He was the heavyweight boxing champion of the battleship West Virginia, and the official photo of the United States Navy attests that Doris Miller was a very solid fellow. But it was not for his fights in the ring that "Dorie", as his comrades called him, was chosen to give his name to one of the future aircraft carriers of the world's leading military power.
This third-class African American sailor is a national hero and his acts of bravery during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor justify this exceptional decision, Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly announced on Monday January 20 Martin Luther King Day. "By selecting this name, we are honoring the contributions of all those who joined yesterday and today, men and women, of all races, religions, and profiles"said Mr. Modly.
A son of Texas peasants
In 1941, the African American military was far from having the same rights as their white counterparts in the ranks. At that time, an authentic hero, the first black fighter pilot in American military history, Eugene Bullard, who had joined France in 1917 in the Lafayette squadron and had fought memorable fights, was ostensibly rejected by his army – he would only get official recognition posthumously in 1994, thanks to a black chief of staff, Colin Powell.
This fatal December 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor, Doris Miller took service at 6 o'clock. He works in the ship's laundry room when the alarm sounds, and heads to his combat post, the central anti-aircraft battery, to discover that it has just been destroyed by a torpedo. Then he is called to the bridge to evacuate the first wounded, including the commander of the USS West Virginia, fatally affected. "Dorie" then seizes a 50 mm cannon, a part on which he was not trained, but which he will empty of his ammunition against the Japanese attackers until receiving the order to evacuate the edge.
"I just pulled the trigger and the gun worked well. I must have had one of these Japanese planes, they were really biting near us. »Doris Miller
"It was not difficult, he commented later. I just pulled the trigger and the gun worked well. I had watched others use these cannons. I had to shoot for fifteen minutes. I must have had one of these Japanese planes, they were really biting near us. " Of the 1,541 sailors of the USS West Virginia, 130 will be killed and 52 injured.
