NPR: “A supercarrier now on the drawing boards will be christened the USS Doris Miller. It’s the first to be named for an enlisted sailor, and the first to be named after an African American. Most supercarriers are named for U.S. presidents — the USS John F. Kennedy. USS Ronald Reagan. USS Abraham Lincoln. Henry Kissinger called them ‘100,000 tons of diplomacy’ and that power has long been reflected in the Navy’s conventions for naming them. Doris Miller, who went by ‘Dorie’ in the Navy, was one of the first American heroes of World War II.”
“During the attack on Pearl Harbor, as his battleship, the USS West Virginia, was sinking, the powerfully-built Miller, who was the ship’s boxing champion, helped move his dying captain to better cover, then jumped behind a machine gun and shot at Japanese planes until his ammunition was gone. As a Black sailor in 1941, he wasn’t supposed to even fire a gun. This means that when he reached for that weapon, he was taking on two enemies: The Japanese fliers and the pervasive discrimination in his own country.”