Miller, Dorie (1919-43) sailor, African-American hero of World War II, recipient of the Navy Cross (1942), born Doris Miller in Waco, Texas. A mess attendant aboard the West Virginia during the attack on Pearl Harbor (1941), Miller, despite strafing and enemy fire, carried the ship's mortally wounded captain to a safer place and then, though untrained, manned one of the guns until ordered to abandon the burning bridge. In the segregated services of that era, his actions went without official public recognition until demands from the black community reached President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who personally ordered the awarding of the Navy Cross. Miller, who had joined the navy in 1939, was lost when the escort carrier Liscome Bay sank during the battle for Makin. Repeated efforts to award him the Medal of Honor have been unsuccessful.

The Service School Command barracks at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois, were named in Miller's honor, and in 1973 his mother christened the USS Miller, a destroyer escort.

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