The U.S. Navy says it will name an aircraft carrier after Doris “Dorie” Miller, the African American mess attendant who heroically leapt into combat during the bombing of Pearl Harbor, reports NPR. It marks the first time that an aircraft carrier has been named for an African-American, and the first time a sailor has been so honored for actions taken as an enlisted man.
In 1941, Miller was a 22-year-old mess attendant on the USS West Virginia. At the time, Black sailors were cosigned to roles in the mess man branch — work that entailed swabbing decks, cooking and shining officers’ shoes. He had awoken at 6 a.m. and was collecting laundry when the Japanese attack began and an alarm sounded on the ship, according to the Navy. Miller headed to the antiaircraft battery magazine, but it had already been destroyed by torpedo damage. He proceeded to the deck, where he was assigned to carry his wounded comrades, including the ship’s captain. Miller was strong: a former high school football player in Waco, Texas, he was the ship’s heavyweight boxing champion.
“Miller went topside, carried wounded on his shoulders, made several trips up and down, wading through waist-deep water, oil-slicked decks, struggling uphill on slick decks,” Navy Rear Adm. John Fuller said in 2016. The young sailor then took over a .50-caliber anti-aircraft machine gun and fired it until the ammunition ran out. No matter that he’d never been trained on the weapon.
“It wasn’t hard,” he remembered, according to a Navy history. “ just pulled the trigger and she worked fine. I had watched the others with these guns. I guess I fired her for about 15 minutes. I think I got one of those [Japanese] planes. They were diving pretty close to us.” The ship’s communications officer, Lt. Cmdr. Doir C. Johnson, said that Miller was “blazing away as though he had fired one all his life,” reports the Navy Times.
The West Virginia was heavily damaged in the attack. Japanese planes had dropped armored bombs and launched multiple torpedoes on the vessel. The ship slowly sank, and more than 100 of the men aboard the ship died that day. For his bravery, Miller was presented with the Navy Cross in May 1942. He was the first Black sailor to be awarded the medal, one of the Navy’s highest honors.
This marks the first time in this conflict that such high tribute has been made in the Pacific Fleet to a member of his race and I’m sure that the future will see others similarly honored for brave acts,” Adm. Chester Nimitz, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said at the time. Miller had won renown, and he was brought home in November 1942 for a two-month tour to promote war bonds. His image was used on a Navy recruiting poster.
Miler did not survive the war. Miller was aboard the USS Liscome Bay when it was struck by a Japanese torpedo in the Pacific in 1943. Nearly 650 of the more than 900 sailors died when the ship sank. Miller’s body was never recovered. He was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart, among other honors.
