Doris "Dorie" Miller. His friends called him Dorie. Born in Waco, Texas in
1919 he worked on his fathers farm and joined the Navy in 1939. He wanted to travel and earn some money for
his parents, Henrietta and Conery Miller.
But how did he get the first name of Doris? I don't know. Could it be that his father gave him that
first name so he would group up tough to take on life's challenges? We all remember that Johnny Cash song about
A Boy Named Sue.
There were probably a lot
of truisms in the lyrics of that song.
And Dorie did grow up tough and strong. He was a fullback on the football team while
attending Moore High
School in Waco,
Texas.
When he joined the Navy in
1939 he was a mess attendant and assigned to the ammunition ship USS Pyro.
Now it is bad enough being
assigned to an ammunition ship, but the ships name Pyro is the Greek word for
fire. And the last thing that you want
on a ship loaded full of ammunition is fire.
I would have found it very unnerving.
Interestingly, the ship made it through the war without incident.
On January 2, 1940 he was
transferred to the Battleship USS West
Virginia.
He was the heavyweight
boxing champion on board the USS West Virginia.
Being the champion meant that he
was the toughest sailor on board. Cuba Gooding, Jr. portrayed Dorie Miller in
the movie Pearl Harbor as the heavyweight
boxing champ on board the ship.
Just like Steven Segal in
the movie Under Siege, he was one tough mess attendant.
Steven Segal was a cook
aboard the USS Missouri in that movie.
But a tough cook, much
like Dorie Miller.
One big difference, Steven
Segal was an actor in a movie but Dorie Miller was a real life hero.
In the picture at the very
beginning of this blog, that medal on the chest of Dorie Miller is the Navy
Cross, a very high honor awarded for heroism in battle.
And it was presented to
Dorie by none other than Admiral Nimitz himself in a ceremony held on board the
USS Enterprise.
And Admiral Nimitz himself
personally pinned the Navy Cross onto Dorie Miller's uniform. Another high honor.
There is only one medal
higher than the Navy Cross and that is the Congressional Medal of Honor. But why would the Navy Cross be presented to
Dorie Miller for heroism? What did he
do? Here is the answer. He was a mess attendant on board the
battleship USS West Virginia and it was at anchor in Pearl Harbor (yeah, you
know what's coming).
It was December 7,
1941. Not the place to be. Dorie arose at 6:00 am and began gathering
the laundry. The alarm for General
Quarters sounded. Dorie Miller
responded to his battle station which was the anti-aircraft ammunition storage
room. The room had been destroyed by a torpedo and
so Dorie proceeded to the deck. There
were wounded sailors and he started carrying them to safety. He was then ordered by an officer to go to
the bridge and aid the mortally wounded Captain Bennion, Captain of the ship.
Captain Bennion
Once Captain Bennion was
in a safe area and being tended to, Dorie returned to the deck and manned a 50
caliber Browning anti-aircraft machine gun.
Portrayed here by Cuba Gooding, Jr. in a scene from the movie Pearl Harbor.
Dorie did shoot down a
Japanese plane. Again Dorie Miller is
portrayed by Cuba Gooding, Jr. in the movie Pearl Harbor.
Dorie fired the machine
guns for about 15 minutes until he ran out of ammunition.
After having two armor
piercing bombs penetrate through the deck and after being hit by five 18-inch
aircraft torpedos, the USS West Virginia was sinking and the crew was ordered
to abandon ship. Once again, Cuba
Gooding, Jr. portraying Dorie Miller.
The USS West Virginia sunk
until her deck was even with the water.
The great battleship had settled onto the bottom of Pearl
Harbor.
His ship was sunk and so
the USS West Virginia did not need a mess attendant and Dorie was a hero for
his courage under fire. His image was
put on recruiting posters.
He gave speeches like the
one here at the Naval Training Station in Great Lakes, Illinois.
Dorie Miller was
transferred to the cruiser USS Indianapolis on December 13, 1941.
We all remember the USS
Indianapolis was the ship that carried the uranium core to Tinian island for the
atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. And then on the return trip the USS Indianapolis
was sunk on July 30, 1945 by a Japanese submarine with a terrible loss of life.
But Dorie had already been
transferred during the spring of 1943 to the aircraft carrier USS Liscome Bay.
On November 24, 1943 at
5:10 am the USS Liscome Bay was torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-175. Minutes later the room where the bombs for
the planes were stored exploded.
Minutes later the aircraft carrier sank. Of the 916 crewmen on board the carrier, 644
died, including Dorrie Miller. Only 272
men survived.
To honor Doris Dorrie
Miller a frigate was commissioned as the USS Miller.
The post office issued a
postage stamp on February 4, 2010 honoring Doris Miller.
But a very nice honor was
afforded by a reenactor who portrayed Doris Dorrie Miller. A really nice gesture. This was at the National Archives 2007
Fourth of July celebration. The woman
was portraying Rosie the Riveter.
It is good to remember
those who have given so much and not
let their memory fade away. There is
much more about Dorrie Miller and so please do an internet search on Doris
Miller and read the whole story in detail about Dorrie. Have a good day. Lew
