Courage of a King and a Miller

by Bill Doughty

For this first post of 2020, here's a brief look at one of the Navy core values: Courage. This insight comes from an essay by Philip J. Ivanhoe published in Barbara Darling-Smith's "Courage" (University of Notre Dame Press, 2002).

East and West meet in Ivanhoe's discussion of "The Virtue of Courage in the Mencius," comparing Aristotle and Confucian disciple Mengzi and their concepts of fear and courage.

Doris "Dorie" Miller, awarded the Navy Cross by Adm. Nimitz for his courage at Pearl Harbor.

"Aristotle describes courage as a blend of controlling fear and being properly inspired to act," Ivanhoe writes. "He insists that a courageous person must to some degree feel fear and that controlling this feeling is part of what constitutes courage."

Similarly, Mengzi believed that true courage, or "great courage" comes from overcoming fear through a strong base of personal ethics – core values. 

Ivanhoe says "The truly courageous person must rationally assess the danger to be faced and deliberate about how to struggle against it to best realize the good for himself and others."

The virtues of an enlisted Sailor who assessed danger in the attack on Pearl Harbor and took matters into his own hands aboard USS West Virginia (BB 48). His heroism is remembered today as the Navy names a future aircraft carrier USS Doris Miller (CVN 84). Doris "Dorie" Miller was killed at sea during World War II.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. monument, Washington D.C. (NPS)

After the war, Dorie Miller was a key influence to Americans who showed courage during the fight for Civil Rights Movement, a movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Examples of courage are not restricted to the battlefield.

"...If we conceive of courage as that excellent trait of character that enables people to pursue the good through the difficult and dangerous, then there is nothing inherent in such a conception that would restrict it to cases of combat. A firefighter who puts himself in danger to rescue a child from a burning building and a worker [whistleblower] who risks her livelihood or life fighting corporate greed in order to better the lives of her fellow workers are equally displaying courage in this sense. This broader conception of courage would also enable us to appreciate more fully cases where courage is manifested as an ability to persevere in the face of adversity rather than erupting in episodic bursts of action. The person who carries on in good cheer while suffering from a debilitating medical condition, and the prisoner of war or conscience who endures prolonged physical and psychological abuse and yet remains steadfast in his cause, require a broader and more nuanced conception of courage. One of the most profound and remarkable manifestations of courage is found in the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr. For he risked and sacrificed everything in his remarkably patient, lifelong pursuit of the good. His example shows how far removed the concept of courage as a virtue is from violent and episodic displays of bravado. For he was explicitly dedicated to nonviolence and love in his struggle to realize the good."

Ivanhoe's essay, along with other essays in Darling-Smith's "Courage," provide scholarly looks at the nature of this core value, nearly inseparable from the other Navy values of Honor and Commitment.

PEARL HARBOR (Jan. 20, 2020) The Honorable Eddie Bernice-Johnson, United States representative from the 30th district of Texas, left, speaks at the unveiling of the new Ford-class aircraft carrier USS Doris Miller (CVN 81) at a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration event on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam as Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas B. Modly look on. This will be the second ship named in honor of Miller, and the first aircraft carrier ever named for an African American and an enlisted Sailor. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication 2nd Class Justin R. Pacheco)