Doris "Dorie" Miller (October 12, 1919November 24, 1943) was a U.S. Navy sailor who was the first Black recipient of the Navy Cross and a nominee for the Medal of Honor. As a mess attendant second class aboard the battleship , Miller helped carry wounded sailors to safety during the attack on Pearl Harbor. He then operated an anti-aircraft gun and, despite no prior training in gunnery, officially shot down one plane (according to Navy Department records), but Miller and other eyewitnesses claimed a range of four to six.
Miller received the Navy Cross from Admiral Chester Nimitz on May 27, 1942, but many sailors and naval officers believed that Miller's heroism deserved a Medal of Honor. Miller was nominated for a Medal of Honor by a congressman from Michigan and a senator from New York, and the Black press enthusiastically campaigned for Miller to receive this decoration. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, who opposed Black sailors serving the United States in any combat role, recommended against Miller receiving the Medal of Honor. No Black sailor, soldier, or Marine was awarded the Medal of Honor between 1941 and 1945, and in 1996 Vernon J. Baker was the only Black veteran of World War II to be awarded the decoration while still alive.
In June 1943, Miller was promoted to cook petty officer, third class. In November 1943, Miller was killed in action when his ship, the escort carrier , was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine during the Battle of Makin in the Gilbert Islands, with the loss of 702 officers and sailorsthe deadliest sinking of a carrier in the history of the United States Navy.
A Knox-class frigate, USS Miller (FF-1091) was named in Miller's honor prior to its commissioning on June 30, 1973.
On January 20, 2020, acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas B. Modly named a future the USS Doris Miller (CVN-81) in a naming ceremony at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It will be the first aircraft carrier named for an African American, and it will also be the first aircraft carrier named in honor of an American Sailor for actions while serving in the enlisted ranks. The ship is scheduled to be laid down in 2026 and launched in 2029. Early life and education Miller was born in Waco, Texas, on October 12, 1919, to Conery and Henrietta Miller. He was named Doris, as the midwife who assisted his mother was convinced before his birth that the baby would be a girl. He was the third of four sons and helped around the house, cooked meals and did laundry, as well as worked on the family farm. He was a fullback on the football team at Waco's Alexander James Moore High School. He began attending the eighth grade on January 25, 1937, at age 17; he repeated the grade the following year because of poor performance, so he decided to drop out of school. He filled his time squirrel hunting with a .22 rifle and completed a correspondence course in taxidermy. He applied to join the Civilian Conservation Corps but was not accepted. At that time, he was tall and weighed more than . Miller worked on his father's farm until shortly before his 20th birthday.
Miller's nickname "Dorie" may have originated from a typographical error. He was nominated for recognition for his actions on December 7, 1941, and the Pittsburgh Courier released a story on March 14, 1942, which gave his name as "Dorie Miller". Since then, some writers have suggested that it was a "nickname to shipmates and friends".
Naval career Miller enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a mess attendant third class at the Naval Recruiting Station in Dallas, Texas, for six years on September 16, 1939. Mess attendant was one of the few ratings open at the time to Black sailors. He was transferred to the Naval Training Center, Naval Operating Base, Norfolk, Virginia, arriving on September 19. After training school, he was assigned to the ammunition ship (AE-1) and then transferred on January 2, 1940, to the Colorado-class battleship West Virginia (BB-48). It was on West Virginia where he started competition boxing, becoming the ship's heavyweight champion. In July, he was on temporary duty aboard (BB-36) at Secondary Battery Gunnery School. He returned to West Virginia on August 3. He advanced in rating to mess attendant second class on February 16, 1941.
Attack on Pearl Harbor
Miller woke up at 6 a.m. on December 7, 1941, aboard West Virginia. He served breakfast mess and was collecting laundry at 7:57 a.m. when planes from the fired the first of seven torpedoes that hit West Virginia. The "battle stations" alarm went off; Miller headed for his battle station, an anti-aircraft battery magazine amidships, only to discover that a torpedo had destroyed it.
He then went to "Times Square" on deck, a central spot aboard the ship where the fore-to-aft and port-to-starboard passageways crossed, reporting himself available for other duty and was assigned to help carry wounded sailors to places of greater safety. Lieutenant Commander Doir C. Johnson, the ship's communications officer, spotted Miller and saw his physical prowess, so he ordered him to accompany him to the conning tower on the flag bridge to assist in moving the ship's captain, Mervyn Bennion, who had a gaping wound in his abdomen where he had apparently been hit by shrapnel after the first Japanese attack. Miller and another sailor lifted the skipper but were unable to remove him from the bridge, so they carried him on a cot from his exposed position on the damaged bridge to a sheltered spot on the deck behind the conning tower where he remained during the second Japanese attack. Captain Bennion refused to leave his post, questioned his officers and men about the condition of the ship, and gave orders and instructions to crew members to defend the ship and fight. Unable to go to the deck below because of smoke and flames, he was carried up a ladder to the navigation bridge, where he died from blood loss despite the aid from a pharmacist mate. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
Lieutenant Frederic H. White had ordered Miller to help him and Ensign Victor Delano load the unmanned number 1 and number 2 Browning .50 caliber anti-aircraft machine guns aft of the conning tower. Miller was not familiar with the weapon, but White and Delano instructed him on how to operate it. Delano expected Miller to feed ammunition to one machine gun, but his attention was diverted and, when he looked again, Miller was firing one of the machine guns. White then loaded ammunition into both machine guns and assigned Miller the starboard machine gun.
Miller fired the machine gun until he ran out of ammunition, whereupon he was ordered by Lieutenant Claude V. Ricketts to help carry the captain up to the navigation bridge out of the thick oily smoke generated by the many fires on and around the ship; Miller was officially credited with downing at least two hostile planes. "I think I got one of those Jap planes. They were diving pretty close to us," he said later. Japanese aircraft eventually dropped two armor-piercing bombs through the deck of the battleship and launched five 18-inch (460 mm) torpedoes into her port side. When the attack finally lessened, Miller helped move injured sailors through oil and water to the quarterdeck, thereby "unquestionably saving the lives of a number of people who might otherwise have been lost".
The ship was heavily damaged by bombs, torpedoes, and resulting explosions and fires, but the crew prevented her from capsizing by counter-flooding compartments. Instead, West Virginia sank to the harbor bottom in shallow water as her surviving crew abandoned ship, including Miller; the ship was later raised and restored for continued service in the war. On West Virginia, 132 men were killed and 52 were wounded from the Japanese attack. On December 13, Miller reported to the heavy cruiser (CA-35).
Commendation
On January 1, 1942, the Navy released a list of commendations for actions on December 7. Among them was a single commendation for an unnamed Black man. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had asked President Franklin D. Roosevelt to award the Distinguished Service Cross to the unknown Black sailor. The Navy Board of Awards received a recommendation that the sailor be considered for recognition. On March 12, an Associated Press story named the sailor as Dorie Miller, citing the African-American newspaper Pittsburgh Courier. Additional news reports credited Lawrence D. Reddick with learning the name through correspondence with the Navy Department, with these news reports giving the Double V campaign greater legitimacy and momentum. In the following days, Senator James M. Mead introduced a Senate bill [] to award Miller the Medal of Honor, (left column) S. 2392 and Representative John Dingell Sr. introduced a matching House bill []. (right column) H.R. 6800
Miller was regarded as one of the first U.S. heroes of World War II. He was commended in a letter signed by Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox on April 1, and the next day CBS Radio broadcast an episode of the series They Live Forever that dramatized Miller's actions. Black organizations began a campaign to honor Miller with additional recognition. On April 4, the Pittsburgh Courier urged readers to write to members of the congressional Naval Affairs Committee in support of awarding the Medal of Honor to Miller. The All-Southern Negro Youth Conference launched a signature campaign on April 17–19. On May 10, the National Negro Congress denounced Knox's recommendation against awarding Miller the Medal of Honor. On May 11 President Roosevelt approved the Navy Cross for Miller.
On May 27 Miller was one of nine officers and men personally recognized by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet, aboard the aircraft carrier (CV-6) at anchor in Pearl Harbor. Nimitz presented Miller with the Navy Cross and stated, "This marks the first time in this conflict that such high tribute has been made in the Pacific Fleet to a member of his race and I'm sure that the future will see others similarly honored for brave acts."
Later Medal of Honor efforts Efforts to award Miller the Medal of Honor have continued for decades. Members of Congress first called for Miller to receive the Medal of Honor in 1942, following public recognition of his actions during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Subsequent congressional efforts have sought reconsideration or authorization of a posthumous award, including legislation introduced in 2017 and 2025. In August 2026, ABC News reported that Miller was under consideration for an upgrade of his Navy Cross to the Medal of Honor and that, according to one source familiar with the discussions, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had sent a memorandum to Congress recommending the award. As of 1 September, 2026, no Medal of Honor had been formally announced.
Return to United States and the war
Miller advanced in rating to Mess Attendant First Class on June 1, 1942. On June 27 the Pittsburgh Courier called for him to be allowed to return home for a war bond tour along with white war heroes. On July 25 the Pittsburgh Courier ran a photo of Miller with the caption, "He Fought... Keeps Mop" next to a photo of a white survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack receiving an officer's commission. The photo caption stated that the Navy felt that Miller was "too important waiting tables in the Pacific" for him to return to the United States. On November 23 Miller returned to Pearl Harbor and was ordered on a war bond tour while still attached to the Indianapolis. In December 1942 and January 1943 he gave presentations in Oakland, California, in his hometown of Waco, in Dallas, and to the first graduating class of Black sailors from Great Lakes Naval Training Station.
Miller was featured on the 1943 U.S. Navy recruiting poster Above and Beyond the Call of Duty, designed by David Stone Martin.