Dick Turpin

"By that time the water was right up even with my chin. Then I commenced to get scared, and in fooling around it happened that a rope touched my arm, and I commenced to climb overhand and got on deck." ~ Dick Turpin, Naval Court of Inquiry, 1898

John Henry "Dick" Turpin was born August 20, 1876 in Long Branch, New York near Syracuse. He joined the U. S. Navy in 1896 and was serving as a mess attendant about the USS Maine when it exploded in Havana Harbor in 1898. Of the crew of 350, only 90 survived the blast.

Turpin was aboard the gunboat Bennington in 1905 when a boiler exploded, killing 62 men. Eleven men were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions during the disaster but Turpin was not among them, although it is reported he saved a number of crew members by swimming them to shore.

Turpin is likely the only person to have been in both naval explosions.

Kathryn Turpin (third from left)

He left active duty in 1916, only to be recalled for World War I the following year. He served as Chief Gunner's Mate aboard the cruiser Marblehead, becoming one of the first African American Chief Petty Officers. During this time his wife Kathryn worked as a riveter at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington.

Turpin was the Navy boxing champion in several weight classes during his service career, and taught boxing at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. He retired from the Navy in 1925.

Turpin worked as a master rigger at the Puget Sound Shipyard. He was also a master diver, and was a member of the crew that invented the underwater cutting torch. During World War II he visited Naval Training Centers and Defense Plants throughout the country and was on the reviewing stand in Seattle when the first African American volunteers were sworn in after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Turpin died March 10, 1962 in Bremerton at the age of 85. He was cremated with his ashes scattered at sea.

Dorie Miller

"It wasn't hard. I just pulled the trigger and she worked fine. I had watched the others with these guns. I guess I fired her for about fifteen minutes. I think I got one of those Jap planes. They were diving pretty close to us."

Doris Miller was born October 12, 1919 in Willow Grove. Known to his friends as "Dorie", he was named by the midwife who delivered him and who was sure that the baby would be a girl.. He attended A. J. Moore High School in nearby Waco and enlisted in the U. S. Navy in 1939. On December 7, 1941 he was a Mess Attendant Second Class serving on the USS West Virginia in Pearl Harbor.

Miller was collecting laundry aboard the ship when the Japanese bombing began shortly before 8:00 AM. He was assigned to carry wounded sailors to safety and to load a pair of unattended Browning .50 caliber anti-aircraft guns. He then fired at incoming planes until running out of ammunition, even though black sailors serving as stewards were not given the gunnery training that white sailors received.

On May 27, 1942 he was presented the Navy Cross personally by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet, who said "This marks the first time in this conflict that such high tribute has been made in the Pacific Fleet to a member of his race and I'm sure that the future will see others similarly honored for brave acts."

At Great Lakes Naval Training Station

Miller later served at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Chicago and in May 1943 was assigned to the newly-commissioned escort aircraft carrier Liscome Bay.

During the Battle of Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands on November 24, 1943 the Liscome Bay was hit by a Japanese torpedo and sunk in the Pacific Ocean. There were 272 survivors out of 900 men on board. On December 7, 1943 Miller's parents were notified that their son had been killed in action.

The Navy has honored Miller by naming a destroyer, dining hall, and barracks after him. There are schools, streets and community buildings named in his honor across the country from Hawaii to New York. He was portrayed by Elvin Havard in the film Tora! Tora! Tora! and by Cuba Gooding Jr. in Pearl Harbor.