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With countless other World War II vets, Keith
Miller of Bar Harbor was content to move forward
in life after the war and leave the past
undisturbed. He succeeded for a very long
time. And though a mere five bucks unraveled
that resolve, you need to know the whole story.
Miller, who is now 80, was born and raised in
Monogahela, Pa. It’s coal-mining country. The
boys who didn’t descend into the mines worked in
the steel mills. Miller probably would have
followed one of those career paths were it not
for the outbreak of war and his own feeling that
“I had to do something.”
He graduated from Monogahela High School and
joined the Navy. The year was 1943. After
training and temporary assignments, in August
1944 he joined the crew of the destroyer Uhlmann
and steamed into the Pacific campaign.
The Uhlmann supported the Allied beachhead on
Leyte in the Philippines in October 1944.
Radioman Miller went ashore with an officer to
help the ship’s gunners with their marksmanship.
As shells from the ship landed, they radioed
back the locations of the hits to direct them
closer to Japanese artillery and machine gun
bunkers.
Miller avoided the bullets flying all around
but he neglected to dodge the mosquito that had
his name on it. He came down with malaria.
For treatment, he was transferred to the
destroyer tender Dixie. On recovering his
health, he learned that the Uhlmann had sailed
into new action, so Miller became a member of
the Dixie’s radio unit. He made a pal while
serving aboard the Dixie, a fellow radio jockey
named Bill McGrath.
When the war ended, on Aug. 16, 1945, Miller
was still assigned to the Dixie. His crewmates
whooped, danced, thanked God and wept at word
the war was over. Miller took it all in,
realized that he was probably going to live and
— in less time than it takes to tell it — he
quit smoking. Even back then, he said, there was
evidence cigarettes and longevity were at odds.
The Dixie was assigned to sail up the
Whangpoo River to Shanghai.
“As we went up the Whangpoo, the Japanese
were coming down. I recall the Japanese of at
least one ship were standing at attention as we
passed but the crew was standing with their
backs to us. I am assuming that they felt they
had lost face,” he said.
Miller and his buddy Bill McGrath had a good
time in Shanghai. And at one point, when McGrath
was short on funds, Miller loaned him $5.
Miller was honorably discharged in April 1946
and he went right back to Monogahela. But he
didn’t enter a mine or a mill. Like most of the
other lads in his graduating class, he went to
college on the GI Bill.
He earned his degree, did some graduate work,
taught junior high and, while enjoying a
summer’s work as a seasonal ranger at Mount
Rainier National Park, joined the national Park
Service.
His career took him and his young wife,
Carolyn, all over the country with a long stop
in Bar Harbor where Miller served as
superintendent of Acadia National Park from 1971
to 1978.
Keith and Carolyn retired to Bar Harbor in
1988, content to enjoy their two children and
grandchildren. Then, late last year, a letter
arrived from a chap whose name was vaguely
familiar. Bill McGrath. In the letter was a
check for $50.
McGrath had tracked down most of the radiomen
with whom he had served, but had lost Keith
Miller. It took him 60 years to find him and, by
gosh, he had a debt to pay. McGrath figured the
$5 he’d borrowed in Shanghai had, what with
interest and inflation, grown to $50.
Miller gave the $50 to his grandson for his
college fund. Then he and McGrath got together
in July in Bar Harbor to look at old photo
albums and talk about their days at sea.
Memories are made of this. |
