Friday Find: USC&GS cooks & stewards pin

In the U.S. sea services, stewards wore a chief petty officer-style coat and shirt with bow tie and a visored cap with this special insignia, instead of the traditional sailor's jumper uniform and dixie cup hat worn by other enlisted personnel. When serving in the officer's mess, the stewards wore white coats similar to a waiter of that time period. Cooks wore white chef style uniforms.

The African American crewmembers in the back row of this photo were most likely messmen, cooks or stewards.  The three men at the top left of this image are wearing the chief petty officer-style caps without the chief petty officer’s anchor emblem.  During World War II, a special pin for cooks’ and stewards' caps was added to identify them as members of the U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey.

From the post-Civil War era to 1948, steward and cook billets in all U.S. seafaring military organizations were generally held by minorities. President Harry Truman’s Executive Order 9981, signed on July 26, 1948, created the President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, mandating the desegregation of the U.S. military. This allowed minorities to serve in any capacity in U.S. military organizations.