Waco native Dorie Miller, the third of four sons born to sharecroppers Connery and Henrietta Miller, speaks in January, 1943 at the Great Lakes Naval training facility in Chicago. He's appealing to folks to buy war bonds. Dorie is, of course, famed for his heroics during the attack on Pearl Harbor, for which he was awarded the Navy Cross, the third highest honor awarded by the U.S. Navy at the time, after the Medal of Honor and the Navy Distinguished Service Medal. You will recall that, during the attack, as his battleship, the USS West Virginia, was sinking, the powerfully built Miller, who was the ship's boxing champion, helped move his dying captain to better cover, then jumped behind a machine gun and shot at Japanese planes until his ammunition was gone. Dorie was a messman and, as an African American, wasn't supposed to fire a gun even. \"The sky seemed filled with diving planes and the black bursts of exploding anti-aircraft shells,\" Dorie said. \"I pulled the trigger and she worked fine. I had watched the others with these guns. I guess I fired her for about fifteen minutes. I think I got one of those Japanese planes. They were diving pretty close to us.\" Sadly, Dorie died about 10 months after this photo, when the USS Liscome Bay was sunk by Japanese torpedoes. A nine-foot-tall, 700-pound bronze sculpture was dedicated in Waco on December 7, 2017. The USS. Doris Miller, an aircraft carrier that is the most expensive ship ever built, will be launched in 2028.
Posted Dec 8, 2025, 3:43 AM UTC