"Doris 'Dorie' Miller" by Aframnews.com. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

WACO, Texas (AP) — The Waco Veterans Affairs Medical Center will be renamed to honor World War II hero Doris Miller in a ceremony Thursday.

The U.S. House and Senate approved the change to the Doris Miller Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center last year and President Barack Obama signed the measure in December.

Miller, a Waco native, was the first black American to receive the Navy Cross.

Petty Officer “Dorie” Miller was a mess attendant and boxing champion aboard the USS West Virginia in 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Miller took over an unattended machine gun and helped rescue wounded shipmates.

He died in action in 1943.

“The community at large will have, I think, more of a sense of the VA belonging to the community and the community belonging to the VA when we have a local hero with their name on the front,” according to Waco Mayor Malcolm Duncan Jr.

The hospital already has a red granite monument to Miller that has been moved to a prominent position near flags at the entrance to the complex, the Waco Tribune-Herald reported Wednesday.

Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. portrayed Miller in the 2001 movie “Pearl Harbor.”

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