Doris Miller
U.S. Navy sailor, mess attendant, and the first Black recipient of the Navy Cross
Biography
Doris Miller (Waco, Texas, October 12, 1919 - Gilbert Islands, November 24, 1943) was a sailor in the United States Navy who worked as a mess attendant. He is best remembered for his conduct during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, which earned him the Navy Cross, the first ever given to a Black sailor. His story matters to the history of food and military life because the galley was one of the few ratings open to Black sailors in a navy still organized along strict racial lines.
Miller was born in Waco, Texas, to Conery and Henrietta Miller, who farmed cotton. He was the third of four sons. He was named Doris because the midwife who attended his mother was convinced the baby would be a girl. At home he helped with housework, cooked meals, did the laundry, and worked on the family farm. At Waco's Alexander James Moore High School he played fullback on the football team. His schooling was uneven: he repeated a grade because of poor results and eventually dropped out. He spent his free time hunting squirrels with a .22 rifle and completed a correspondence course in taxidermy. An application to the Civilian Conservation Corps was turned down. He kept working on his father's farm until shortly before his twentieth birthday, but he had set his heart on the sea.
In September 1939 he enlisted in the Navy at the recruiting station in Dallas for six years, as a mess attendant third class. Mess attendant was one of the few ratings then open to Black sailors. After basic training at Norfolk, Virginia, he was assigned to an ammunition ship and, in January 1940, to the battleship West Virginia. On board he began competitive boxing and became the ship's heavyweight champion. In February 1941 he advanced to mess attendant second class. His regular duties centered on serving meals and handling laundry, but he also loaded ammunition for an anti-aircraft gun on the port side, a task he had not been specifically trained for.
On the morning of December 7, 1941, he was collecting laundry at about 7:57 when torpedoes from the Japanese attack struck the ship. When the battle alarm sounded he went to his station, only to find that a torpedo had destroyed the magazine there. He reported to a central point on deck, offering to help wherever needed, and was assigned to carry wounded sailors to safer places. A communications officer who had noticed his strength took him to the conning tower, where he helped move Captain Mervyn Bennion, who had been badly wounded by shrapnel. Bennion refused to leave his post and died of blood loss; he was later awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously. Miller then helped load two unmanned Browning .50 caliber anti-aircraft machine guns. He had no experience with the weapon, but officers showed him how to fire it, and he kept shooting at the attacking aircraft until he ran out of ammunition. He was officially credited with downing at least two enemy planes, although the exact number was disputed from the start. Afterwards he returned to the task of helping injured men through smoke and oil to the quarterdeck.
News of his actions came slowly. In January 1942 the Navy published a list of commendations for December 7, and one of them went to an unnamed Black sailor. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People asked President Franklin D. Roosevelt to recognize him, and in March the Pittsburgh Courier printed his name, Dorie Miller. His case became a symbol of the Double V campaign, which called for victory over fascism abroad and over discrimination at home. Members of Congress introduced bills to award him the Medal of Honor. Navy Secretary Frank Knox, who opposed Black sailors serving in combat roles, recommended against that honor. On May 27, 1942, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz presented him with the Navy Cross aboard the carrier Enterprise at Pearl Harbor. Nimitz said it was the first time such a high honor had been given in the Pacific Fleet to a man of his race, and he expressed the hope that others would follow.
After the attack Miller was assigned to the heavy cruiser Indianapolis and was promoted to mess attendant first class in 1942. For part of that year he toured the country to promote war bonds, with appearances in Oakland, in his hometown of Waco, in Dallas, and at the Great Lakes training station, where he spoke to the first graduating class of Black sailors. He also appeared on a 1943 Navy recruiting poster. In May 1943 he was transferred to the newly built escort carrier Liscome Bay and in June he was promoted to cook third class. The ship took part in the Gilbert Islands campaign. On November 24, 1943, near Butaritari, a torpedo from the Japanese submarine I-175 struck her. Her own torpedoes and bombs exploded, and she sank in about twenty-three minutes. Of roughly nine hundred crew members, a little over two hundred seventy survived. Miller was listed among the missing, and his family was told he was missing in action. The Navy declared him dead in November 1944. Among the many Thanksgiving turkeys that the galley crew had brought from Pearl Harbor, the ship's cooks were preparing for the holiday when the attack came.
His legacy has several strands. A Knox-class frigate, the USS Miller, was named for him in 1973, and in 2020 the acting Navy Secretary announced that a future carrier, the USS Doris Miller (CVN-81), would bear his name. In August 2026 reports said the Navy was considering a different name for that carrier and honoring Miller with another warship, although no decision had been made by the time of the reports. His story has also reached the screen, with Elven Havard in Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) and Cuba Gooding Jr. in Pearl Harbor (2001). There is a bronze statue in Waco and many schools, community centers, and military facilities named after him. The campaign to award him the Medal of Honor has continued for decades, with new legislation in 2017 and 2025. Reports in August 2026 said that an upgrade of his Navy Cross to the Medal of Honor was under consideration, but as of September 1, 2026, no such award had been formally announced.
Key contributions
- His actions aboard the West Virginia on December 7, 1941, which earned him the Navy Cross, the first given to a Black sailor.
- His place in the debate over racial discrimination in the Navy during World War II, which gave momentum to the Double V campaign.
- His progress from mess attendant to cook third class, a path that shows both the limits and the openings available to Black sailors of his time.
- The naming of the carrier CVN-81 after him, announced in 2020, along with the memorials that have followed in schools, military installations, and public spaces.