Remember Dec 7, 1941
- Thread starter BgJag
- Start date
M
Makaho Bedrock
Guest
What a lot of people dont realize that a Black man received the Navy Cross for his valor on that day....It's late and his name escapes me. He was a cook, and all the other sailors on that portion of the deck died and he manned an antiaircraft machine gun and shot down 4 Japanese aircraft.
BgJag
Jaguar Nation
WW II first hero
Dorie Miller a Waco, Texas native received the Navy Cross (2nd highest award) for removing his mortally wounded Captain to safety and manning a machine gun on the deck of the sinking ship and fired with deadly accuracy at the attacking Japanese aircraft.
He and 644 of his shipmates were lost at sea in the Gilbert Islands on Thanksgiving Day in 1943 when their vessel was sunk by a Japanese torpedoe. A destoryer escort (Naval ship) is named in his honor.
Dorie Miller a Waco, Texas native received the Navy Cross (2nd highest award) for removing his mortally wounded Captain to safety and manning a machine gun on the deck of the sinking ship and fired with deadly accuracy at the attacking Japanese aircraft.
He and 644 of his shipmates were lost at sea in the Gilbert Islands on Thanksgiving Day in 1943 when their vessel was sunk by a Japanese torpedoe. A destoryer escort (Naval ship) is named in his honor.
BgJag
Jaguar Nation
NAVY CROSS MEDAL
TO
MESS ATTENDANT SECOND CLASS DORIS MILLER
UNITED STATES NAVY
for services as set forth in the following:
CITATION: "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."
On 11 Oct 91 Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority dedicated a bronze commemorative plague of Miller at the Miller Family Park located on the U.S. Naval Base, Pearl Harbor.
BgJag
Jaguar Nation
USS Miller
USS Miller (DE-1091; later FF-1091), 1973-199_
USS Miller, a 3963-ton Knox class escort ship, was built at Westwego, Louisiana. Commissioned in June 1973, her active service was performed with the Atlantic Fleet, including deployments to the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, the Persian Gulf and the Black Sea. In July 1975, she was reclassified as a frigate and designated FF-1091. Miller transferred to the Naval Reserve Force in January 1982, and thereafter was employed in the western Atlantic and Caribbean areas. She decommissioned in October 1991 and was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in 1995. She is currently being retained for eventual sale to a foreign navy.
USS Miller (DE-1091; later FF-1091), 1973-199_
USS Miller, a 3963-ton Knox class escort ship, was built at Westwego, Louisiana. Commissioned in June 1973, her active service was performed with the Atlantic Fleet, including deployments to the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, the Persian Gulf and the Black Sea. In July 1975, she was reclassified as a frigate and designated FF-1091. Miller transferred to the Naval Reserve Force in January 1982, and thereafter was employed in the western Atlantic and Caribbean areas. She decommissioned in October 1991 and was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in 1995. She is currently being retained for eventual sale to a foreign navy.
Stormy
extradinaire d'auteur
Re: WW II first hero
Perhaps the coolest part of all of this....is that the brother was never allowed to touch a weapon during his entire prior naval experience. In the grand black tradition he taught himself how to use the gun....when it was vital that he knew how. The navy did not allow "negoes" to use weapons for fear that they would turn the weapons on the Navy at large. However on that day a negro took down at least one Japanese plane.
Perhaps the coolest part of all of this....is that the brother was never allowed to touch a weapon during his entire prior naval experience. In the grand black tradition he taught himself how to use the gun....when it was vital that he knew how. The navy did not allow "negoes" to use weapons for fear that they would turn the weapons on the Navy at large. However on that day a negro took down at least one Japanese plane.