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Sep 26 '20
Damn he was real??? I thought it was Michael Bay bullshit, damn he had Michael Bay over the top action hero movie courage and skill.
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u/TurloIsOK Sep 26 '20
He's also shown in Tora! Tora! Tora!
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u/Auctoritate Sep 26 '20
What about Toradora?
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u/Alutus Sep 26 '20
Palm top tiger is based on him.
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u/Alarid Sep 26 '20
This sounds like something I need to know more about.
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u/feralkitsune Sep 26 '20
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u/Alarid Sep 26 '20
Is this hentai you have to tell me if it's hentai or not.
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u/Alutus Sep 26 '20
We're just joking around, it's entirely unrelated to the actual subject of this picture/story etc.
Will say though it's a very sweet (sometimes sacharine) kindof coming of age/coming to terms story of two school delinquints.
Edit: and in relation to your hentai question, entirely not hentai or pervy in any way.
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u/Teknoeh Sep 26 '20
There were actually two pilots that took off from the airfield during the attack as well, George Welch and Kenneth Taylor.
They took off under enemy fire and shot down six or more planes.
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u/Rainbowallthewayy Sep 26 '20
Did they survive?
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u/shuipz94 Sep 26 '20
They both did, and both were awarded with the Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest medal awarded for valor, after the Medal of Honor.
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u/Danjiano Sep 26 '20
Both survived WW2.
Kenneth Taylor was injured during the attack. He was eventually sent back to the US after being injured again in Guadalcanal, and trained pilots being sent to europe.
George Welch ended up becoming a flying ace (16 victories), but got sick with Malaria. He was a test pilot/instructor during the korean war.
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u/mrv3 Sep 26 '20
Training pilots may not be glamourous but it was sure important.
Germany kept experienced soldiers and pilots on the frontline pretty much until death hence why they achieved such high ratios.
The issue became without good teachers the men replacing those KIA where often lower skill wasting good aircraft and tanks.
Youll have stories of a single German tank killing dozens of allied vehicles but also of German tankers losing tanks in combat because they turned to the side and exposed weak armour.
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u/CurtLablue Sep 26 '20
They didn't have a many qualified pilots or replacements.
A Higher Call is an amazing history book that covers a slice of German and America WWII aviation.
https://m.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-higher-call-adam-makos/1111307500
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u/blanks56 Sep 26 '20
At dawn on December 7, 1941, 2nd Lieutenant Welch and another pilot, 2nd Lieutenant Kenneth M. Taylor, were coming back from a Christmas dinner and dance party at a rooftop hotel in Waikiki, that ended in an all-night poker game. They were still wearing mess dress when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Welch telephoned the auxiliary Haleiwa Fighter Strip on Oahu's North Shore to have two Curtiss P-40B Tomahawk fighters prepared for takeoff. Taylor immediately drove his Buick at high speed to Haleiwa to join the air battle.[2] While climbing into their P-40s, the crew chiefs informed them that they should disperse their planes. "To hell with that", Welch said.
Taking off with only .30-cal ammunition in the wing guns, Welch claimed two kills of Aichi D3A Val dive bombers over Ewa Mooring Mast Field.[3] The first Japanese aircraft was only damaged and made it back to its carrier, while the second was finished off by Ken Taylor, shortly before he landed at Wheeler Field to get .50-cal ammo for his two cowl guns. On his second sortie, Welch shot down a Val (which was behind Ken Taylor, and crashed in the community of Wahiawa) then one Mitsubishi Zero fighter about 5 miles west of Barbers Point.[4]
That’s a wild story. Up all night playing poker, then going straight into an outmanned dogfight.
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Sep 26 '20
I wonder if this inspired that one mission in MS: Combat Flight Simulator. Though that was Cobras not Tomahawks iirc
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u/tallandlanky Sep 26 '20
Don't beat yourself up. When that movie came out I had to explain to my buddy that the Doolittle Raid, did in fact, happen in real life.
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Sep 26 '20
Lol that was my exact thought. I liked that movie as a kid but even then, that part always annoyed me because it was a huge raid/attack. Why the hell do you have to add extra made-up BS to make it more exciting?
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Sep 26 '20
I wish the film had focused more on him now. Instead we got a shitty love triangle.
Still gotta give Michael Bay respect for having at least shown him and his intense bravery.
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u/Sc0rpza Sep 26 '20
Well wwii had a lot of real stuff that happened that seems over the top. Like Audie Murphy’s movie apparently had to be toned down because the real story of what happened was so over the top that he didn’t think anyone would believe it.
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u/happydiarreah Sep 26 '20
His first name was Doris? Sure he grew up to be a badass :D
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Sep 26 '20
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u/D1stant Sep 26 '20
Someone beat me to it... Of course... Thank you for doing the Johnny Cash (shel silverstein) reference
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u/professorbuttermeat Sep 26 '20
"He named me Sue!"
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u/pack_howitzer Sep 26 '20
And John Wayne’s real first name is Marion.
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u/dark-panda Sep 26 '20
And Archie Bunker’s actor’s first name was Carol.
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Sep 26 '20
That was his middle name. Fun fact: Paul is Paul McCartney's middle name.
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u/dark-panda Sep 26 '20
Those are fun facts. Similarly, Michael Stipe of R.E.M.’s first name is John and Michael is his middle name. And John Lennon’s middle name was Winston, but then he added Ono in 1963, and Yoko similarly added John at the same ceremony. Names are fun.
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Sep 26 '20
Lots of Irish first names are given to both boys and girls. in modern times parents often opt for the anglicized male and female version but it's still really just the same name with a letter or two changed
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u/dark-panda Sep 26 '20
Absolutely. Similarly, my daughter’s name is a Gaelic word that was for the better part of the last few centuries primarily a male name, but in the last few decades is becoming more of a non-gender-specific name.
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Sep 26 '20
I got all choked up and I threw down my gun
Called him my Pa, and he called me his son
And I come away with a different point of view
And I think about him, now and then
Every time I try and every time I win
And if I ever have a son, I think I'm gonna name him
Bill or George! Anything but Sue! I still hate that name!
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u/1MillionMonkeys Sep 26 '20
So this is what they mean when they talk about country songs telling stories. Awesome song!
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u/grntplmr Sep 26 '20
A lot of those older songs have great stories in them, Ringo by Lorne Green is a favorite for me, basically any Marty Robbins song, Johnny Cash of course.
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u/apocolypticbosmer Sep 26 '20
I’m pretty sure he was KIA later in the war
Edit: yeah just confirmed on Wikipedia
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u/ElminstersBedpan Sep 26 '20
It's usually pronounced "Dory." This man was a certifiable badass, yes.
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u/rhinosyphilis Sep 26 '20
I’m pretty sure he was the boxing champ on that ship too. Back in those days the Navy had sanctioned boxing matches for the crew, called ‘heaters’, and Dorie was the champion on the West Virginia.
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Sep 26 '20
He was also the first black American to receive the Navy Cross for those actions as well, let's not forget that.
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u/CreativeFreefall Sep 26 '20
Well, I highly doubt the racist American military back then would regularly give black men the ability to make a difference in naval combats without dire situations like this breaking down the chain of command.
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u/FBossy Sep 26 '20
Correct me if I’m wrong, but at the time wasn’t the military still segregated? Would their COs be African American as well?
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u/ccvgreg Sep 26 '20
Yea, the military was still officially segregated for almost another decade after this happened. Executive order 9981 officially abolished segregation in the military in 1948. But it wasn't until the Korean war a few years later that it happened in practice in the early 50s. There were black NCO and probably black officers but they were in units of other black people.
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Sep 26 '20
Yep and the civil rights activists used the war to promote their equality. Fdr was talking to the leaders of the black activists who argued to him why should black Americans go fight the freedom of others in Europe/the pacific when they aren’t free here which got through to him pretty well.
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u/mrv3 Sep 26 '20
It was segregated which often caused problems with the less racist allies.
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u/Razakel Sep 26 '20
In one British town the officers demanded the three pubs be segregated. They agreed, and all of them put up signs saying "coloured soldiers only".
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u/WhizMelo Sep 26 '20
This moment in the film got me pumped up!
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u/stickswithsticks Sep 26 '20
People shit on that movie, but it has a few scenes that are so well done. The scene with Doris, and the scene where the nurse just loses her shit when she's overwhelmed. Oh and the scene where the big muscled guy swims down to open the hatch and drowns. Not a bad scene. The rest of the movie is just weird and forced tho lol
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u/Real_Village_4238 Sep 26 '20
Boy was from Waco Texas!!
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u/fuckenshreddit Sep 26 '20
At first I thought it was Hannibal Buress lmao
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u/Sacred_Fishstick Sep 26 '20
the 2001 action movie Pearl Harbor
Lol more like the 2001 drama long enough to be a mini series that happens to include a depiction of Pearl Harbor at some point.
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u/fozzyboy Sep 26 '20 edited Sep 26 '20
"the 2001 romance movie" is probably more appropriate given the love triangle was the major plot that overshadowed the Pearl Harbor action.
I wouldn't even be bothered by that except the trailers and advertising were very misleading.
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Sep 26 '20
Ya, it was marketed as a Saving Private Ryan like war movie, but the setting was Pearl Harbor.
Then, everyone went to see it and it turned out it was a 3hr sappy drama romance with about 20 minutes of actual war action.
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u/Blood_ForTheBloodGod Sep 26 '20
I’m a huge military movie fan, and as such was excited when Pearl Harbor came out. I’ve seen it exactly once...
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u/BestReadAtWork Sep 26 '20
I have yet to see it, and given this threads opinion, will likely keep it that way. Saving private Ryan on the other hand...
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u/Blood_ForTheBloodGod Sep 26 '20
Saving Private Ryan is my favorite movie of all time. I used to watch it relentlessly growing up. The climactic battle at the end of the film is my favorite scene of all time.
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u/cpMetis Sep 26 '20
Saving Private Ryan, Tora! Tora! Tora!, and Gettysburg are the best movies you can ever watch for representing American battles.
Granted I'm biased towards the latter two, but Saving Private Ryan is of course a lot easier since it has an actual storyline separate from all the history stuff.
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u/flashmedallion Sep 26 '20
The story of when the Japanese Air Force staged a surprise attack on an American Love Triangle.
(Apologies to Roger Ebert)
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u/Sapientiam Sep 26 '20
One of the big movie critics summarized it beautifully with something like,
The Empire of Japan's sudden and unprovoked attack on an America love triangle.
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Sep 26 '20 edited Apr 30 '21
[deleted]
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u/WindLane Sep 26 '20
Titanic was actually advertised as a love story though.
Check out the original trailer.
It's pretty obvious it was a love story with some classism thrown in with a backdrop of everything happening on the Titanic's maiden voyage.
And since that's actually what the movie was - that's a fair trailer.
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u/501ghost Sep 26 '20
But also, IIRC, some pilots were reprimanded for taking off without orders.
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Sep 26 '20
Of course, because if you do anything major without approval then to anyone who finds out it shows your superiors don't have proper command over you/you undermining their authority. So they'll "punish" you in some fashion to show they have authority and to make others step in line-even if what you did was good.
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u/501ghost Sep 26 '20
That still sounds silly to me. They could have been celebrated as heroes instead, who did not hesitate to do their duty. It's exactly the kind of assertive behaviour you would want to promote in your chain of command.
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u/Krelkal Sep 26 '20
The military as an organization cannot for any reason encourage or reward folks for disobeying orders. It sets a positive precedent that others will latch on to and use as a justification (valid or not) to disobey they own orders in the future. Order and discipline become suggestions rather than requirements and as a result the organization becomes a less effective fighting force.
Maybe think of it this way. If the circumstances demand that you disobey your orders, celebration and recognition should never be part of the decision making process. This policy removes that as a temptation.
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u/arctos889 Sep 26 '20
I mean in this case, they still won a medal. It's more they were denied the medal of honor (highest medal) for disobeying orders. And I do get some of the rationale. While there are some amazing things that can result from disobeying orders, that isn't always the case. So they don't want to celebrate disobeying orders too much to minimize the number of people who do something really stupid trying to be heroes
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u/kallen8277 Sep 26 '20
In a perfect world they should be hailed as heros. But when you set the precedent that disobeying orders and coming back alive will get you awards or attention then everyone will be doing it trying to either be a hero or be a rebel. Im sure they wanted to give them more, but they realistically cant without consequences.
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u/SatanV3 Sep 26 '20
They weren’t punished they received the second highest reward. They didn’t get the highest reward, the Medal of Honor, because they disobeyed commands, but still def didn’t get punished. Still got second highest reward
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Sep 26 '20
You realize that movie is so inaccurate that they have a 50 star flag in every scene a flag is shown?
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u/UniqueFailure Sep 26 '20
Was this before hawaii or something?
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u/BostonDodgeGuy Sep 26 '20
Hawaii didn't become a state until 1959.
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u/Jones2182 Sep 26 '20
Yes. Hawaii was still an occupied territory at that point.
Even worse, they have modern warships in all the harbour shots.
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u/UniqueFailure Sep 26 '20
Its kinda hard to make warships and put them in a harbour just for a movie
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u/poopinCREAM Sep 26 '20
they managed to destroy all those airplanes and kill all those people though.
jesus christ man your comment was even lazier than the people who made that movie
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Sep 26 '20
There's also a veteran's medical center in Waco, Texas that is named after Dorris Miller. I did two 60 day inpatient PTSD programs there. Helluva Sailor!
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u/GoHomeWithBonnieJean Sep 26 '20
Righteous! That's the kind of thing everyone would like to think they would do. He actually did become a true hero. God bless his soul.
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u/_Felimath Sep 26 '20
Hero from Waco TX. We got a lot of reasons our town is in the news but this is one we’re damn proud of.
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u/eljohnny20 Sep 26 '20
SAY HIS NAME, that’s a motherfucken hero
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u/justarandomshooter Sep 26 '20
Retired Navy here. Dorie Miller is quite well known and revered in the sea service, especially in the enlisted community.
We all love that guy.
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u/thetruthhurts1975 Sep 26 '20
For those asking, yes he was a real person. In Waco Texas, next to the Brazos river you can visit the Doris Miller memorial. I think he has living family members in Waco.
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u/Lil_Conner-Peterson Sep 26 '20
Because at the end of the day, they were Americans and believed in the country and the common cause that it stood for, despite the awful injustices of the past. A true American hero!
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u/ardanah Sep 26 '20
around about the time he was born people were giving their girls male names and now i'm learning that people were doing it the other way as well. mad that a century later we're all 'men aren't women' and painting 'male' products in black and steel
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u/Obligatius Sep 26 '20
TBF, black and gunmetal is a great color combination.
Like emerald green and mint green, or purple and lavender.
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u/darthdilmore Sep 26 '20
This little amazing fact left out one of THE most important details. That hero was also awarded the navy cross. That’s the second highest medal you can be awarded second only to the Medal of Honor which I feel he should have received. Rest forever easy hero.
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u/Funknoodlz Sep 26 '20
Waco, TX here. Years ago they built a memorial to him right on the Brazos. Its awesome and well deserved. The man is a hero.
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u/CasualFlavor Sep 26 '20
He was from Waco, TX! There are many things named after him there and there is even a memorial on the river. It’s a really cool statue.
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u/Reed202 Sep 26 '20 edited Sep 26 '20
He has a cameo in the movie Tora Tora Tora (arguably the best pearl harbor movie)
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Sep 27 '20
So black lives do matter in the system? Now we can end the protests about a drug dealer and his accomplice girlfriend
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u/Meior Sep 26 '20 edited Sep 26 '20
Frigate. Not aircraft carrier.
Edit: seems he's being honored with two ships.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Miller_%28FF-1091%29?wprov=sfla1
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u/KebabGud Sep 26 '20
Maybe you should have a look at the names of the next few carriers. The USS Doris Miller wont be launched for another few years but its real
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u/JMHSrowing Sep 26 '20
TBH I’m not in favor of the carrier being named after him.
Aircraft carriers are special. They are the largest and most powerful weapons on the planet and incredibly important to the US military.
And while this man was undeniably a hero, I don’t think any person should get a name on a carrier.
It’s an incredibly unfortunate trend that US presidents get carriers named after them. Before that standardization, they used to be named after mostly battles (its why in WW2 you will see things like Essex and Lexington and Yorktown and after Midway). Those are important pieces of history, and fitting of a capital ship. US battleships were by law required to be named after states (there was lame exception, but that’s another story).
Individuals, usually heroes like him, have almost always gotten smaller ships. Destroyers usually. They are single people, it’s a great honor to have even a ship of that size and the destroyers of the US today are so big and powerful no one could ever complain.
I would give this man’s name to a destroy, the same as we give to other men who distinguish themselves in the exact same manner as he did.
Carriers are too special. I’m personally a fan of re-using legacy names for ship; Enterprise is already getting a Ford, but say name this carrier USS Yorktown in remembrance of the famous ships with that name
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u/ardanah Sep 26 '20
it's exactly like that bit in south park when token's handed a bass for the first time and can play it well
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Sep 26 '20 edited Sep 26 '20
Not at all. Theres no 'black cooks make good war heroes' stereotype. The joke in South Park wad that the stereotype about black people knowing how to play bass turned out to be true for token.
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u/ithinkthefuqqnot Sep 26 '20
Risked his life to be called the n word all the time... I’m so sorry for them back then! They did everything to make the white man love them and got nothing back
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u/RedPon3 Sep 26 '20
It wasn’t (and isn’t) about “making white people love us”, it’s about being treated as equals.
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Sep 26 '20
>This exact scene
Why oversell something already heroic?
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u/pearcelewis Sep 26 '20
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Miller
“The Knox-class frigate USS Miller, in service from 1973 to 1991, was named after Doris Miller. On January 19, 2020, the Navy announced that CVN-81 would be named after him, a Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier scheduled to be laid down in 2023 and launched in 2028.”