Doris Miller - American Hero

Miller was born in Waco, Texas, on October 12, 1919. His parents were Henrietta and Connery Miller. He was the third of four sons. The family called him Dorie.

People saw Dorie as a considerate child . . . helped around the house, cooking meals and doing laundry. He also worked in the fields of his family's farm to help maintain his family's income. Dorie Miller was a good student and played fullback on Waco's A.J. Moore High School football team.

Dorie was emotional when it came to race, and he would get into fights with other students over the way he and other black students were treated. The fights eventually led to Miller's being expelled from school.

On December 7, 1941 Miller was aboard his ship, the USS West Virginia. The ship was in port at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Miller's assignment that morning involved the ship's laundry, and that was what he was doing when the call to battle stations went out. Even though Miller was a cook, he had a battle station (as did all of the ship's personnel). Miller was assigned to an antiaircraft battery. When Miller arrived at his station he found that the magazine had been damaged as the result of a torpedo explosion. Unable to serve there, Miller went above decks to do what he could to assist wounded sailors.

Somehow, word got to Miller that the ship's Captain and Executive Officer were on the bridge, and that they were both injured. Miller hurried to the bridge and, finding the Captain, picked him up and carried him to the first aid station. That being done, Miller found a .50-caliber machine gun unmanned. Although he had not been trained on the weapon, Miller took his place and began firing at Japanese planes.

"It wasn't hard," said Miller shortly after the battle. "I just pulled the trigger and she worked fine. I had watched the others with these guns. I guess I fired her for about 15 minutes. I think I got one of those Jap planes. They were diving pretty close to us."

The commendation which accompanied Miller's Navy Cross includes a tribute to Miller's "distinguished devotion to duty, extraordinary courage and disregard of his personal safety during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor 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 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 until ordered to leave the bridge."

Doris Miller reported for duty at Puget Sound Navy Yard on May 15, 1943, and his rank was again raised to Ship's Cook Third Class on June 1 as he reported to USS Liscome Bay (CVE-56), an aircraft carrier. After training in Hawaii and in the Gilbert Islands, the Liscome Bay participated in the Battle of Tarawa beginning November 20. On November 24, the ship was torpedoed near the Gilbert Islands by the Japanese submarine I-175 and sank in 23 minutes. There were 242 survivors. The rest of the crew was listed as "presumed dead". On December 7, Mr. & Mrs. Conery Miller were notified their son was "Missing in Action."

A memorial service was held on April 30, 1944, at the Waco, Texas, Second Baptist Church, sponsored by the Victory Club. On May 28, a granite marker was dedicated at Moore High School to honor Miller. On November 25, 1944, The Secretary of Navy announced that Miller was "presumed dead."

The Doris Miller Foundation was founded in 1947, to give an annual award to the individual or group considered outstanding in the field of race relations.
A monument dedicated to Miller is at the Waco Veterans Medical Center, Waco, Texas
Doris Miller Elementary School - located in San Antonio, Texas
Dorie Miller Elementary School - located in San Diego, California
Doris Miller Junior High School - located in San Marcos, Texas
Doris Miller Auditorium - located in Austin, TX
Doris Miller Post 915 - an American Legion post located in Chicago http://www.doriemiller915.org
Dorie Miller Chapter 14 - a Disabled American Veterans Chapter located in Washington, D.C.