When Doris Miller wrapped his hands around the trigger of a .50-caliber Browning anti-aircraft machine gun on the flaming deck of the USS West Virginia on Dec. 7, 1941, he struck back at the Japanese attackers.

He also struck a blow for black men serving in the segregated U.S. Navy.

He attended — but never graduated from — Moore High in downtown Waco, where he was a football fullback. He worked on the family farm before joining the U.S. Navy on Sept. 16, 1939, as a mess attendant, third class. In the pre-war Navy, blacks were relegated to the most menial tasks: mess attendants, stewards and cooks.

The young sailor, at 6-foot-3 and 225 pounds, was a hardy physical specimen. After his assignment to the USS West Virginia in 1940, he earned respect as the ship’s champion heavyweight boxer.

His prowess was put to the test on Dec. 7, 1941. Up before dawn and collecting laundry around the ship when the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor began, Miller heard the call to battle stations. Even cooks had assigned combat tasks, like feeding ammunition to gunners.

But when he rushed to his station, an anti-aircraft-battery magazine, he saw it was damaged by torpedo fire, and instead went to help the wounded get to safety.

Witnesses say Miller carried his mortally wounded captain, Mervyn Sharp Bennion, from the bridge to a place of greater safety, and then went back to man the anti-aircraft deck gun, a weapon he had not been trained on.

According to newspaper accounts, after the battle, Miller told Navy officials: “It wasn’t hard. I just pulled the trigger and she worked fine.” After about 15 minutes, he ran out of ammunition and was ordered to abandon ship.

It was weeks before the identity of the heroic messman of Pearl Harbor was known, and only after prodding by several black newspapers. On May 27, 1942, Miller received the Navy Cross from fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, “for distinguished devotion to duty, extraordinary courage and disregard for his own personal safety.”

Miller’s image appeared on recruiting posters, and he was sent on a war bond tour. A public drive to have him admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy failed, but nonetheless Miller is credited with breaking down racial barriers in the military in World War II.

His last duty station, the USS Liscome Bay, was struck by a torpedo from a Japanese submarine on Nov. 24, 1943. The carrier escort vessel sank in less than 20 minutes, eyewitnesses reported, taking Miller and 645 other crewmen to their deaths at the bottom of the South Pacific.

Sources: Texas Collection at Baylor University, The National Archives, Naval Historical Center, Texas Historical Commission, Handbook of Texas Online, Tribune-Herald archives.