Dorie Miller - Hero of Pearl Harbor pinback For Sale

1 1/4\" cello pinback. Good condition; nice appearance, but some scuffing and wear on front. Miller was a mess attendant on the USS West Virginia when it was attacked at Pearl Harbor--at that time, blacks were not allowed to serve in combat capacities. According to the Naval History and Heritage site, \"He headed for his battle station, the antiaircraftbattery magazine amidship, only to discover that torpedo damagehad wrecked it, so he went on deck. Because of his physical prowess,he was assigned to carry wounded fellow Sailors to places of greatersafety. Then an officer ordered him to the bridge to aid the mortallywounded Captain of the ship. He subsequently manned a 50 caliberBrowning anti-aircraft machine gun until he ran out of ammunitionand was ordered to abandon ship.\" He received several decorations and became something of an African-American folk hero. He was killed in the Pacific in 1943.This is a most unusual and hard-to-find piece of military and African-American historical memorabilia.