By Joan Hallmark
During his twenty years in the U.S. Navy, John Dodd fought in three
wars: World War Two, Korea, and Vietnam, and rose to the rank of chief
petty officer, a rank rarely achieved by African Americans during that
time.
But at 7:55 a.m. On December 7,1941, Dodd was aboard the U.S.'S Maryland on Battleship Row in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
The reason Dodd was in the brig that morning was because as a 2nd class
mess hall officer, Dodd had been in an altercation over the steak served
in the white officers mess, while the fat trimmnigs were served in the African American mess hall.
And of course they didn't send him
home that day as planned, because December 7th is the day of the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and the beginning of World War Two
for America.
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