4. Heroism Without Orders and the Last Stand AUTHOR NAME: Admiral James Stavridis, United States Navy (Retired) BOOK TITLE: To Risk It All: Nine Conflicts and the Crucible of Decision This segment emphasizes extreme courage. Cook Third Class Doris "Dorie"
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
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🗓️ 13 October 2025
⏱️ 11 minutes
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Summary
4. Heroism Without Orders and the Last Stand
BOOK TITLE: To Risk It All: Nine Conflicts and the Crucible of Decision
This segment emphasizes extreme courage. Cook Third Class Doris "Dorie" Miller, an African-American man in the segregated Navy, displayed pure heroism at Pearl Harbor by aiding the wounded captain and operating an anti-aircraft gun, earning the Navy Cross. Commander Ernest Evans led the heroic "last stand of the tin can sailors" at Leyte Gulf, charging the massive Japanese fleet (including Yamato) and successfully bluffing their retreat.
1944 IMPERIAL JAPANESE DESTROYER IN LEYTE GULF
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| 0:28.5 | This is CBSI in the world. I'm John Batchel with Admiral Jim Stavridis. |
| 0:33.8 | The United States Navy retired. His new book is, To Risk It All, Nine Conflicts in the Crucible of Decision. It is December 7th, 1941 on USS, West Virginia, a battleship, a dreadnought, |
| 0:41.3 | tied up in Pearl Harbor, and now being attacked by the wave after wave of Japanese warplanes. |
| 0:48.1 | This is the moment that begins the crisis for the U.S. Navy. A Cook third class, Doris Dory Miller from Waco, Texas, African American, is spending that day |
| 1:01.1 | it's a Sunday on board with his friends, and yet the attack comes, and they're told to go to |
| 1:07.4 | general quarters. |
| 1:08.7 | At that moment, Doris Dory Miller makes decisions that I, Jim, I don't |
| 1:14.3 | understand how he came to this level of heroism and he stayed there all day. He must have known he |
| 1:19.2 | wasn't going to survive. Indeed. You can only look at this as an act of pure courage, pure heroism. He literally charges to the sound of the guns. |
| 1:31.1 | He goes to the bridge of the ship where his captain has been mortally wounded, but he helps |
| 1:35.9 | evacuate the captain from the bridge. And then most famously, he goes down to a gun deck. |
| 1:41.2 | There's a crew served single anti-aircraft gun. He doesn't know how to operate it. |
| 1:47.8 | He hasn't been trained to do that. He and a couple of his shipmates kind of figure it out. |
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