The first lesson is: when you are assaulted you fight back. With everything you've got, with anything you've got.
Not just to stop the immediate attack but to make the attacker think twice about ever doing it again.
The second lesson is: do not accept any limitations that others put on you. And even to rise above your self-imposed limitations.
From the Veteran's Administration on this 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor:
Doris Miller - Above and beyond the call of duty
Doris Miller, the son of Texas sharecroppers and grandson of slaves, rose to national attention for bravery displayed during the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.
Born October 12, 1919, in Waco, Texas, Miller joined the Navy in 1939 as a mess attendant one of the only occupational specialties then open to a Black man. In January 1940, he was assigned to the battleship USS West Virginia (BB 48), stationed at Pearl Harbor. Severe damage to the ship during the early phases of the December 7th attack prevented Miller from manning his assigned battle station. Seeking to help where he could, he was ordered to the ship’s bridge to help move his captain, Mervyn Bennion, mortally wounded with shrapnel in his abdomen.
Doris Miller was then ordered to the port side anti-aircraft guns to load ammunition for an officer. After performing this task, Miller, on his own initiative, loaded and manned an unattended gun and fired at incoming Japanese planes. Although untrained, he laid down effective fire and stopped firing when he ran out of ammunition and the ship began to sink. Even then, he persisted in helping his fellow sailors to safety until he finally made his way to shore.[1] Miller, himself, escaped injury and was reassigned to the cruiser Indianapolis (CA 35).
Initially commended only as an unnamed Black man, pressure from the NAACP led to Doris Miller’s identification and the presentation of an award. On April 2, 1942, Miller’s efforts on the West Virginia were dramatized on the CBS radio series, They Live Forever.[2] Although Congressional bills and other calls to grant Miller the Medal of Honor failed, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved awarding Miller the Navy Cross. Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet, presented the Navy Cross to Miller on board the USS Enterprise (CV-6) on May 27, 1942....
....MUCH MORE
The Navy Cross (along with the army's Distinguished Service Cross and the Air Force Cross) is second only to the Medal of Honor in the awards for Valor in the U.S. Military.
Miller's actions 80 years ago today could arguably have qualified him for the Medal of Honor, in particular his steadfastness, initiative and inspiration to those around him, but there were no MoH awards to black service members in World War II, this despite the fact that some 52 awards had been made to black combatants beginning in 1863.
In 1997 the Department of Defense recommended that seven DSC awards from that war be upgraded to Medals of Honor. Miller was not on the list of upgrades.
In 1975 a small combat ship, a frigate was named in his honor,
In 2020 the Navy announced that a Ford-class aircraft carrier would be named for Mess Attendant 2nd class (later Cook 3rd class) Doris "Dorie" Miller, joining the USS Gerald R. Ford, the USS John F. Kennedy, and the USS Enterprise as the newest aircraft carriers in the American fleet.
The first steel for the new ship was cut on August 25, 2021.
