On this day in 1941

Dec. 7, 1941

U.S. Navy poster of Dorie Miller by David Stone Martin Credit: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution)

Doris “Dorie” Miller, a mess attendant aboard the battleship USS West Virginia, carried the injured captain and other shipmates to safety during the attack on Pearl Harbor. 

When enemy planes swooped down, he stood behind an anti-aircraft gun and began firing, despite no prior training. He became the first Black seaman to receive the Navy Cross for valor, and a Navy recruiting poster featured him with the slogan, “above and beyond the call of duty.” 

Before 1943 ended, a torpedo struck his ship, the Liscome Bay, killing Miller and more than 600 other crew members. Three decades later, the Navy named a ship after him. 

Cuba Gooding Jr. portrayed Miller in the 2001 film, “Pearl Harbor,” and a statue has been built in his honor in his hometown of Waco, Texas. The Navy has since honored him by naming a new aircraft carrier after him. 

“He died as he lived, an American sailor defending his nation, shoulder to shoulder with his shipmates, until the end,” Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said. “Dorie Miller stood for everything that is good about our nation. His story deserves to be remembered and repeated wherever our people continue to stand the watch today. He’s not just the story of one sailor. It is the story of our Navy, of our nation and our ongoing struggle to form — in the words of our Constitution — a more perfect union.”

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