Steward's Mate / Officer's Cook

Cooked and served officers' meals. For most of the 20th century, the *only* rating Black sailors were permitted to hold.

The Story

Dorie Miller — the Pearl Harbor hero who manned an AA gun on USS West Virginia after his battle station was destroyed — was a Mess Attendant 3rd Class because that was the only rating the Navy let him hold. He won the Navy Cross for that day and was killed in 1943.