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Meet Dorie Miller – One of the Unsung Heroes of Pearl Harbor

Meet Dorie Miller – One of the Unsung Heroes of Pearl Harbor
Posted on
December 7, 2016
by Andrew Cullen
Doris "Dorie" Miller was a cook with the United States Navy during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Miller served aboard the USS West Virginia first as a Mess Attendant First Class, and was eventually promoted to ship's cook. At the time, the US Navy was opened to African Americans – but not for traditional combat roles. They were only permitted to serve as mess attendants, stewards and cooks. USS Utah Mess Attendant Clark Simmons once told the National Geographic, "The Navy was structured that if you were black, this was what they had you do in the Navy – you could only be a servant."

On the morning of the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor, Miller was on a laundry round when a series of torpedoes hit the USS West Virginia. Miller rushed to his combat station – an anti-aircraft battery magazine – when word came that the ship's captain, Mervyn Bennion, had been hit with shrapnel and had a gaping wound in his abdomen.

Miller, a former football player and the best Navy boxer on board, moved to rescue the ship's captain by moving him from his exposed position on the bridge to a sheltered spot behind the ship's conning tower.

But Miller wasn't finished there. He then moved to an unmanned Browning .50 caliber anti-aircraft gun – a weapon he was not trained to use – and defended the ship's starboard side from incoming Japanese aircraft.

Miller manned the gun until he ran out of ammunition – then he and some fellow sailors continued to escort injured sailors off the ship – through acrid smoke and oily water until the Japanese dropped two armor piercing bombs and launched five more torpedoes into the USS West Virginia's port side.

Eventually the ship sank with her surviving crew – Miller included – abandoned ship.

On January 1, 1942, the Navy released a list of commendations for actions on December 7 – among them was a single commendation for "an unnamed Negro." The NAACP asked President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to award the Distinguished Service Cross to the unknown sailor and on March 12, 1942 the Navy announced that the sailor's name was Doris Miller.

Miller was later recognized as one of the "first heroes of WWII" and received a series of awards, including the Navy Cross – the third-highest Naval award for gallantry during combat.

Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet in WWII said of Miller's commendation, "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."

In 1943, Miller was killed in action during the Battle of Makin Island.

For decades Texas lawmakers have lobbied for the government to upgrade Miller's award to the Medal of Honor, though those calls have so far gone unanswered. But in honor of his sacrifices, in 1973, the US Navy commissioned a new frigate in his honor.

The USS Miller.
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