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February 17, 2019
WOLF CREEK HERITAGE MUSEUM NOTES by Virginia Scott MUSEUM HAPPENINGS We hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day. I journeyed to Spur, Texas for our quarterly Plains Trail meeting. As usual it was an informative meeting. Our trails headquarters are now in Spur so if you are near drop in and see Barbara and any Texas literature that you might want. I will report the trails activity at our next board meeting and will include it when I report on the meeting. The museum work group are working on a new military exhibit utilitizing two army stretchers that have been stored over at the school for ages. Therefore the stretchers are on the front porch airing out thanks to this Panhandle winter wind. We are preparing the patient in the mean time. The Student art reception is Sunday, February 24th, 2-4pm. This SUNDAY, please come and support the students. Their art as usual is entertaining. So many school systems have eliminated the arts from their curriculum we must support our schools in their efforts. Prizes will be presented and the students recognized and celebrated. HISTORICAL MUSINGS Third Class Doris "Dorie" Miller, was the Ship's Cook on the USS West Virginia on the morning of December 7, 1941, he had just served the ship breakfast when he heard the alarm calling sailors to battle stations. The first of several torpedoes dropped from Japanese aircraft had struck the American battleship. Miller hastily made his way to a central point and was soon called to the bridge to assist the mortally wounded ship's captain, Mervyn Bennion. Miller then joined two others in loading and firing an unmanned anti-aircraft machine gun that, as an African American in a segregated military, Miller had not been trained to operate. But he did, firing the weapon on attacking Japanese aircraft until the .50-caliber gun ran out of ammunition. For these actions, Miller was later awarded the Navy Cross, the third-highest naval award for combat gallantry. Like so many sailors and soldiers in World War II, Dori Miller's life was cut short. Just two years after the attack on Pearl harbor, Miller was aboard the USS Liscome Bay when it was sunk by a Japanese submarine. His actions and the legend they created were directly responsible for helping to roll back the navy's then-to-fore unrelenting policy of racial segregation and prejudice and in the chain of events, helped to launch the civil rights movement of the 1960s that brought an end America's racial intolerance. Source: book review by Texas A&M University Press. |
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