I read a piece this AM in the NYTimes about Google and the price of cyberfame. A considerable number of people request that Google remove links to their names. Why? These folks are embarrassed by old images — some in the nude — posted to this or that Web site. So, I Googled myself to see what would turn up. No nude shots. Whew! However, I found this link to the weekly fishwrap in Jasper, TX (deep East Texas). I was taken back to the early 1980s. Out of the blue, back then, I received a letter from Professor Archie McDonald at Stephen F. Austin State University. I had never met McDonald, but was well familiar with his name. McDonald invited me to submit an article for the East Texas Historical Journal. McDonald is the founding editor of this regional history publication. McDonald specifically requested an article about Doris Miller. Miller was featured prominently in the section of my doctoral dissertation that treated the impact of WWII on the black people of Texas. Editor McDonald and I had some back-and-forth about my conclusions about the U. S. Navy and Doris Miller. In effect, McDonald taught me something about historical interpretation that went far beyond anything my dissertation committee had imparted when I was at their tender mercies. Lo, and behold, when the issue of the East Texas Historical Journal was published in 1981, guess whose article was the lead article in the issue? Wowser! I always wondered how and why McDonald contacted me about contributing an article. This very AM, I thought: "Hmmmm. Stephen F. Austin State University." I think I know how I got published. A much appreciated member of the history department at Texas Technique — William Johnson — left that department to take the presidency of Stephen F. Austin State University. In short order, another member of the history department in Lubbock — James V. Reese (a member of my dissertation committee and my bête noire) — went to Stephen F. Austin State University as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Both Johnson and Reese held concurrent appointments as professors in the department of history at Stephen F. Austin State University. Is it possible that one or both of those former professors at Texas Technique had suggested me and my work to Professor McDonald? If this is (fair & balanced) speculation, so be it.
[x Jasper Newsboy — April 13, 2005]
Doris Miller: 1st African American WWII hero
By Archie P. McDonald
The East Texas Historical Journal contains an excellent article by Neil Sapper titled "Aboard The Wrong Ship In The Right Books: Doris Miller And Historical Accuracy."
The article celebrated the actual experiences of Doris Miller, the first African American hero of WWII, who was born in Willow Grove, near Waco. Miller, the fourth son of Connery and Henrietta Miller, was named by the midwife who assisted his mother shortly before his birth because she was convinced the baby would be female.
Miller attended local segregated schools, including W.L. Moore High School in Waco, and worked at various jobs before enlisting in the Navy in Dallas in 1939. Following training in Norfolk, Va., he was assigned to duty as a mess man aboard the USS West Virginia.
Miller's ship was among those berthed on "Battleship Row," or Ford Island, in Pearl Harbor, on Dec. 7, 1941, when naval air forces of the Empire of Japan struck air, land and sea forces of the United States at 7:55 a.m. on what had begun as a lazy Sunday morning in Hawaii. He was gathering soiled laundry when the attack began, and rushed to the deck to learn what was happening.
After helping to assist the ship's wounded captain, Miller took over a deck gun, though he had never been trained in its use, and commenced firing at the Japanese fighter planes and at dive-bombers that continued to strafe and launch explosives toward the anchored American ships.
The story of his brave action became exaggerated after the action ceased, and soon claims that Miller had shot down several Japanese aircraft began to circulate. Miller himself told officials that he thought he had hit at least one of the enemy planes.
The service awarded Miller its Navy Cross for valor beyond his training and assignment in May 1942, and following a Christmas leave in December of that year, he was assigned to the aircraft carrier Liscome Bay as a cook, third class.
Miller's ship was torpedoed and lost while engaged in action in the Gilbert Islands on Nov. 24, 1943, and he was lost at sea. Miller has been honored by associating his name with various schools, veteran's groups, and the destroyer escort USS Miller. And he is featured prominently in the historical display provided for visitors who await launches to visit the memorial above the USS Arizona to all who served at Pearl Harbor.
This column is provided as a public service by the East Texas Historical Association. Archie P. McDonald is director of the Association and author of more than 20 books on Texas.
Copyright © 2005 The Jasper Newsboy
