The Navy on Martin Luther King Jr. Day named an aircraft carrier for the first time for an African American, and for the first time for an enlisted sailor, in bestowing the honor on Ship’s Cook 3rd Class Doris Miller, who overcame segregated roles and seized the initiative to became a hero when he fired back at attacking Japanese planes on Dec. 7, 1941.

“Doris Miller was the son of a sharecropper, a descendant of slaves,” Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said from a Pearl Harbor pier Monday. “He was not given the same opportunities that men of a different color were given to serve his country. But on Dec. 7, 1941, just behind me, he would not be defined by the prejudice of other peoples.”

In 1941 an African American was not allowed to man a gun in the Navy, and as far as rank was concerned, “he could not really get above a messman level,” said Doreen Ravenscroft, president of Cultural Arts of Waco (Texas) and team leader for the Doris Miller Memorial.

But on Dec. 7 Miller, a 22-year-old sailor on the USS West Virginia, had what his niece Henrietta Miller- Bledsoe called a “why not me?” moment when he aided the battleship’s wounded captain and manned an unattended .50-caliber machine gun. Miller had never been trained to operate the gun.

“It wasn’t hard. I just pulled the trigger and she worked fine. I had watched the others with these guns. I guess I fired her for about 15 minutes,” he said later, believing he “got” one of the Japanese planes.

The then-mess attendant subsequently “saved the lives of many sailors” by pulling them from the burning harbor, and was one of the last three crew to abandon ship, Modly said. He was awarded the Navy Cross for bravery by Adm. Chester Nimitz.

“I often say we have these ‘why not me?’ moments,” Miller-Bledsoe told more than 500 mostly sailors and civilians during the Kilo Pier ceremony. “When Uncle Doris decided that he was going to step up to the machine gun and shoot, it was his ‘why not me?’ moment.”

“And as we go through this life, we’re all going to be confronted by ‘why not me?’ moments — whether they be small or whether they affect (many),” the Forth Worth, Texas, resident said. “Each one, you will be affecting someone if you take action upon that moment.”

Modly broke somewhat with Navy tradition — most carriers in recent times have been named after presidents and members of Congress — in selecting the name USS Doris Miller for CVN 81, the fourth new Ford-class aircraft carrier.

“Dorie Miller stood for everything that is good about our nation,” the acting Navy secretary said, using Miller’s nickname.

“He is not just the story of one sailor,” he added. “It is the story of our Navy, of our nation and our ongoing struggle to form, in the words of our Constitution, a more perfect union.” Today the list of “Dorie Miller successors” includes admirals and generals with African Americans “serving in every rank and every specialty throughout our Navy and Marine Corps team,” he said.

Modly said it was his honor to formally announce the aircraft carrier named USS Doris Miller — drawing resounding applause and a standing ovation. The $12.5 billion vessel is expected to be delivered in 2032.

The name also honors the contributions of “all of our enlisted ranks, past and present, men and women of every race, religion and background,” who are the “backbone of our naval force, the steel spine of our ships,” Modly said.

Miller, a native of Waco, Texas, died on the escort carrier Liscome Bay when it was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine on Nov. 24, 1943, during the invasion of the Gilbert Islands.

Miller’s actions have been memorialized over the years in film, with the naming of a past destroyer escort and 2016 rededication of a plaque in the Doris Miller Housing complex on Nimitz Highway.

Speaker U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Texas Democrat, compared Miller to some of the ideals espoused by civil rights leader King.

“He said the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy,” Johnson said. “He also said the time is always right to do right.”

Johnson said she’s tried for 27 years to get the Medal of Honor for Miller. “My journey’s not quite over” yet, she added.