WWII veteran to lead Aurora’s Memorial Day Parade
AURORA, Ill. — A 97-year-old World War II veteran will be the Grand Marshal of Aurora’s Memorial Day Parade.
Richard “Dick” Miller will be presented Tuesday with a mayoral proclamation and his Grand Marshal’s sash.
He graduated in 1944 from East Aurora High School and enlisted in the U.S. Navy.
Miller was on the U.S.S. Drexler the day it was destroyed by Japanese kamikaze planes. He was rescued by a pilot after spending a couple of hours in the water with black oil sputtering all around him.
Miller discharged in 1946 and served in the Navy Reserve for the next five years. He ended up working for the U.S. Post Office and raised two children with his late wife Dorothy.
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His biography is below, per the City of Aurora.
“Born in Aurora on June 26, 1926, Dick Miller attended St. Paul School and East Aurora High School. Upon graduation, he enlisted in the United States Navy in 1944. He was stationed in Pearl Harbor before being deployed on the destroyer ship U.S.S. Drexler, which headed for the staging area for the Battle of Okinawa, the bloodiest battle of the war in the Pacific. The invasion began on April 1, 1945, and on May 28, 1945, the U.S.S. Drexler was destroyed after kamikaze planes crashed into it.
“I was a spotter for Japanese kamikaze planes,” Miller said. “We were hit twice, and the second one blew our ship to pieces and propelled us into the ocean.”
Nearly 160 people on board were killed, and another 52 were wounded, including Miller. Keeping himself afloat by holding onto an empty canister, he spent a couple of hours in the water with black oil splashing into his eyes, nose, and mouth. Swallowing it could have been fatal. A pilot searching for survivors eventually rescued him, and he was transported to a hospital in Pearl Harbor. The war in the Pacific ended while he was recovering in the hospital. Miller was discharged in April 1946 and returned home to Illinois, and joined the Navy Reserve for an additional five years.
Like so many heroes of our Greatest Generation, he settled into quiet civilian life after the war. He married his high school sweetheart and began a three-decades-long career at the US Post Office. He and his late wife, Dorothy, raised two children and have two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
At nearly 98, Miller is still active in veterans’ causes in the community and frequently speaks in local schools and civic groups about his experiences.”
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