Doris Miller

Doris (Dorie) Miller was reared on a farm in McClennan County, Texas, and attended Waco’s A.J. Moore High School before enlisting in the U.S. Navy and being assigned to the battleship USS West Virginia in 1940. When West Virginia was docked at Pearl Harbor and struck by a Japanese torpedo on December 7, 1941, an explosion on a nearby ship showered its deck with burning debris and flaming oil. Miller helped move his wounded captain to safety, then crossed the flame-swept deck and took over a machine gun position. Though never trained as an aerial gunner, he shot down four enemy aircraft. For his extraordinary skill and bravery in defending his ship, he became the first African American to receive the Navy Cross, which fellow Texan Admiral Chester Nimitz awarded on May 7, 1942. Miller died in 1943 when his ship, USS Liscombe Bay, was torpedoed. Posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and honored nationwide by associations, cemeteries, parks, naval bases, and other organizations, he is also credited with helping break down the color barrier in the Navy; the destroyer USS Miller was named in his honor in 1973.

Waco, Texas · United States