| Birth: | Oct. 12, 1919
Waco
McLennan County
Texas, USA | | Death: | Nov. 24, 1943 | 
World War II hero. The first African-American to receive the Navy Cross, awarded for his heroism during the attack on Pearl Harbor. A fullback on his high school football team, he enlisted September 16, 1939 to travel and earn money for his family. He was trained as a mess attendant at the Naval Training Station, Norfolk, Virginia, and was serving aboard the USS West Virginia when the Japanese attacked. His Navy Cross citation reads, "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." He was later assigned to the newly constructed USS Liscome Bay and was on board during the seizure of Makin and Tarawa Atolls in the Gilbert Islands. On November 24, 1943, a single torpedo struck and sunk the carrier, killing 646 of the 918 personnel on board; Miller was among those whose bodies were never recovered. In his honor, the USS Miller, a Knox-class frigate, was commissioned on June 30, 1973. (bio by: Thom Painter)
Search Amazon for Doris Miller | | | Burial:
Honolulu Memorial
*
Honolulu
Honolulu County
Hawaii, USA
Plot: Tablets of the Missing
*Cenotaph [?] |
Maintained by: Find A Grave
Record added: Nov 25, 2004
Find A Grave Memorial# 9955928 |
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