Doris “Dorie” Miller was awarded the Navy Cross for his heroics during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

He was the first African American to receive the Navy Cross. Many felt he deserved the Medal of Honor, but Navy Secretary Frank Knox squelched that proposal. Knox opposed Black sailors serving in any combat role.

Doris was born on Oct. 12, 1919, in Waco, Texas, to Conery and Henrietta Miller. He was named Doris because the midwife at his birth was convinced he would be a she. His father was a farmer and his mother was a homemaker to the couple’s four sons: Selvia, Conery, Doris, and Arthur.

Doris grew up on the family farm and enlisted in the navy on Sept. 16, 1939. His service number was 35611235. He was serving as a cook aboard the battleship West Virginia on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941.

“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,” his Navy Cross citation reads.

“He later manned and operated a machine gun directed at enemy Japanese attacking aircraft until ordered to leave the bridge.”

He was credited with downing two (and possibly more) Japanese planes, despite no prior gunnery training. The carrier sank in shallow waters. Cook 3rd Class Miller was recognized as one of the first American heroes of the war and sent on war bond drives in the States.

In May 1943, he was assigned to the escort carrier Liscome Bay. On Nov. 24, 1943, the carrier was torpedoed and sunk in the South Pacific. Cook 3rd Class Miller, 24, was among 644 men lost in the deadliest sinking of a carrier in U.S. Naval history.

His name is inscribed on the Tablets of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial in Hawaii. He also has a cenotaph at Doris Miller Memorial Park in Waco.

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Sources:

Find a Grave:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/206388722/doris-miller

Federal Census

U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947

Newspapers.com

Ancestry.com

Google.com

Fold3

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