Content note: A page of portraits and rescue scenes of Black US Navy messmen that uses the period term 'Jap' for Japanese aircraft. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Elvin Bell - Awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for Distinguished Heroism
A sheet headed 'Bearers' shows a portrait of Mess Attendant Elvin Bell, with panels of Dorie Miller at a machine gun, Bell rescuing shipmates aboard the carrier Lexington and Charles French towing a raft past sharks, plus a small sailor saying 'These messmen are a solid mess-jack!!'. The tell is testimonial: named Black sailors' deeds are offered as the argument for the group's war contribution.
Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Office of War Information (cartoon artwork; artist Charles Alston)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Diaspora or minority
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- War and the military, Race and ethnicity, Home front
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 208, OWI Cartoon Artworks (NAID 535594), retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
Office of War Information. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 208, 208-COM-226 (NAID 535689).
Text on the object
BEARERS Mess Attendant DORIE MILLER, HERO OF PEARL HARBOR RECEIVED THE NAVY CROSS FOR HIS BRAVERY. AFTER CARRYING A WOUNDED OFFICER TO SAFETY BELOW, MILLER RETURNED, MANNED A MACHINE GUN, AND BLASTED AWAY AT JAP BOMBERS UNTIL HIS AMMUNITION WAS EXHAUSTED. Mess Attendant ELVIN BELL AWARDED THE NAVY AND MARINE CORPS MEDAL FOR DISTINGUISHED HEROISM. Charles French MESSMAN ABOARD THE S.S. "GREGORY" - "THE ONE MAN TUGBOAT" - TOWED A RAFT FULL OF HIS SHIPWRECKED MATES TO SAFETY, THROUGH SHARK INFESTED WATERS! THESE MESSMEN ARE A SOLID MESS-JACK!! BELL, THE HEROIC MESSMAN, WENT BELOW, INTO THE MOST DANGEROUS PART OF THE STRICKEN CARRIER "LEXINGTON," AND RESCUED THREE OF HIS INJURED COMRADES. Alston for OWI 82
