Bailey, Henry William, S2c

On the evening of July 17th, 1944, at the Port Chicago Naval Munitions base located on San Francisco Bay, the largest state-side military disaster of WWII occurred, killing 320 men and injuring another 390 men on the base. Two transport ships, the E.A. Bryan and the Quinault Victory were completely destroyed. The small town of Port Chicago, only 30 miles from San Francisco, also suffered tremendous damage. Chunks of smoldering metal weighing hundreds of pounds and even un-detonated bombs rained down upon the community, damaging over 300 structures and injuring over 100 people. Miraculously, none of the bombs exploded, and no residents of the town of Port Chicago were killed. By sheer size of the blast, the Port Chicago explosion was as large as a 5-kiloton bomb.

Of the 320 men who lost their lives on the base, 202 of them were black. And of the additional 390 men injured, 233 were black. Many of these black naval seamen volunteered in the United States Navy expecting, and some even hoping, to see action on the front lines of the war. They went through segregated boot camp, applied to training schools, and graduated as full seamen in the United States Navy.