Remember The Movie "Pearl Harbor"?

 I'm talking about the one with Ben Afflek and Kate Beckinsale, if it was the love story you watched it for. It's also the movie with Cuba Gooding Jr. for those who watched for for the heroism and war battles. (Both are OK too. Same movie.)

Steve is former Navy, and he watched it at least in part for the naval history. Now, a very true story of exceptional heroism depicted in the movie is being all but obliterated in history, if Trump has his way. If you remember Cuba Gooding Jr's role, he portrayed a very real hero, Doris "Dorie" Miller, a navy cook as well as the ship's boxing champion. And therein lies a story.

Miller was black, and back then that meant he wasn't allowed to fight. He could cook, and did it honorably. He also was respected for his boxing ability (and all the money his shipmates could win betting on his fights). When his ship was bombed in the attack on Pearl Harbor, he was down in the bowels of the ship in the kitchen. He got his fellow sailors and the wounded captain out of harms way first, up to the deck where they could man the guns or jump into the water to escape the fires. 

Did he jump? No, he saw the unmanned .50 caliber machine gun on the deck, and started firing back at the Japanese airplanes attacking them. Remember, he was never allowed to be trained on the ship's weapons. But he quickly figured out how to work it and  fought back. He was the first African American to be awarded the Navy Cross, presented in person by Admiral Chester Nimitz himself. Unfortunately Miller later died in the war when his ship was torpedoed.

So you ask, if he got the Navy Cross, how his heroism is being obliterated? Currently an aircraft carrier is being built, designated to be named after him. Trump thinks it should be named the "Trump". Nevermind Trump's never done anything heroic, never served in the military after his Daddy found a doctor to sign off on alleged bone spurs, and has publicly referred to our military interred in Arlington as "suckers and loosers". Nevermind that Trump currently is mistreating our current military on the USS Abraham Lincoln by overlong deployment and lack of proper food and other supplies. Nevermind that Trump's ego requires stunts which cost lives when he appoints a fawning TV personality to be Secretary of War (now) who has no experience, no training, and no appreciation of our military leading him to understand that their lives matter.

Also nevermind that ships are not named after living people, just like stamps don't bear their likenesses, nor does US currency. Nevermind that Trump's name on anything rapidly devalues it, like he's done and is still doing to the Kennedy Center. And nevermind that Trump's idiocy has been costing this country all its former allies. We stand alone in the world now, not in a good way.

Oh, and let's not forget that Trump is an outspoken racist, which sure can't help anybody persuade him to keep his mitts off the name of a ship honoring a true African American hero!