A Military 1st: A Supercarrier Is Named After An African American Sailor

[Moon]

“The Navy, meanwhile, has quietly charted a new course. A supercarrier now on the drawing boards will be christened the USS Doris Miller.

It's the first supercarrier to be named for an enlisted sailor and the first to be named after an African American.

...

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.

...

But Akers said what Miller did afterward is just as important: He began pulling injured sailors out of the burning, oil-covered water of the harbor, and was one of the last men to leave his ship as it sank, and continued getting sailors to safety afterward.”

A Military 1st: A Supercarrier Is Named After An African American Sailor

USS Doris Miller will honor a Black Pearl Harbor hero and key figure in the rise of the civil rights movement. Miller, a sharecropper's son from Waco, Texas, was 22 years old when he created history.

www.npr.org

This is very cool. There are times when tradition needs to be broken, and I think this is a fitting honor for Dorie Miller.

 

[swing_voter]

He was an interesting guy.

Blacks weren't allowed near weapons during that era, but when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, he ran out and manned a machine gun.

Later he pulled sailors from the water which was on fire.

 

[Glitch]

What is the Navy's policy with regard to naming aircraft carriers?

I know the Navy names their battleships after States. For awhile they used the names of Presidents, but that was not always the case. I looked at a list all of the US Navy aircraft carrier names and they appear to be all over the place, with no theme or standard. Most appear to be named after military engagements, both land and sea. I have no problem with any of the names, but they should consider picking a naming convention and stick with it, like they did with battleships.

A complete list of US Navy aircraft carriers, in the order of their commissioning date:

• Doris Miller
• Enterprise (Gerald R. Ford Class)
• John F. Kennedy (Gerald R. Ford Class)
• Gerald R. Ford
• George H.W. Bush
• Ronald Reagan
• Harry S. Truman
• John C. Stennis
• George Washington
• Abraham Lincoln
• Theodore Roosevelt
• Carl Vinson
• Dwight D. Eisenhower
• Nimitz
• John F. Kennedy (Kitty Hawk Class)
• America
• Enterprise (Enterprise Class)
• Constellation
• Kitty Hawk
• Independence (Forrestal Class)
• Ranger
• Saratoga (Lexington Class)
• Forrestal
• Wright
• Saipan
• Philippine Sea
• Iwo Jima
• Valley Forge
• Coral Sea
• Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Midway
• Tarawa
• Lake Champlain
• Shangri-la
• Princeton
• Antietam
• Reprisal
• Oriskany
• Kearsarge
• Leyte
• Bon Homme Richard
• San Jacinto
• Bataan
• Cabot
• Langley (Independence Class)
• Monterey
• Cowpens
• Belleau Wood
• Princeton
• Independence (Independence Class)
• Boxer
• Bennington
• Hancock
• Wasp (Essex Class)
• Bunker Hill
• Lexington (Essex Class)
• Randolph
• Ticonderoga
• Franklin
• Hornet (Essex Class)
• Intrepid
• Yorktown (Essex Class)
• Essex
• Hornet (Yorktown Class)
• Wasp (Wasp Class)
• Enterprise (Yorktown Class)
• Yorktown (Yorktown Class)
• Ranger
• Saratoga
• Lexington (Lexington Class)
• Langley (Langley Class)

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

He was an interesting guy.

Blacks weren't allowed near weapons during that era, but when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, he ran out and manned a machine gun.

Later he pulled sailors from the water which was on fire.

And swallowed a significant amount of fuel in the process.
Quite a few sailors who rescued others wound up ingesting gasoline, diesel and all kinds of solvents and got very sick.

 

[RetiredUSN]

Finally, a fitting way to honor Doris Miller.

He deserves better than a "tin can"