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| Glen Miller was a fireman first class on the USS Porter at the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/38073635/glen-allen-miller https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Porter_(DD-356) |
Glen Allen Miller never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on May 19, 1918 (or perhaps May 9) in Iowa. His parents Abram and Mildred were born in Illinois and Iowa, respectively. His father worked as a farmer. He died in 1928 of meningitis at age 36. Glen had two younger sisters and a half-brother from his mother's second marriage. He completed four years of high school.
Glen joined the Navy on January 20, 1940. He became a fireman first class on the destroyer USS Porter. It missed being in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 by two days.
Porter was part of the task force protecting the carrier USS Enterprise during the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands on October 26, 1942. By 9:30 am Enterprise could no longer land more planes, her deck was full with planes from both her squadrons and those from damaged Hornet. Planes began ditching into the sea and destroyers picked up the fliers. A damaged TBF ditched near Porter. Moments later Porter was struck by a torpedo. Later investigation concluded that it was likely from the TBF, an unlucky, and unindented hit. The torpedo fatally damaged the destroyer so it was sunk by gunfire from the destroyer Shaw to keep it out of enemy hands. Fireman Miller was one of 15 sailors killed by the tragic accident.
His cenotaph grave is at Fontana Cemetery, Hazleton, Iowa.
NORMAN DIKE
Also born on the same day as Glen Miller was Norman Dike, best known to the millions who watched the HBO mini-series Band of Brothers as the ineffectual commander of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division during the Battle of the Bulge. He was replaced by Lt. Ronald Spiers when Lt. Dike froze up during the attack on Foy.
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| https://alchetron.com/Norman-Dike https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/53208215/norman-staunton-dike |
Perhaps by the time depicted in Band of Brothers Lt. Dike had reached the breaking point. He had already been twice awarded Purple Hearts for combat wounds and had also received two Bronze Stars -- for leading men in the defense of a vital road junction in Holland and or rescuing three wounded men while under fire during the Battle of the Bulge (not shown in the miniseries).
After being removed from command of Company E, Lt Dike went back to serve in a staff position and was eventually chosen to serve as the aide-de-camp to the Division commander. He served in the Korean War. Dike retired as a Lt. Colonel, became a lawyer, and died in 1989.
Last year on this date I profiled Robert Putnam, 35th Infantry Division. You can read about Robert 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
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