Navy to name new aircraft carrier after Pearl Harbor hero Doris Miller

The U.S. Navy will name its fourth Ford-class aircraft carrier after Doris Miller, an iconic World War II sailor recognized for his heroism during the Pearl Harbor attack, according to reports in The Honolulu Star-Advertiser and U.S. Naval Institute News.

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly is expected to announce the naming of CVN-81 during a ceremony on Monday in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, according to USNI. Two of Miller's nieces are expected to be there, according to the Star-Advertiser.

The Navy did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Task & Purpose.

Miller joined the Navy in 1939 and was trained as a mess attendant, one of a handful of jobs open to African-Americans in a then-segregated military. On Dec. 7, 1941, during the attack on Pearl Harbor, Miller helped to move the mortally wounded captain of his ship to safety and then manned an anti-aircraft machine gun and fired at attacking Japanese planes until he ran out of ammunition, according to his citation for the Navy Cross.

"It wasn't hard. I just pulled the trigger and she worked fine," Miller, who had no training on the gun, later recalled. "I had watched the others with these guns. I guess I fired her for about fifteen minutes. I think I got one of those Jap planes. They were diving pretty close to us."


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