Doris "Dorie" Miller, Hero of Pearl Harbor, was born on 12 Oct 1919 in Waco, Texas, United States. His parents were Conery Miller, who was a farmer and Henrietta Murray.
He was a large man and had played high school football.
Dorie was a cook aboard the battleship USS West Virginia when it was struck by Japanese bombers in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He helped take the wounded men below deck. Then Dorie did not hesitate to defend the ship by grabbing a machine gun.
His actions awarded him the Navy Cross, which was presented to him by Adm. Chester Nimitz, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. He was the first African American to be so awarded.
His citation reads: "For distinguished devotion to duty, extraordinary courage and disregard for his own personal safety during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, by Japanese forces 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 a 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 directed at enemy Japanese attacking aircraft until ordered to leave the bridge."
Dorie Miller did not live past the war. He died on November 24, 1943 aboard the USS Liscome Bay (CVE-56), an escort carrier, at sea during the Battle of Makin in World War II.
Memorial: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9955928/doris-miller
"MY COUSIN'S A SUPERHERO! Kids Tell TRUE STORY of DORIE MILLER: WWII HERO | Kidsplaining™️ | Ancestry." Ancestry (channel). 22 May 2021.
