Ship’s Cook Third Class Doris Miller: 1939-1943

Petty Officer Miller served aboard Pyro, West Virginia, Nevada, Indianapolis, and Liscome Bay. During the attack at Pearl Harbor at the start of World War II, Petty Officer Miller earned the Navy Cross for assisting the mortally wounded Commanding Officer of West Virginia from the bridge to safety, and then manning and operating a machine gun directed at enemy Japanese attacking aircraft. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart when Liscome Bay was sunk by an enemy submarine in 1943.