Victor Laverne Miller Honored at last
Victor Laverne Miller Honored at last
When the World War II veteran died in 1985, his stories did, too.No more hearing about how he would stall his Curtiss Helldiver, slipping sideways to avoid the Japanese gunners. No more hearing about how the bombs he dropped blew up a ship and caused so much death.
No more seeing his face soften when he talked about flying in wispy clouds. Like kissing heaven, he’d say.
His grownup children held a simple memorial service. Victor Laverne Miller, 67, dive bomber pilot, Navy Cross recipient, piano player. He willed his body to the University of Kansas School of Medicine.
No remains to bury. No casket. Just a few prayers and hymns and memories.
But over the years, remembering the stories became harder and harder. Like millions of other families whose loved ones fought in one war or another, the Miller family had no documents, nothing on paper proving what he had done.
They didn’t even have a gravesite where they could go to remember him.
At their family gatherings, the question kept coming back: Dad was eligible to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, wasn’t he? Shouldn’t somebody check on it?
Burial now? Without a body? What about the tangle of paperwork? How would you gather all the documents? Where would you even begin?
It all seemed too hard, too intimidating, too time-consuming to try to dig out what they needed. With no military connections in the family, no one to help them through the labyrinth of military archives, it was easier to let go.
Until Jan Girando of Overland Park, the oldest of Miller’s five children, saw a newspaper article on how the national cemetery at Arlington, Va., was filling up. If they were going to get their father the recognition he deserved, now was the time.
Her three sisters and one brother tried. A sister was told it was probably too late. No ashes, no body, no burial. Forget it.
But Girando couldn’t forget. She couldn’t explain why, but she knew gaining this honor for her father would mean a lot to her family, now scattered across the country.
He and their mother had divorced. She died years before he did. And because she also had donated her body to a medical school, the family had no gravesite, no touchstone, no link tying everyone together except fading memories.
Like other service members whose stories have been forgotten, whose honors have been overlooked, he deserved recognition.
She vowed she wouldn’t give up until she had exhausted every possibility. But she had no idea it would take nearly a year from start to finish.
Read the rest of the Victor Miller story in the Kansas City Star here
Tags: American Valor, military tribute, veterans
Posts
