Texana Thursday: Remembering a Pearl Harbor Hero from Texas

Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz awards Dorie Miller the Navy Cross (U.S. Navy photograph)

This week Americans remember the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It’s a good time to remember the story of a Texan who was cited for his bravery in fighting back on that infamous day.

His name was Doris “Dorie” Miller. Born and raised in Waco, he was a 22-year-old ship’s cook, third class, aboard USS West Virginia. The ship was one of eight battleships moored on the east end of Ford Island, which sat in the middle of Pearl Harbor.

Early in the morning on December 7, 1941, Miller was collecting laundry when the call sounded for battle stations. He went to his station, an antiaircraft battery magazine amidships. A torpedo had destroyed it, so he went on deck. A physically strong man—he was the ship’s heavyweight boxing champion—he helped carry some of his fellow sailors, who were wounded, to places of greater safety.

Miller received the Navy Cross for his later actions, which the citation described in more detail.

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.

A fellow Texan, Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, personally presented the award to Miller.

Explosions from bombs and torpedoes, along with flooding below decks, caused the West Virginia to sink. The ship was eventually refloated, repaired, and modernized. It served in the latter stages of the war.

Miller would go on to serve aboard USS Indianapolis, a cruiser. Later he served aboard USS Liscome Bay, an escort aircraft carrier. The ship was sunk during the Battle of Makin Island in November 1943. Miller went missing, and was presumed lost in action.

Americans rightly remember Pearl Harbor, and the actions of sailors such as Miller. Many schools and other facilities were named in his honor. The actor Cuba Gooding Jr. portrayed Miller in the 2001 movie Pearl Harbor. Efforts continue to persuade the Navy to award Miller the Medal of Honor.