THE ULTIMATE
The U.S. Navy is set to name an aircraft carrier after Doris 'Dorie' Miller, the African-American naval hero from the Second World War Pearl Harbor attacks.
Dorie Miller, served in the U.S. Navy during the period of segregation, and could only carry out basic messman duties - laundry, cleaning, and cooking. However, when Japan launched its World War Two raid on the U.S. Navy at anchor in its Pacific Base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, Dorie Miller aided wounded sailors of his ship the USS West Virginia, including removing the Captain to saftey. Then he took over an anti-aircraft machine gun, for which he hadn't been trained, and for 15 minutes open fired on the Japanese planes that were destroying the US Pacific fleet. He recalled later that he had seen other sailors training on the gun, and that when he tried to use it, it 'worked just fine'. Dorie continued his attack until the ammunition ran out, believing he had downed at least one of the attackers. The USS West Virginia, eventually sank with the loss of 100 men. Initially, Dorie Miller wasn't mentioned for his actions by name in a roll-call of the day's US heroes, but only as an unnamed black man. A newspaper eventually revealed Dorie Miller's name, and he was eventually awarded the US Navy's 'Navy Cross' by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, becoming one of the first US national heroes of the Second World War. Sadly, he did not survive the war, being killed when his ship was sunk in the 1943 Batlle of Makin. The official announcement to name the aircraft carrier after Doris 'Dorie' Miller, comes on this year's Martin Luther King jr. Day. See more via: https://www.npr.org/2020/01/19/797756016/u-s-navy-to-name-aircraft-carrier-after-wwii-hero-doris-miller https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-51168798
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