Doris “Dorie” Miller: The Hero of Pearl Harbor

USS Liscome Bay - Wikipedia

 

Very good story about an sung hero indeed.

 

They did a story on him yesterday.
They're going to name the next carrier after him. Quite an honor.
Although I was screaming at the TV as the reporters repeatedly said aircraft carriers are ONLY named after presidents.
GAHHHHH! Research people!
This is why I wouldn't trust the average modern "journalist" to write my middle school term paper.

What I didn't know is that Dorry didn't survive the war. I'd always assumed he came back. So I learned something new after all.

 

According to a particular book "War at sea" we had lost hundreds. We were pretty much out of the pacific fight until about 1943. one or two of our carriers went into battle unrepaired for almost being sunk until they were actually sunk.

We lost several hundred warships, quite a few carriers too. If we applied those kinds of war losses to today's existing fleet we would be tearing old ships out of mothballs asap. We would be unable to replace those losses and end up being invaded at some point when there is no more effective US Navy in the way. In the Atlantic we lost like a thousand plus of all kinds.

Today if we lost one carrier with 6000 aboard, then the people will demand whoever nation that did it would be turned into a pile of glowing nuclear wasteland. We would not be able to accept those losses. The last birdie I listened to listed about 6 in Norfolk all waiting some form of rebuilding. We pretty much wore them out in the last 20 or 30 years of war. All of them needs dockyard work and there isnt anywhere near enough budget or man power to fix many of them. So they quietly sit and rust.

 

Unfortunately he went down with the carrier when it was torpedoed. She sank in only 23 minutes!!

Karma would come full circle in February 1944 as the submarine responsible (I-175) would be sent to ocean floor herself.
Japanese submarine I-175 - Wikipedia

 

If I had been stationed at Pearl harbor I guarantee it would have not gone down the way it did.

 

There are plaques at Pearl Harbor near a preserved Balao(or Gato class) Navy submarine that lists the names of all the submarines lost in action in the silent service.

On eternal patrol.