Friday, July 19, 10 - 11:30am
The Allied invasion of Europe was a little over one month old and the Pacific Campaign was ramping up when a tremendous explosion obliterated the Navy’s ammunition transshipment facility at Port Chicago in the North Bay Area of San Francisco. In an instant 320 lives were snuffed out and the supply of needed ammunition was cut off to the largest battlefield the world had ever seen.
Join us for this free lecture/tour program to learn more about criticality of Port Chicago to the fight in the Pacific, and the role that Mare Island played in both the refusal of black sailors to return to work under unsafe working conditions and their vital role in supplying desperately needed ammunition to those at the point of the spear.
The program will begin at St. Peter's Chapel with a 30 minute presentation. Attendees are then invited to drive up to the Mare Island Preserve for a tour of some of the sites presented in the lecture. This program is presented as part of the 80th commemoration of the explosion at Port Chicago.
Tickets are free, but there are a limited number. Please make your reservations today!
Photo Caption: Army General Douglas McArthur, President Roosevelt, Adm. Leahy his Chief of Staff, and Adm. Nimitz meet at Pearl Harbor in 1944 to plan the invasion of Japan.
