Navy names aircraft carrier in honor of a courageous Black sailor

27th January 2020   ·   0 Comments

(BlackmansStreet.Today) — The U.S. Navy named earlier this month a future aircraft carrier the USS Doris Miller in honor of the African-American World War 2 hero.

The USS Doris Miller will be the first aircraft carrier named for an enlisted sailor and the first named in honor of an African American.

The Doris Miller will be a Gerald R. Ford class ship, which is the biggest aircraft carrier in the world. It is 1,106 feet long and 39 feet wide. It carries a crew of 2,600 sailors, 500 officers and more than 75 aircraft.

The Navy named the aircraft carrier in honor of Miller during a ceremony on Dr. Martin Luther King Day in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, for his fearless heroism during the battle of Pearl Harbor in World War 2.

Admiral Chester Nimitz Sr., Fleet Admiral of the United States Navy, pinned the Navy Cross, the second highest decoration in the U.S. military, on Miller during a ceremony on May 23, 1942, aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

It was during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that Miller, who was a Navy mess attendant aboard the USS West Virginia became a hero. A mess attendant serves food to the officers. It was one of the few jobs opened to Blacks in the Navy at the time.

On December 7, 1941, “A day which will live in infamy,” as President Franklin Roosevelt described it, the Japanese in a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, unleashed 200 planes firing torpedoes and dropping bombs on the battleships moored in the harbor.

When the attack occurred, Miller was below deck on the Battleship USS West Virginia. He was ordered to the bridge to help the wounded.

Through bullets, blood, shrapnel, the screams of wounded sailors and over the bodies of dead ones, Miller dragged wounded men to whatever safety there was. Miller carried the ship’s mortally wounded captain to safety.

He then loaded and fired an anti-aircraft machine gun at the incoming planes. Miller believes he may have hit as many as four planes but that was never confirmed.

What he did was amazing. African Americans in the segregated military were not trained to operate the guns. Miller, however, watched white sailors fire the guns and did it easily.

The abandon ship order was sounded, but he stayed behind to save the lives of sailors screaming for help in the burning sea.

Seven torpedoes and two bombs struck the USS West Virginia, which was moored in Pearl Harbor’s battleship row. It sank from its berth and later had to be refloated. Following temporary repairs, the West Virginia was sent to the Puget Sound Navy Yard in May 1943 for a large-scale modernization program.

Miller was later stationed on the USS Liscome Bay, an escort ship. The Liscome Bay was struck by a Japanese torpedo in the Gilbert Islands. The torpedo sank the ship on November 24, 1943. Miller’s body was never recovered.

On June 30, 1973, the Navy commissioned USS Miller, a Destroyer Escort, in his honor. It was sold for scrap in 1975.

Miller grew up on a family farm in Waco, Texas. He joined the Navy as a mess attendant in 1939.

This article originally published in the January 27, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.