(Note: The article lead is wrong, CVN-81 is the fourth, not third Ford-class carrier.)
CVN-81, the fourth Ford-class aircraft carrier is to officially be named the USS Doris Miller on Monday.
Doris Miller was a Messman Third Class (essentially a cook) on the USS West Virginia (BB-48) during the attack on Pearl Harbor. In the face of enemy fire he moved his mortally wounded Captain and several others to a place of greater safety, then manned a machine gun post until his ammunition ran out. For his actions, he received the Navy Cross. He was killed in 1943 when his ship the USS Liscome Bay (CVE-56) was sunk by a torpedo from a Japanese submarine.
This will be the second ship named for him. The USS Miller (FF-1091) was a Knox-class destroyer escort (later Knox-class frigate) that served from 1973 to 1991.
Not entirely certain, but I believe CVN-81 will be the first capital ship named for a black man.
This is a great move and an excellent choice for the ship’s name. Black male heroes like this, need to be publicized so that they are the role models for our youth to look up to and take pride in themselves and their race.
Doris Miller was a Messman Third Class (essentially a cook) on the USS West Virginia (BB-48) during the attack on Pearl Harbor. In the face of enemy fire he moved his mortally wounded Captain and several others to a place of greater safety, then manned a machine gun post until his ammunition ran out. For his actions, he received the Navy Cross. He was killed in 1943 when his ship the USS Liscome Bay (CVE-56) was sunk by a torpedo from a Japanese submarine.
Played I believe by Cuba Gooding Jr, perhaps an even greater and more lasting honor.
I don’t know much else about the man but CGJr has put himself “out there” as an actor playing some previously unsung black heroes of WWII.
Both are well deserved honors, I hope his family understands the gravity of this honor.
Miller was a hero of mine growing up. His story is one of my favorites out of World War II.
Doris Miller, Richard Winters, and Eugene Sledge are my top three from World War II.
Sledge’s book “With the Old Breed” is one of the best accounts of a soldier in combat I have ever read. It heavily impacted my views. I never served so I can never understand what men and women who have go through, but With the Old Breed gets a civilian as close as they can get to seeing what it is like.
He wrote most of what would become the book in the blank pages of his bible while he was serving on Peleliu and Okinawa.
Millions of Americans that would have never had a clue as to who he was or his story learned it watching that movie and will continue to for decades to come every time it is replayed.
Damned few people ever put five minutes into learning the stories behind the people our ships are named for.
Facts are facts, tens of millions of people watched it and continue to do so on cable and will continue doing so for decades into the future, people who largely would never know the man’s name or his story much less why he had the honor of having a capital ship named in his honor.
The movie cleared almost half a billion at the box office alone plus hundreds of millions of viewers who have seen it on DVD and cable.
