1st. Lt. Judson F. Miller (0103272)

Judson F. Miller’s daughter, Kathy Williams, published a book of his wartime letters home, which is essential reading for scholars of frontline life in WW2. ‘Dear Dad’ is available from Amazon here. Kathy has provided the following synopsis of her father’s life and service below.

Judson F. Miller was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was the oldest of three sons and said he always wanted to be an officer in the army. He graduated high school from Oklahoma Military Academy (OMA) and was attending his freshman year of college at OMA when he turned 18. He promptly dropped out of OMA and enlisted as a buck private.  He did this against his parents’ wishes. He told his daughter that he was afraid he was going to miss the war.

He went to Officer Candidate School at FT Riley, Kansas. Sometime between July 4 and July 27, (according to his letters home) of 1944 he found himself in France. He was a second lieutenant with a tank platoon of 20 men and five tanks.

After the war he was in the Army of Occupation where he met and married an army nurse, Bette Lancaster. They had four children, three of whom were born in army forts.

His mother saved his 67 WWII letters he sent to her, his father and siblings. He wrote faithfully nearly every week trying to reassure his family that he was just fine and dandy. These are compiled in a book, Dear Dad. The original letters and other artifacts are at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, LA.

He went on to fight in the Korean War and Vietnam. Miller made a 34-year career out of the army and retired as a general.  He attended college while off duty and earned a Bachelor of Science at the University of Maryland and a Master of Arts Degree in International Relations from George Washington University. After retiring from the army, he went back to college and earned a law degree from the University of Puget Sound School of Law. He practiced law with the law firm of F.G. Enslow & Associates in Tacoma, WA.