Dorie Miller received the Navy Cross for his actions aboard USS West Virginia at Pearl Harbor.
Miller was serving as a mess attendant aboard West Virginia when Japanese aircraft attacked. After the ship’s captain was mortally wounded, Miller helped move him and then assisted with the ship’s defense. Miller operated an anti-aircraft machine gun, despite having no formal training as a gunner.
His courage became widely reported in the United States. In 1942, he received the Navy Cross, making him the first African American recipient of that decoration. The award recognized his bravery under fire and helped challenge racial assumptions about the roles available to Black sailors in the U.S. Navy.
The name Dorie is sometimes treated as his given name, but he was born Doris Miller. He later served aboard the escort carrier Liscome Bay, which was sunk in the Pacific in 1943. Miller did not survive that sinking.