Doris Miller
(October 12, 1919 – November 24, 1943)
Doris was a United States Navy cook second class who was killed in action during World War II He was the first Black American to be awarded the Navy Cross, the highest decoration for valor presented by the U.S. Navy.
Miller served aboard the battleship West Virginia, which was sunk by Japanese torpedo bombers during the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. During the attack, he helped several sailors who were wounded, and while manning an anti-aircraft machine gun for which he had no training, he shot down 4–6 Japanese planes. Miller’s actions earned him the medal, and the resulting publicity for Miller in the Black press made him an iconic emblem of the fight for civil rights for Black Americans. In November 1943, Miller was killed while serving aboard the escort carrier Liscome Bay when it was sunk by a Japanese submarine during the Battle of Makin in the Gilbert Islands.
The destroyer escort/Knox-class frigate USS Miller (reclassified as a frigate in June 1975), in service from 1973 to 1991, was named after him. On January 19, 2020, the Navy announced that a Gerald R. Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, CVN-81, would be named after Miller.The ship is scheduled to be laid down in 2026 and launched in 2029