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| B-24 waist gunner Julian Miller served in the 90th Bombardment Group that went by the nickname "The Jolly Rogers". https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/15464952/julian-sidney-miller https://www.reddit.com/r/HistoryPorn/comments/wnbss/b24d130co_weezie_serial_number_4241081_a_model/ |
Julian Sidney Miller, Jr. never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on January 22, 1919 in Charlotte, North Carolina. His parents Julian and Frances were born in South Carolina and North Carolina, respectively. He was the Reverend Billy Graham's best friend growing up. His father worked as a newspaper editor for the Charlotte Observer. Julian had one older brother, two older sisters and one younger brother. He attended the University of North Carolina where he excelled in both basketball and baseball. He married the former Jacqueline Ackerman.
He was drafted into the army in October 1942. He volunteered for the Army Air Forces and after aircraft mechanics school and gunnery school, he was assigned to the 321st Bombardment Squad, 90th Bombardment Group ("The Jolly Rogers") with the rank of staff sergeant. The 90th BG was equipped with B-24 Liberators and was sent to Australia in November 1942.
Sgt. Miller was sent overseas in November 1943. By this time his unit was stationed in New Guinea. On February 29, 1944 Sgt. Miller's B-24 crashed and burned on take off, killing all onboard. He was on his last mission prior to a scheduled rest period in Australia.
His grave is at Arlington National Cemetery. I don't know what happened to his widow.
Last year on this date I profiled Medal of Honor hero Reinhardt Keppler, USS San Francisco. You can read about Reinhardt here.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
His widow was my grandmother. She went on to remarry my grandfather, Walter Craven Abernethy Sr and have 2 children, 6 grandchildren, and 9 great grandchildren. She spoke highly of her first husband, Julian Miller.
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