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| Cpl. Homer Mills was a medic attached to the 31st Infantry Division in New Guinea. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22331183/homer-eugene-mills https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2019/01/20/to-die-with-honor/ |
Homer Eugene Mills never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
Announcement: Later this month I will be starting a project that will result in the stories of all 400,000 plus of the World War 2 fallen at one online location. There will be an accompanying smart phone app to allow users visiting any war memorial to scan the fallen serviceman's name and be linked to his story. Watch this blog or join the WW2 Fallen 100 Facebook page to learn of upcoming details.
Homer was born on January 15, 1920 in Troutman, North Carolina. His parents Enoch and Annie were also both born in North Carolina. His father worked as a church minister. Homer had one older sister, three younger sisters, and two younger brothers. He had a twin brother who died at age seven. He completed four years of high school and found work as a sales clerk.
He was drafted into the army in October 1941. He became a Tech 5 in Company A, 106th Medical Battalion. By spring 1944 he was serving in New Guinea. At that point his unit was attached to the 31st Infantry Division.
The 31st ID first saw action at Aitape, New Guinea on July 3. It took part in the Battle of Driniumor River beginning on July 10 when the 20,000 strong Japanese 18th Army decided to attack the outnumbered Americans at the Driniumor River. The Americans fought off one frontal assault after another. One engagement resulted in Japanese bodies piled so high, the American soldiers had to leave their foxholes to pull the bodies down to clear machine-gun fields of fire. Over the next month and a half the Japanese suffered around 10,000 killed and the Americans had more than 2,500 wounded and 440 killed.
Cpl. Homer Mills was killed in action on July 15, 1944. One source claims he earned the Silver Star for protecting other soldiers under Japanese fire at the cost of his life. Unfortunately, I was not able to find a copy of the citation.
His grave is at Willow Valley Cemetery in Mooreville, North Carolina.
Last year on this date I profiled squadron commander and P-51 fighter ace Phillip Chapman. You can read about Phillip 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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