/domain using the code GEOGRAPHICS. Thank you Squarespace for the sponsorship.

[@yankeecrazy9]

Hey everyone! Scriptwriter Ben here! I hope you enjoyed today's video! If you'd like to learn more about the Port Chicago story, I highly recommend "The Port Chicago Mutiny" by Robert L. Allen. Thanks for watching!

[@MikkellTheImmortal]

Hi Ben. I did enjoy the added information that I had no idea happened. I like many have heard of the explosion, but I knew nothing of the men and politics involved. I'm so happy that the Honor of all involved has been restored. Thanks!

[@ThePortChicagoWitness]

And if you want to know the rest of the story, including the link to the Manhattan Project...

[@ThePortChicagoWitness]

read my MEDIUM series Uncle Sam's Nuclear Cloak, or read my blog, The Port Chicago Witness, or get ahold of my book, American Nuclear Deception: why the "Port Chicago experiment" must be investigated. You will learn about the theory that the explosion may have been an early secret nuclear test. You will examine surprising evidence that shows the theory is not as ridiculous as it seems, and I believe you will agree that the theory warrants further investigation.

[@micahphilson]

After the Brain Blaze episode on things that are no longer taught in school, I made a presentation on this exact topic. Great to learn so much more about it and its aftermath!

[@wunderkind-7724]

The most important manufacturing effort during World War I I was our ability to crank out liberty ships in massive numbers. More than anything else, logistics wins wars.

[@resileaf9501]

Another great video, Eric and Ben! Thank you for your hard work!

[@danielsantiagourtado3430]

Thanks For this eric! Love your content ❤❤❤

[@geographicstravel]

My pleasure!!

[@teresapyeatt3698]

At the memorial on Concord Navel Weapon Station has the propeller of one of the boats. The propeller was found on Mt. Deoblo many miles away.

[@RussetPotato]

Mount Diablo? Costa Contra County?

[@IceBergs]

I live in the city right next to it, The entire city of Port Chicago still till this day is completely shut down and so is the large area surrounding it. It's very eerie to drive around it as it's visible from the freeway and the ammunitions bunkers are visible on the other side. Every year the county argues about trying to fix and reuse the land, and half say yes and half say no. It's still extremely unsafe and a nasty place. I wouldn't want to even go over there after a re-development. It's a large area worth probably trillions of dollars in the over crowded bay area. Some barracks and apartments around the base but on roads in the open city are completely closed off due to lead paint degrading which is really really nice especially less than a mile away from an elementary school. What's shocking is these guys loaded tons of ships for years without an issue which is nuts. The winch issue is well detailed for weeks and months leading up to the explosion from documents about neglect and lack of proper repair.

[@thatotherguy186]

I was military police and worked there for a couple weeks overnights a while back. Place was Erie. Creepy vibes at the little town on base that looks like it was left in a day and closed forever. Myth busters filmed some stuff there too. There is still a lot of land that wasn’t cleared of UXOs when I was there. Accidentally walked into one area one night. I still have all my limbs lol

[@multipletanksyndrome]

Thank you for covering this. I hope you talk about the economic impact of the dishonorable discharges.

[@ignitionfrn2223]

2:40 - Chapter 1 - A military industrial complex 5:00 - Mid roll ads 6:30 - Chapter 2 - The operative word is "race" 9:05 - Chapter 3 - Disaster 11:55 - Chapter 4 - The last straw 14:30 - Chapter 5 - Mutiny 16:45 - Chapter 6 - Swift justice 18:50 - Chapter 7 - Aftermath 22:45 - Conclusion

[@andypandy9013]

During World War II we Brits, including both of my Parents, were disgusted by the racial prejudice and segregation seen in the American troops that came over here from 1942 onwards. Try searching for "The Battle of Bamber Bridge" to see what I mean. There was even an echo of it in Neville Shutt's novel "The Chequer Board".

[@jooleebilly]

The racist attacks on young black men in England in the 1980s were pretty disgusting, too. It's universal. If it's not black people, it's immigrants, or back in the 90s in England, the Irish. In 1986, I was leaving Trafalgar Square after the New Year's Eve celebration. There was one cop in particular who screamed "the N word" at an individual over and over and over. Even his partner couldn't get him to shut up. Black folks are treated terribly in (probably) every mostly-white country in the world. It's been happening for many hundreds of years, and no country is innocent of it if they had a colony or slaves in or from Africa. Or anywhere dark skinned people lived.

[@kaicampbell8910]

The British started this

[@MystRunner916]

​@@kaicampbell8910 The british ended it before we ever did.

[@ElicBehexan]

Enjoy? No. No, I did not enjoy learning about this. I live in a city where we honor a black sailor who was serving at Pearl Harbor. He had been a mess attendant. He first helped move injured sailors then manned an anti-aircraft gun. He was officially credited with shooting down one plane, but witnesses claim it was more like four or six. He was the first black sailor to be given the Navy Cross. While he was born in Waco, Texas and enlisted in Dallas, Austin holds him near and dear. His name was Doris Miller.

[@cwilliamlewis]

WHY would your celebration of Doris Miller prevent you from enjoying this installment of Geographics? We ALL love Cuba Gooding Jr., but, c'mon man... ,🇺🇲🤠

[@adameckard4591]

Give Doris the MOH now.

[@ElicBehexan]

@@cwilliamlewis I'm not. I'm saying that the way the Services treated the Blacks until after WWII was wrong. We celebrate Doris Miller because he was a hero. If Cuba Gooding was from this area, I would hope we would celebrate him the same way.

[@andybreglia9431]

​@@cwilliamlewis: Probably because it hurt too damn much.

[@michaelallain7706]

I acknowledge your words and feelings. I feel he meant no malice

[@lbjcb5]

Thank you for covering this. So many tragic stories that had a huge impact in history still get lost to time.

[@yvindwestersund9720]

I think we need to readjust the yield of the explosion a bit It was 2.1 kilo tons that exploded Because if it was 2 mega tons it would have been a medium sized hydrogen bomb And thankfully it wasn't because if so it would have been a problem for san fran sisco Just saying 🇳🇴

[@georgehh2574]

This is horrific and I'm surprised I've never heard about this being very interested in wartime history

[@j.a.weishaupt1748]

Would love it if you’d also explain the distances in normal units

[@AnnaAnna-uc2ff]

Thanks.

[@controlfreak1963]

Liberty ships and proximity fuses for artillery and anti-aircraft guns.

[@evelyntodd9946]

Glad to see Jade for a little bit. Sadly it will happen again.

[@bnthern]

serving during Nam, we were a well intergrated group aboard the USS Enterprise CVA-N 65 - the Marines aboard were taught that that guy behind you would be the one to save you in combat, hate a Black, all he could do was bring back your body!

[@jamesheichel9465]

Lol. My dad was on the Hancock and was often "missing" from his ship when they'd get to Vietnam. Of course in his words Kennedy's and Johnson's Vietnam's were not the same war. Kind of wonder how things would have worked out differently had Kennedy not been assassinated.

[@ezmink75]

Liberty Ships FTW!!

[@bradbrandon2506]

I would say the most important industrial effort of world War 2 was the development of the trinity nuclear test because someone may bring a knife to a gunfight, but nobody brings a gun to a nuke fight.

[@ThePortChicagoWitness]

As quiet as it's been kept, the Port Chicago explosion was part of early nuclear history. Data from the explosion was used in the creation of the atomic bomb.

[@danielwolf6875]

THE LIBERTY SHIPS! Hands down. That allowed us to help sustain the allied powers, win the war of the Atlantic, project our power to all spanses of the Earth, and continue the Evermore important supply chains of men, fuel, munitions. . . . ETC. The versatility of the ships was one of MANY keys to Allied Victory!!!!!!! 😮‍💨🫡🤟❤️‍🔥🐺🇮🇱🇬🇧🇦🇱🇺🇦🇺🇸🇦🇺🇫🇮

[@jasonhefner7704]

I watched this video the other day and it's saying it was uploaded an hour ago??

[@DinaDeen5610]

My daughter is in the navy and the racism is still going strong! The things that have been said to her have been infuriating. She’s the only young lady and the only black person in the office where she works. It’s not pretty. And she has to keep her cool or face punishment smh.

[@MystRunner916]

I feel for your daughter. Im in a simmilar situation as a female state worker. I was doing a job related to my degree (wildlife management) then got uncerimoniously shuffled over to a job driving around picking up trash and mowing boat ramps. My resume now looks bad because of that.

[@DinaDeen5610]

@@MystRunner916 wow i hope it gets better for you! Thank you! What else can you do with a wildlife management degree?

[@MystRunner916]

@@DinaDeen5610 90% of my employment will be on a state or federal level. Theres not many private wildlife management jobs and to start up on the overhead is HIGH as equipment costs are through the roof. Right now all i can do is keep applying to other positions and hope i get a break.

[@DinaDeen5610]

@@MystRunner916 good luck babes.

[@murrayscott9546]

Forget the Caine Mutiny ? Also, as to your first question, Mulberries.

[@thomasbrown7452]

It was the ice cream ships for the troops

[@acostajj427]

I guess the USS Mason was a time traveling ship since the image you posted was an Arleigh Burke class. Also using footage of from the Pearl Harbor attack? lol casuals

[@theodoreaguglia8902]

Yall said 2 Megatons. thats 2000 kilotons. maybe add an asterisk?....

[@mikeweller9933]

liberty ships

[@ripthetruth1006]

Liberty ships, gotta move all the stuff to fight the war some how. Guns,Tanks,and Soldiers can’t swim across oceans

[@jamesheichel9465]

The amount of people that fail to realize that military law and civilian law are not even remotely the same thing nor do they have the same processes is ridiculous. And this is a perfect example of that. Also "allegedly" should really have been used a lot in this seeing the opinions are stated but not fact in many occasions. Also attempting to insert ones belief systems upon people that did not exist in this time and those people not exist in their time it's honestly embarrassing, pathetic, and ridiculous. And also let's not forget about the 20,000 soldiers & sailors that were charged with mutiny or desertion during world war II. And the one that was executed for it was white and while many others were given the death penalty were not excuted. Anyone that wants to find racism and hate in something will always find it. However the fact that an entire ship was run by black sailors is proof that those charged with mutiny Port Chicago were charged due to their own actions. Their is not evidence proving a racist retaliation against all black sailors. Was it a shity time then?? Oh yeah it definitely was. Would you have done things differently had you been there?? Probably not because people learn based on the environment around them not disproportionately to the environment around them. No one watching this video and no one reading these comments would have been holier than thou compared to anyone back then had you been born and raised back then. Also fun fact, the governor and senators of Mississippi at that time world Democrat. Let that sink in your head too. 🤷🏼‍♂️🤷🏼‍♂️🤷🏼‍♂️🤷🏼‍♂️