Extraordinary Courage

 December the 7th of 1941.

On that day of infamy, there were countless acts of heroism, both small and large.

Although caught utterly by surprise, the American sailors and soldiers instantly sprang into action. They managed to down 29 Japanese Zeros and sank 5 Japanese mini-subs. The ferociousness of the American defenses was one of the factors why Admiral Chuichi Nagumo opted to not launch a follow-up attack on Pearl Harbor, sparing the remaining American ships from destruction.

(Of the 67 ships in the Japanese attack armada on December 7th, the U.S. Navy would go on to sink 66 of them during the war.)

Perhaps the most famous act of heroism on that day...quite probably the greatest...came from Doris "Dorie" Miller. He was a cook and laundryman aboard the U.S.S. West Virginia (such menial tasks were among the only jobs allowed to black seamen in that segregated era of the military). When the attack began, his ship was hit by seven torpedoes, but although gravely damaged, it remained afloat.

Miller was sent to assist at an anti-aircraft gun, but when he arrived at his post he discovered that the gun had been destroyed by a torpedo blast. He then went to help carry the wounded to safety, dodging strafing bullets from the Japanese planes. After having helped move the West Virginia's mortally wounded Captain to a safe place, Dorie was then assigned to assist feeding ammunition to an anti-aircraft gun.

However, finding it unmanned, Miller took control of the gun himself, although he had no training whatsoever on the weapon. A white officer, seeing Dorie at the gun, rushed over to help him by feeding him ammo belts. In spite of bullets, explosions and flames all around him, Miller continued firing until he was all out of ammunition, and is credited with shooting down up to six Zeroes.

The West Virginia was by this point too badly damaged to remain afloat, and it slowly began to sink. Rather than escaping the ship for his safety, Dorie went to work carrying wounded sailors out of harm's way, often braving burning oil-slick waters to do so. He refused to leave until the order was finally given to abandon ship.

For his actions, Dorie became the first African American to be awarded the Navy Cross, the Navy's highest honor. He was brought back to the United States to go on war bond tours, but eventually resumed active duty in the Pacific.

On November 24, 1943 his ship, the carrier U.S.S. Liscome Bay, was torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine in the Battle of Makin. After Navy relief efforts picked up all of the survivors, Doris Miller was declared Missing in Action on December 7, 1943...two years to the day after the Pearl Harbor attack. Later in 1944, he was officially declared Killed in Action.

 

Dorie didn't live to see his Navy desegregated, or to see men and women of his skin color elevated to the highest ranks of officers.  But his act of sheer heroism in the face of the gravest of danger...proof positive that heroes come in all colors...helped spur the drive to end "Jim Crow" in the U.S. military, and that came to pass in just a few short years after Miller's death.

To honor Dorie, the Navy first named a frigate, the U.S.S. Miller, after him.  Once that was finally decommissioned after long service, it was announced by the Biden Administration that the next scheduled nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, due to set sail in 2029, will be commissioned as the U.S.S. Doris Miller.

"For distinguished devotion to duty, extraordinary courage and disregard for his own personal safety during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. While at the side of his Captain on the bridge, Miller, despite enemy strafing and bombing and in the face of a serious fire, assisted in moving his Captain, who had been mortally wounded, to a place of greater safety, and later manned and operated a machine gun directed at enemy Japanese attacking aircraft until ordered to leave the bridge."