Dorie Miller –– Looking Back

by Bill Doughty––

In the wake of news that the U.S. Navy is considering renaming the upcoming aircraft carrier CVN-81 from "USS Doris 'Dorie' Miller" to "USS Donald J. Trump," we looked back at our previous Navy Reads posts mentioning Miller, his heroism at Pearl Harbor, and his ongoing legacy.

Here are excerpts from those posts:

Courage of a King and a Miller –– JANUARY 20, 2020

In a review of Barbara Darling-Smith's "Courage" (University of Notre Dame Press, 2002), we focused on one of the Navy’s core values and necessary virtues. For example:

Dorie Miller showed “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 81). Doris ‘Dorie’ Miller was killed at sea during World War II.”

His courageous virtues lived on to inspire others.

“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.”

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)

A Groundbreaking 'Double Victory' – NMAAHC –– FEBRUARY 12, 2020

Six years ago we reviewed NMAAHC founding director Lonnie Bunch III’s, "A Fool's Errand: Creating the National Museum of African American History and Culture in the Age of Bush, Obama, and Trump" (Smithsonian Books, 2019).

(U.S. Navy photo by Arif Patani)

The museum opened during President Trump’s first term with an exhibit featuring Dorie Miller’s heroism in WWII.

In his book Bunch “conveys humility about what the museum can mean for all Americans.”

"Museums alone cannot ease the tensions that come from the debates surrounding the fluidity of national identity in the twenty-first century," he writes. 

"... But museums can contribute to understanding by creating spaces where debates are spirited but reasoned. Where contemporary challenges are addressed through contextualization and education. Since its opening, NMAAHC has become a site where rational healing and reconciliation are possible.”

During a tour of the museum in 2017 with Director Bunch, President Trump paused at an exhibit showing the Dutch role in the transatlantic slave trade; Trump said to Bunch, “You know, they love me in the Netherlands.”

Visitors view an exhibit about the legacy of Mess Attendant Doris “Dorie” Miller at the Smithsonian NMAAHC, Nov. 1, 2016. Adm. Nimitz presented Miller with the Navy Cross for his extraordinary courage during the Dec. 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. (U.S. Navy photo by Arif Patani)

Andrew Young ‘An Easy Burden’ –– OCTOBER 17, 2025

We started our post about Andrew Young with this: “He was a lieutenant to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In fact, he was by his side not only in life but also at King’s death at the hands of an assassin.”

Young lived a life of service, and he was deeply devoted to human rights.

He credited the military for its role historically to promote civil rights.

“Andrew Young shows how the American civil rights movement arose largely as a result of World War II and the resultant Marshall Plan. The military provided proof and a blueprint for the success of diversity, inclusion, meritocracy, and equality."

Young writes about former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass and the struggle to “redeem the soul of America.” He shows how Dorie Miller and other black heroes inspired change. Young writes:

“That soul we saw less in America's actions than in its ideals: freedom, equality, justice. While we endured segregation, we knew that America had shed the blood of hundreds of thousands of its sons and daughters in a war that ended slavery. We knew that America had risen up out of the depths of a Great Depression to defeat fascism. We had cheered the exploits of Dorie Miller and the Tuskegee Airmen and other colored soldiers who refused to let racial segregation prevent them from offering their lives for freedom and for America, and we were inspired by their example. Dorie Miller was told he could only be a cook's helper, but he dared to believe he could shoot down enemy aircraft [at Pearl Harbor]. The Tuskegee Airmen dared to believe black men could fly. 

We were thought to be naive, but in truth we were visionary. We dared to believe that America could be healed of the gangrene of racism. We saw America as we could become, not just as we were.”

Andrew Young celebrates black history with First Army, Fort Gillem, Georgia, in 2009 (Gayle Johnson, Public Affairs Office)

Stavridis on Crucial Crucible of Decision –– NOVEMBER 1, 2022

Four years ago, we reviewed one of our favorite authors, and one of his books of inspiration for warfighters.

“Admiral James Stavridis (USN, Ret.) offers key lessons for Sailors and Marines in ‘To Risk It All: Nine Conflicts and the Crucible of Decision’ (Penguin Press, 2022). Most of the stories will be familiar to readers of Stavridis or his recommended reading list

Our main focus the time was on Captain Brett Crozier, the heroic Navy Captain who was scapegoated for failures to address the dangers of COVID, early in the pandemic.

Stavridis’s book also explores weighty decisions made by Capt. John Paul Jones, Lt. Stephen Decatur, Rear Adm. David Farragut, Commodore George Dewey, Cook Third Class Doris “Dorie” Miller, Adm. William “Bull” Halsey, Lt. Cdr. Lloyd M. Bucher, Rear Adm. Michelle Howard, and Cdr. Ernest Evans.

“Each story methodically evaluates the circumstances, personnel, and ramifications of decisions made in moments of often extreme stress, with lives on the line, and when there appears to be no perfect response.”

Stavridis writes with his usual panache and passion. His book is accessible to any deckplate Sailor or rifleman Marine, who will be inspired by the courage and grit of Dorie Miller at Pearl Harbor. 

Frederick Douglass Speaks to Us in 2023: Part 4, Unity –– FEBRUARY 24, 2023

A “statesman” is defined as “a wise, skilled, and respected political leader who guides a government and works for the public good instead of seeking personal power.”

Frederick Douglass, an unofficial advisor to President Abraham Lincoln, was himself one of our nation's greatest statesmen.

In “Douglass: Speeches & Writings” by Frederick Douglass (edited by David W. Blight, Library of America, 2022), the statesman examines American ideals, leaders, and the reality of caste over the concept of “race.”

In our Navy Reads post we mention the future USS Doris Miller (CVN 81) –– the first aircraft carrier named for an enlisted Sailor and the first named for an African American –– is expected to be launched “90 years after Miller’s heroic action at Pearl Harbor.”

We write, “Two hundred years prior to CVN 81’s expected launch, Frederick Douglass was still enslaved in Maryland but would soon escape in 1838 to the North in a sailor’s uniform.”

The Nimitz We Need Now –– MAY 14, 2023

We always admire the works of Clyde Symonds, author of “Nimitz at War: Command Leadership from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay” (Oxford University Press, 2022).

In this great biography, “We get a gripping recounting of the intelligence preparations, training challenges, command tensions, and communications frustrations in the early 1940s. We read about Nimitz’s quiet 'anxiety' in the lead-up to the Battle of Midway, for example, where Nimitz decided to trust Rochefort’s intelligence and ambush the then-powerful Imperial Japanese Navy. ‘It is difficult in hindsight to appreciation the boldness of that decision,’ Symonds writes."

Nimitz was the right leader at the right time. He was able to do good planning, build trust with people, and care for and about the Sailors and Marines he sent into harm’s way.

“Of course, like all humans, Nimitz was not a perfect person. Symonds calls the Texas hill country admiral ‘a product of his time and his culture’ in that he avoided African American service members (with the notable exception of Messman Doris ‘Dorie’ Miller, to whom Nimitz presented the Navy Cross for December 7 heroism). In 1943 there were no black officers in the Navy. And Nimitz also wanted no part in having women service members on his staff, disallowing WAVES from serving in the Pacific.”

Nimitz hailed from Fredericksburg, Texas. Miller was born in Waco, Texas, and enlisted in the Navy in Dallas in 1939. Nimitz presented his fellow Texan with the Navy Cross in 1942.

Miller receives the Navy Cross from Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, at an awards ceremony held on the flight deck of USS Enterprise (CV-6) at Pearl Harbor, 27 May 1942. The medal was awarded for heroism on board USS West Virginia (BB-48) during the Pearl Harbor Attack, 7 December 1941. (U.S. Navy)

Yesterday, the Waco FOX News affiliate FOX-44 reported on the public backlash against stripping Miller’s name from CVN-81 and replacing it with Trump’s name. “U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, a retired Navy captain [and Navy fighter pilot and astronaut], said Miller’s name should remain on the aircraft carrier and argued that his actions at Pearl Harbor warrant the honor,” FOX-44 reported.

In a social media post, Kelly wrote that Miller's Pearl Harbor bravery is legendary and argued the ship "shouldn't be renamed at all, let alone for Donald Trump, who has denigrated servicemembers like Dorie Miller who have paid the ultimate price.” During the Vietnam War, Trump famously avoided the draft and military service with five deferments, including one for bone spurs.

The Navy has not yet made a final decision about renaming the Gerald Ford Class aircraft carrier (CVN-81).

Orwell on ICE II: Parasites

Review by Bill Doughty––

In his typically salty way, Orwell describes his beloved England in one of his essays written 85 years ago this month as a nation whose rulers are “parasites.”

Orwell speaks to us from across “the pond” and beyond the grave with observations still timely, relevant, and enlightening in "England Your England."

He has much to say about inequality within society.

“England is the most class-ridden country under the sun. It is a land of snobbery and privilege, ruled largely by the old and silly,” he writes.

Yet, the people of England showed supreme “emotional unity” during the crisis of the Second World War, when authoritarian forces threatened freedom and England’s very existence as a democratic constitutional monarchy.

Orwell calls his country “a family with the wrong members in charge.” Young people must “kowtow” to the rich and powerful and not question the upper classes’ source of wealth.

“It is a family in which the young are generally thwarted and most of the power is in the hands of irresponsible uncles and bedridden aunts.”

Orwell recounts the evolution of Britain from an empire with a feudal power system to a modern technological society. The people in country estates and castles became “owners” with no direct contribution to the economy, the so-called “idol rich.” Some are celebrities who get power and wealth by being famous for being famous.

'American Millionaires ... Privileges ... Bribery ... Tear Gas'

Referring to the ultra rich and privileged class: “They were simply parasites,” Orwell writes, “less useful to society than his fleas are to a dog.”

“By 1920 there were many people who were aware of all this.

By 1930 millions were aware of it. But the British ruling class obviously could not admit to themselves that their usefulness was at an end. Had they done that they would have had to abdicate. For it was not possible for them to turn themselves into mere bandits, like the American millionaires, consciously clinging to unjust privileges and beating down opposition by bribery and tear-gas bombs. After all, they belonged to a class with a certain tradition, they had been to public schools where the duty of dying for your country, if necessary, is laid down as the first and greatest of the Commandments. They had to feel themselves true patriots, even while they plundered their countrymen. Clearly there was only one escape for them— into stupidity. They could keep society in its existing shape only by being unable to grasp that any improvement was possible. Difficult though this was, they achieved it, largely by fixing their eyes on the past and refusing to notice the changes that were going on round them.

There is much in England that this explains. It explains the decay of country life, due to the keeping-up of a sham feudalism which drives the more spirited workers off the land. It explains the immobility of the public schools, which have barely altered since the eighties of the last century. It explains the military incompetence which has again and again startled the world. Since the 'fifties every war in which England has engaged has started off with a series of disasters, after which the situation has been saved by people comparatively low in the social scale. The higher commanders, drawn from the aristocracy, could never prepare for modern war, because in order to do so they would have had to admit to themselves that the world was changing. They have always clung to obsolete methods and weapons, because they inevitably saw each war as a repetition of the last. Before the Boer War they prepared for the Zulu War, before 1914 for the Boer War, and before the present war for 1914. Even at this moment hundreds of thousands of men in England are being trained with the bayonet, a weapon entirely useless except for opening tins. It is worth noticing that the navy and, latterly, the Air Force, have always been more efficient than the regular army. But the navy is only partially, and the Air Force hardly at all, within the ruling-class orbit.”

That wasn’t the first or last time Orwell exempted the Royal Navy or Royal Air Force from the rampant incompetence of a caste system of leadership based on rich versus poor.

At least, he notes, the country’s rulers had not attempted to establish an authoritarian dictatorship or agitated for a civil war –– with a paramilitary force on the streets of London.

“It must be admitted that so long as things were peaceful the methods of the British ruling class served them well enough. Their own people manifestly tolerated them. However unjustly England might be organized, it was at any rate not torn by class warfare or haunted by secret police.”

Orwell saw a direct line to the Gestapo, Nazism, and spread of fascism as an outcome of the Spanish War of 1939 between Nationalists and Republicans. Although he had fought for the Spanish Republic against Franco’s fascists he later became disillusioned by the Republicans’ ties to Soviet Russia. His disillusionment would inspire his masterwork “1984” against totalitarianism.

While he lauds the fact that there were no secret police roaming London’s streets, he acknowledges, “Everyone knows that there is one law for the rich and another for the poor.”

“Everyone believes in his heart that the law can be, ought to be, and, on the whole, will be impartially administered,” Orwell writes. “The totalitarian idea that there is no such thing as law, there is only power, has never taken root.”

The same thing could be said about nearly all of the first 250 years of the United States’s history.

Fascist Diversity

In his essay “Looking Back on the Spanish War” Orwell says “When one thinks of all the people who support or have supported Fascism, one stands amazed at their diversity. What a crew!”

He mentions a varied array of powerful men including Germany’s Führer/Chancellor Adolf Hitler, Vichy France’s Philippe Pétain, Croatian fascist leader Ante Pavelic, American media tycoon William Randolph Hearst, American expatriate and Mussolini supporter Ezra Pound, Palestinian Arab nationalism and Nazi collaborator Mufti of Jerusalem, Canadian-American Christian Supremacist and America First isolationist Father Charles Coughlin, among others.

“They are all people with something to lose, or people who long for a hierarchical society and dread the prospect of a world of free and equal human beings,” Orwell writes.

[Interestingly, in another essay he decries his country’s discrimination against hiring immigrants to work in coal mines. Although he acknowledges the “wasteful, dirty and inefficient” nature of coal fires, he celebrates the idea of families of any “class” gathered around a fireplace.]

The ultra wealthy privileged caste, many of whom would be considered part of the “Epstein Class” today, tend to show disdain for immigrants, poor people, and workers. And what do working people ask for?

“All that the workingman demands is what these others would consider the indispensable minimum without which human life cannot be lived at all. Enough to eat, freedom from the haunting terror of unemployment, the knowledge that your children will get a fair chance, a bath once a day, clean linen reasonably often, a roof that doesn't leak, and short enough working hours to leave you with a little energy when the day is done. Not one of those who preach against ‘materialism’ would consider life livable without these things. And how easily that minimum could be attained if we chose to set our minds to it for only twenty years! To raise the standard of living of the whole world to that of Britain would not be a greater undertaking than this war we are now fighting … The major problem of our time is the decay of the belief in personal immortality, and it cannot be dealt with while the average human being is either drudging like an ox or shivering in fear of the secret police.”

Orwell staunchly believed in the rule of law and protection of voting rights within a culture of income inequality.

Regarding the English electoral system: “In a dozen obvious ways it is gerrymandered in the interest of the moneyed class” but “not completely corrupt,” Orwell contends. “You do not arrive at the polling booth to find men with revolvers telling you which way to vote, nor are the votes miscounted nor is there any direct bribery.”

But income inequality can lead to corruption, autocracy, voter suppression, and war –– both on foreign and domestic soil.

More about that in our next Navy Reads post.

By the way… 

Today we saw another gift from across the pond from musical artists whose roots are from the "working class" and lower-middle classes:

The islands that gave us The Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin just delivered the Irish band U2’s “Days of Ash” EP with the lead song “American Obituary,” recounting ICE’s killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis with these powerful lyrics: “What you can’t kill can’t die, America will rise against the people of the lie;” “I love you more than hate loves war;” and “the power of the people is so much stronger than the people in power.” U2’s timely and exceptionally good set of songs complement to America's Bruce Springsteen’s recent tribute to Renee Good and Alex Pretti, “The Streets of Minneapolis.”