One minute meant the difference between life and death for , Morris Soublet Sr., a 22-year-old soldier assigned during World War II to load weapons at , Port Chicago, a distant marine basic constructed between Martinez and , Pittsburg , in Contra Costa County.
On the evening of July 17, 1944, he just avoided joining the list of 320 people, many of whom were Black, who were killed in a series of fatal bombs that essentially vaporized the naval base by returning to his , Navy , camp earlier than usual.
In the wake of the disaster, hundreds of Black sailors were accused of mutiny and breaking wartime orders by refusing to return to their jobs of loading cluster bombs, ammunition, mines, and various explosives onto ships headed for the Pacific theater.
On Saturday morning, Soublet’s brother Richard gathered with more than 400 other household members, group activists, and elected officials to march near the remains of the stacking docks where his father led crews loading ammunition in honor of the , Navy’s decision to completely acquit all men on the 80th anniversary of the explosion, which was the deadliest martial accident on continental American soil during World War II.
Following remarks from many persons who recounted the hard-fought quest for prosecution, a crown was released into , Suisun Bay, joined by tens of flowers thrown by attendees in their respect.
Richard was a teenager when he first heard snippets of his father’s memories from , Port Chicago, but the now-78-year-old younger Soublet did n’t learn the whole story until he returned home from his own military service in , Vietnam.
” He said it was one of the most horrific things that he’d ever gone through”, said Soublet, who lives in , Oakland. He claimed that his father, who passed away in 2004 at the age of 82, followed orders to go back to work out of deference to his country and fellow service members during World War II. ” I hope we never forget that it was vile to convict those sailors of mutiny. I hope that we always remember how brave they were in their country.
Numerous traumatized sailors reminisced feelings of panic and unease right away following the blast, according to oral histories and in-depth interviews. These fears festered as the , Navy , failed to provide any clear explanation about what had triggered the explosion.
Scores of Black military personnel stationed at , Port Chicago , had long suffered through racial injustice, lax training protocols, rushed wartime quotas and disrespect from the all-white officers in charge.
But the physical and mental shock of the , July 1944 , explosion galvanized 258 of these Black military men to renegotiate their duty, they organized their anger and fear into a collective, non-violent work stoppage, despite death threats from their superiors.
Navy , prosecutors, however, quickly branded this resistance as mutiny — quashing any challenge to the legitimacy of military authority.
By September, 258 sailors who eventually agreed to go back to work had been found guilty of disobeying orders, and 50 men who continued to resist despite shame tactics and death threats had been imprisoned for the duration of the conflict. All were found guilty.
Soublet, who was born two years after the explosion, claimed in the years that he directly appealed to naval officials in part because exoneration was the only way to properly honor the sailors ‘ memory and actions in the long years of fighting for justice.
That dream became reality last week, when Navy Secretary , Carlos Del Toro , fully exonerated each of those men of all charges — exactly 80 years after the harrowing disaster.
” I’m ambivalent that it took so long to get to this point, but I’m excited we’re finally here”, Soublet said. ” This is a happy day, an uplifting moment”.
After the , Navy  failed to uphold their obligations to keep them safe, Del Toro claimed those servicemen were simply pleading for their lives and the lives of their fellow sailors. On Saturday, he vowed to the , Port Chicago , sailors ‘ descendants that those men would never again be remembered as “mutineers”.
” Theirs was a desperate act of self-preservation, a refusal to be complicit in further destruction and bloodshed”, Del Toro said, his voice momentarily faltering with emotion. ” Tragically, their stand was met with suspicion, hostility and criminal charges. These men, who had taken an oath to defend their country, were now silenced, their voices drowned out by the system’s unwillingness to acknowledge its own shortcomings.
He thanked the family and community members who never lost sight of the , Port Chicago , disaster or their pursuit for justice long overdue, including Rev.  , Diane McDaniel, president and founder of , Friends of Port Chicago, and , Robert Allen, an investigative reporter and historian who dedicated much of his life to chronicling the sailors ‘ experiences. Allen died exactly one week before the , Navy , announced the exoneration.
” For eight decades, the history of , Port Chicago , has been a stark reminder of a great injustice”, Del Toro said. This event marks a turning point in the history of our country, when we confront our foes and accept the promise of more justice.
This has also been a long time coming for , Robert Harris , and his family.
In 2016 — decades after the , Navy , shared that his uncle,  , Eugene Coffee, Jr., died in an explosion on a ship — Harris learned from genetic ancestry tests that the 22-year-old WWII sailor was actually one of the men killed by the catastrophic explosions, rather than their belief that he died at , Pearl Harbor.
Harris said Saturday’s commemoration finally gave a sense of closure despite still being angry that an all-Black crew was confined to such dangerous grunt work on the shores of Suisun Bay, which has a long history of discrimination against African Americans in the military and beyond.
” Our stories seem to get lost in history, but there is no time limit to telling the truth — no time limit for justice”, Harris said, standing near the last remnants of , Port Chicago. ” Now that ( the , Navy ) is acknowledging and righting past wrongs, they are connecting facts with history — the truth of what happened here”.
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( c ) 2024 the Contra Costa Times
Distributed by , Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
