Pearl Harbor: The Cook who Took up a Machine Gun and put it to Good Use

Texan Doris “Dorie” Miller did not let the fact that he wasn’t trained on a machine gun stop him when he saw Japanese aircraft come in low over Pearl Harbor.

Born in Waco, Texas, Miller volunteered for the Navy in 1939, “to travel, and earn money for his family.” With career fields limited due to segregation, he was a mess specialist assigned to the mighty battleship USS West Virginia, part of the Pacific Fleet.

On the morning of Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, West Virginia was moored at a berth along Pearl Harbor’s Battleship Row. Shortly after 8 a.m., although the two countries were at peace, waves of Japanese carrier-borne aircraft swooped in over Oahu and within minutes of the first wave, Miller’s ship was hit by at least six torpedoes and two bombs, sparking fires that would last 30 hours, leave the ship on the bottom of the harbor, and at least 106 members of her crew dead.

Miller, a former high school athlete recognized as a powerful man, during the attack was assigned to carry wounded members of the crew to safety and was later ordered to the ship’s bridge to help the West Virginia’s injured skipper, who died.

The cook, who had not been trained to use the gun, then manned one of the ship’s nine water-cooled .50 caliber Browning anti-aircraft machine guns until it ran dry and he was ordered to abandon ship.