Navy to name newest aircraft carrier after Navy Cross recipient Doris Miller

The video tells the whole story, but just as a precursor to that, the incomparable Carl Prine of Navy Times has a good story up:

During an emotional Monday ceremony in Pearl Harbor, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly honored the legacy of World War II hero Doris Miller by bestowing his name on a future aircraft carrier.

It marks the first time a flattop has paid homage to an African American ― a Navy Cross recipient and an enlisted service member ― and it was decreed on a day set aside to remember the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his lifelong crusade to end racial discrimination across the United States.

With the USS Arizona Memorial his backdrop, Modly sketched how Miller rose to battle on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, a mess attendant in a racially segregated rating that made African American men servants to white officers.

Instead of collecting the morning’s laundry, Miller carried wounded shipmates from the blazing battleship West Virginia after it was hit by enemy fire. He fought the flames as they erupted on the vessel and then manned a .50 caliber machine gun — a weapon he never had operated previously — to swat away Japanese planes during the ongoing surprise attack that launched the United States into World War II.

His ammo spent and ordered to abandon ship, he was one of the last three sailors to escape the West Virginia.

But the video does the story more justice I think because it shows Dorie (or Doris) and the times he lived in.

According to Wikipedia, we have at least 3 American Legion posts named for him:

• Dorie Miller Post 546 – American Legion post in Racine, Wisconsin
• Dorie Miller Post 915 – American Legion post in Chicago
• Dorie E. Miller Post 817 – American Legion post in Beaumont, Texas

Glad a future generation of sailors will be proud to have served on the carrier.  A well deserved honor.