Right at 08:00 morning quarters were held in the common area. By this time GM1 (E-6) Woody, Cdr. (O-5) Shortimer, LT. (0-3) Bunk, and ENS (0-1) Lou had arrived. GM1 (E-6) Woodie, was a square tube gunners mate who transferred over from the Navy at a time when the Coast Guard made an ill fated attempt to integrate Harpoon anti-ship missiles on high endurance cutters. Yet another one of Commandant Paul Yost’s less than brilliant ideas. It was right up there with the stretch 41 footer which was also dead on arrival. If you have never heard of either, don’t worry, it didn’t cost the taxpayers a fraction as much as a single Littoral Combat ship.

Right after morning quarters I was plopped in front of a TV, a VHS tape was popped into the player and my training regarding the safe loading and storage of explosives began with a video about the Port Chicago Disaster. That was followed by another video about the SS. Badger State disaster of December 27, 1969, where improperly loaded military ordnance headed for Vietnam broke loose in the cargo hold during a storm. The resulting fires and explosions from bombs and shells rolling freely in the cargo holds eventually doomed the ship with the loss of 26 lives.

The next video was about the fire at the Roseville, CA rail yard on April 28, 1973, only some 90 miles (144 km) north east of Port Chicago. A military-owned box car full of ordnance headed for Port Chicago caught fire. For the next 32 hours 18 ammo laden box cars caught fire and burned. The subsequent explosions could be heard 40 miles (64 km) away. While there were no fatalities, 48 people were injured and the rail yard was destroyed. In the intervening years the city of Roseville has grown substantially and it was and is not unheard of for construction crews to find unexploded ordnance from the fire 1973 a considerable distance from the rail yard.

After the videos I was taken for a tour of where the Port Chicago disaster happened. At that time the was an area not open to civilians. Next to the old pier where the explosion happened was a very modest memorial. It was a small plaque mounted in a granite slab noting the event and the lives lost. Next to the memorial was a flagpole that flew the Stars and Stripes 24/7. All around the memorial were bits of metal debris from the two ships destroyed in the explosion. This was the informal memorial made by base personnel, both military and civilian, who made it a point to add more debris every time they would visit the memorial. It was a personal mark of respect for the victims of the disaster. Now it was my time to show my gratitude and respect and with almost no effort I found a piece of debris and added it to the unofficial memorial.

Then it was off to get a haircut at Jack’s Barber Shop in Bay Point. Jack’s was in a strip mall that was long past its best days. To be frank it was in an area where a good person should not be after dark. GM3 (E-4) Rusty and BMC (E-7) Zoomer drove me in a government vehicle. We walked into a classic barber shop complete with a lighted barber pole, and a bunch of old guys sitting in chairs playing checkers, drinking soft drinks and chewing the fat.

Jack looked up from the head of hair he was cutting and welcomed us in. “Hey, you have a new guy!” “Yeah” replied BMC (E-7) Zoomer. “This is BM3 (E-4) GooBlatz and today is his first day.” Jack said that when he finished with his current customer I would be next. When I pointed out that there were other guys ahead of me Jack replied that they were there to socialize. Presently Jack finished up with his customer, cleaned up the barbers chair and motioned me to have a seat.

What followed was a bit of small talk between me and Jack has he cut my hair. Then Jack looked over to one of the guys playing checkers and said, “Hey, Blackie, why don’t you tell your story about being at Port Chicago during the war to GooBlatz”. Blackie and his partner took a break from playing checkers and Blackie started with his memories of the Port Chicago disaster. It was then I realized the real reason for getting the haircut.

I can still remember his story almost verbatim.

“I was ten years old and living in Concord, CA. It was just a little after 10:00pm and I had just gone to bed when the first explosion happened. The explosion was as bright as the noonday sun and lasted for what seemed a good few minutes. Then when the first explosion had faded to a twilight the second explosion occurred. The second explosion was bigger, brighter and lasted longer than the first explosion. Everyone knew that something terrible had happened at Port Chicago. I got dressed quickly and my Dad drove us over to the local hospital to see if we could help.

At about the time we arrived at the hospital the first casualties started to arrive. I saw a car drive up with a seriously wounded man riding on the running board of the car. He was laying on the running board holding in his guts in with both of his hands. The passenger had the door open and had his arm over the injured man holding him onto the running board. We got a litter over to him and helped to place him on the litter. We spent the rest of the night doing what we could for the injured."

MSD Concord was an isolated Poe-dunk operation, but it had a major responsibility that far outsized its microscopic footprint. From the moment I stepped onto the MSD it was made very clear, “Under no circumstance will you ever allow a repeat of the Port Chicago Disaster of July 17, 1944, that killed 320 people and injured another 390”. It was a real shame that MSD Concord was overlooked and placed on the back burner by Capt (0-6) Mac in particular, the MSO in Alameda as a whole and by CG Headquarters in Washington DC in general.