Online Source: http://files.usgwarchives.org/la/lasalle/obits/miller-obits.txt

Extracted from The Jena Times - Olla Tullos Signal (Jena, LA)
Thursday, July 6, 1944

Sgt. Floyd O' Miller's Death Confirmed by War Department

Confirmation of the death of S/Sgt. Floyd O. Miller, son of Mrs. C. A. Miller of Jena, La., has been received from the War Department. According to the message, S/Sgt. Miller was killed in action over Germany May 28, 1944. The information came through the International Red Cross.

Miller's death brought to a close a colorful career in Uncle Sam's Army Air Service. A former linotype operator on The Jena Times - his hometown newspaper - he volunteered in the Air Corps in November 1942. Although considered too old for aerial combat duty, Miller, who was 41 at the time of his death, clung doggedly to his determination to man a machine gun on a fortress, ``worried'' his superior officers into giving him a chance to attend gunnery school, where he finished with honors and became a waist gunner on a flying fortress. Affectionately called ``Old Man Miller,'' by his buddies and associates, S/Sgt. Miller first broke into print when ``The Plane News,'' service paper published somewhere in England, carried a two-column feature article on the aerial gunner in June of 1943. Later, Bob Considine, International News Service staff correspondent, wrote an article on Miller which was published in the daily press throughout the United States.

On Oct. 12, 1943, S/Sgt. Miller, with others of his group, received commendations from Winston Churchill, RAF Air Chief Marshall Portal, General Marshall, Chief of Staff, U. S. Army, General Arnold, Commanding General, Army Air Forces, Lt. Gen. Ira Eaker, Brig. Gen. Anderson, and Brig. Gen. Williams. The commendations were awarded for a mission over Anklam, Germany, on Oct. 9, 1943, in which German fighter factories at Anklam and Marienburg were destroyed.

S/Sgt. Miller was first reported missing in action on June 11. He leaves, besides his mother, one daughter, Mona Rose, age 8; a sister, Mrs. M. O. Williams of Baton Rouge. His wife, Mrs. Bertha Parker Miller, died in a New Orleans hospital April 16, 1944.