Martin Luther King would have liked this year’s birthday present since on his National holiday tomorrow the 11^th Aircraft Carrier will be named after a black sailor. We all know that the aircraft carrier is THE symbol of American power. Almost all of them are named after Presidents. We have the USS Kennedy, Eisenhower, Theodore Roosevelt, Lincoln, Washington, Truman, Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Ford to name most of them. Now we will have the Dorie Miller descendant of slaves and son of share croppers. The official announcement will be tomorrow.

If you want a quick reason why this guy gets such an extreme honor, boot up the movie called Pearl Harbor where you can see actor   Cuba Gooding Jr. become Dorie and shoot down jets on his own without permission during the attack on Pearl Harbor showing extreme heroism. Being born in Waco, Texas, a black man didn’t have many rights or economic opportunities; so he joined the Navy. There although the pay was steady, black men were limited to doing servant duties and not even get to learn any military or intelligent tasks. He shined shoes and took care of the Captain’s clothes on the battleship the USS West Virginia that got hit by 9 Japanese torpedoes and he managed to save the life of the Captain. When it came time to award medals for bravery, he wasn’t even mentioned.

Eventually President Roosevelt stepped in and awarded him the Navy Cross. Then it was notable that he was the first one of his race to receive such a high honor. The military realized it was a good idea to support a minority hero and that it would encourage more minorities to join the military. He never sought fame or notoriety but just thought it was important to take over the idle weapons and do his part without permission to save lives. A year later he was assigned to an aircraft carrier that in just another   year later after Pearl Harbor was sunk by a Japanese torpedo. There he died.

It will be about 8 years till the new aircraft carrier will be completed and built that will have his name on it honored alongside the hands full of other Presidential aircraft carriers. Martin would have been proud too.