On this day in 1942, Mess Attendant 2nd Class Doris Miller receives the Navy Cross for his heroism at Pearl Harbor. On 07 Dec 1941, during the attack, Miller manned anti-aircraft guns (despite having no formal training) and assisted with attending to the wounded.
Adm. Chester W. Nimitz personally presented the medal to Miller on board USS Enterprise (CV 6). The Citation read as follows:
"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."
Miller would later be killed when his ship, the USS Liscome Bay (CVE-56), was torpedoed during the invasion of the Gilbert Islands on 24 Nov 1943.
Dorie Miller was one of my inspirations for joining the navy... Long before I knew his whole story
"All gave some, and some gave all"
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