The Doris Miller Story Documentary

The Doris Miller Story is a documentary film about the first African American to be awarded the Navy Cross for heroism. This is the third highest honor bestowed by the Unites States Navy. Dan Malveaux is directing this historic film with great sensitivity.

Doris “Dorie” Miller was born in Waco, Texas on October 12, 1919. His parents were sharecroppers and he spent his youth working the family farm when he wasn’t attending school. By the time he was 17 Miller was the star fullback at Waco’s A.J. Moore High School. After graduating high school in 1939 Dorie took advantage of one of the few opportunities afforded African Americans at that time, and enlisted in the United States Navy. Following his basic training he was assigned to be Mess Attendant Third Class, one of few jobs on a Naval ship open to African Americans in those years. After working on various ships Dorie was transferred to the battleship USS West Virginia, where he was promoted to Ship’s Cook Third Class. When not cooking and serving up meals he enjoyed boxing and actually became the ship’s heavyweight boxing champion.

On December 7, 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, thrusting the United States into World War II. In the attack the USS West Virginia was struck at least 9 times by Japanese torpedoes. This is when Miller performed his amazing feats of heroism. As the ship began to sink Dorie dragged several injured sailors to safety while the ship was still under siege, being bombarded from all directions. He managed to move the ship’s mortally wounded captain to a safer place (the captain refused to abandon ship). Placing himself in direct danger Doris grabbed one of the ships .50 caliber anti-aircraft guns and began firing at the low flying Japanese planes. Amazingly, he was given sole credit for two confirmed “downs” and four more “probables”.

What makes this feat incredibly heroic is that Dorie did this instinctively, without having any formal training on the use of guns. During that time in our country’s history the U.S. Navy specifically forbade the training of African Americans on how to operate the ship’s guns. Miller, a very humble man later recalled, “I just pulled the trigger and she worked fine. I had watched the others with these guns. I guess I fired her for about fifteen minutes. I think I got one of those Jap planes. They were diving pretty close to us.”

After getting pressured by African American civil rights groups, Doris Miller was ultimately awarded the Navy Cross. Fellow Texan, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, who was Commander and Chief of the Pacific Fleet, performed the ceremony. Miller had proven beyond any doubt that African Americans were capable of doing as much, if not more than any other sailor in the U.S. Navy. Due to his heroics African Americans were no longer relegated to just cooking and cleaning jobs on Naval ships, they were now looked upon differently and allowed to contribute much more to the war effort.





Making a film is expensive! We want to make the best one possible, and with your support we will. Below are the areas of production and post-production to which we will be directing campaign funds.

*Travel Expenses
*Editing
*Film Graphics & Animations
*Color Correction & Picture Work
*Audio Mix & Sound Sweetening
*Production Equipment Rentals
*Music Licensing
*Archival Footage Licensing
*Production crew
*Formatting and logging of our footage in preparation for editing
*Interview transcriptions
* Script Writing
*Insurance and Administrative


You can become an early champion of the film by contributing at a level with which you’re most comfortable.Then begin spreading the word and engaging in the discussion across the internet and in the real world about Doris Miller’s significance and what he accomplished for not only African Americans but the entire nation!

IF we exceed our goal of 30,000 through your generous support, additional funding will help us to speed up the process of post-production and to continue working directly on the next stage of editing- in other words, marching full speed ahead toward completion. It will be used for the following:

*Archive material costs
*Post-production costs to cover the fine cut stage of the film
*Additional music and photo rights clearance
*Marketing of the film



Help spread the word about this film and about our Gofundme campaign. Tweet it, Facebook it, post about it through your other social media networks and e-mail your friends. Share the link to this page, and let the world know that you think this project matters.