Doris Miller, High School Football Player and Sharecropper’s Son, Became a Hero at Pearl Harbor

Doris “Dorie” Miller was a fullback for the Moore High School football team, the son of a sharecropper, and during the Battle of Pearl Harbor, he also became the first black man to win the Navy Cross for his heroism in battle.

Born in 1919 in Waco, Texas, Miller enlisted in the Navy in 1939 as a Mess Attendant, Third Class, the only rank permitted for black men at the time.

By 1940, Miller was a mess attendant on the battleship USS West Virginia where he served food and bussed tables in the ship’s mess and galley. He also became the ship’s reigning boxing champion. But he was not destined to be a forgotten mess hall attendant. In July of that year, he graduated from Secondary Battery Gunnery School before returning to West Virginia, where it soon steamed to its anchor in Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

On Dec. 7, the Japanese air force launched its sneak attack on America’s Pacific base at Pearl Harbor, and Miller was there.

That morning, as Japanese planes soared overhead, delivering a fiery death to thousands of Americans, Miller ran to his station on the West Virginia only to find it had already been destroyed. Because he was a large, powerful man, he was then ordered to turn his attention to taking wounded sailors off the ship.

However, after saving Capt. Mervyn Bennion, he was ordered by another officer to begin bringing ammunition to a pair of 50-caliber Browning anti-aircraft machine guns on deck.

When no one came to man the guns, though, Miller jumped in and began taking aim at the Japanese planes buzzing overhead.

Miller is credited with downing at least three Japanese planes — but may have destroyed as many as six. His work as a gunner came to a halt only when a Japanese bomb tore a hole in the side of the West Virginia, causing officers to order everyone to abandon ship.

During the attack, the West Virginia lost 130 men dead and 52 wounded of its 1,541 complement.

Miller received a commendation from Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox for his bravery at Peal, as well as the Navy’s highest award for valor, the Navy Cross, from the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet, Chester W. Nimitz.

In his remarks, Nimitz praised Miller, saying, “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.”

Miller was then transferred to the cruiser USS Indianapolis. He was advanced to Mess Attendant, Second Class, then First Class, and ultimately promoted to Ship’s Cook, Third Class.

Sadly, Miller later lost his life when as a member of the USS Liscome Bay, he joined the invasion of the Gilbert Islands, where his ship suffered a torpedo hit from a Japanese submarine.

Miller was one of the 644 sailors who lost their lives when the USS Liscome Bay’s ammunition magazine exploded from the Japanese torpedo strike.

Along with the Navy Cross, this brave sailor earned the Purple Heart, the World War II Victory Medal, and the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal. He has also been honored by the Navy since. First, in 1973, the Navy commissioned the frigate USS Miller, in his honor. Then, in 2019, a new Ford-class aircraft carrier, CVN-81, was commissioned as the USS Doris Miller, becoming the first aircraft carrier ever named after an enlisted sailor or a black American.

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