A Symbolic Choice

Young Raymond Miller served as copilot, flying in 8th Air Force combat missions over Northern and Central Europe in World War II. Their aircraft was a four-engine heavy bomber known as the B-17 or Flying Fortress. The aircraft was touted as a strategic weapon; it was a potent, high-flying, long-range bomber that was able to defend itself.

After the Pearl Harbor surprise attack in 1941, with the country living under the cloud of war on two war fronts, Raymond, with his brother Russell, symbolically chose to enlist into the reserves on a fall day October 13, 1942. Later, his younger brother Richard would enlist after graduating from Indianapolis, Indiana's John Herron School of Art.

Raymond "Ray" Miller was born in Mount Vernon, Ohio, on October 3, 1922. Raymond was the oldest of three boys. Russell was born on April 20, 1924, and Richard on December 9, 1925. The boys grew up deeply connected, being close in age. They had fun playing, working, and planning things together, with interests in flying.

As children of working-class parents Leroy and Josephine Miller, they were poor. Their father, Leroy, was restless and would move the family from place to place. In 1927, the family would move from Ohio to Marion, Indiana, where his mother's parents, Calvin and Jennie Griffin, were living. His mother was born in a small town southeast of Marion called Jonesboro. Most of the time, to go to school or church it meant walking. Raymond was enrolled in School Number 9 on Salem Pike, about 1 1/2 miles east of his grandpa Griffin's house where the family was staying. With there not being any school bus, Raymond walked or ran to and from school. In the winter, sometimes after running, his lungs would burn from the frigid cold.

Raymond was a good student. He was a natural at whatever he did and not afraid to work hard. With Russell and Richard, he worked on different projects. They each had chores to do. They helped with the garden and cared for the chickens. The three drank three gallons of milk a day. On the Spratt's farm where their mother bought the milk, they helped Mr. Spratt with his chores. They worked helping them to make hay and putting it up in the barn's hayloft. They were not paid, but for the three, it was fun and kept them busy and entertained. They also shucked corn and loaded it on the wagon. To their north was the municipal golf course where they became involved at being caddies. They would go to the caddie house at five o'clock in the morning and wait for jobs. They were fortunate to get some of the regular golf players to pick them to caddy. If they were good and didn't lose any golf balls, they got paid twenty-five cents for every nine holes. If lucky, they went eighteen holes and made fifty cents, and if they didn't lose golf balls, they were tipped another quarter. Sometimes they made as much as one dollar and fifty cents a day. They felt rich for they were making money.

The family moved to Five Points on the northwest side of Marion, and it actually was a place where the roads merged and made five points. Not living in the city limits, Raymond went to the ninth grade at the Marion Sweetzer High School. Raymond tried out for the basketball team, which called for evening practice. Since the school bus had already left, Raymond had to walk home about six miles. He says, needless to say, "I didn't do that very many times, but to play basketball, I had to make that long walk."

While in high school, Raymond got a job at the Marion, Indiana Shoe Factory and was paid 35¢ an hour, $13 a week. Feeling rich with his earned savings, he went downtown to the car agency and bought a 1932 Plymouth for $100. Being proud of his first car purchase, he took his father along for a ride when he went to play ball at Summitville. The car broke down with a flat tire. Raymond, in a change of mind, took the car back downtown to the car dealer who said he'd take the Plymouth in on a trade, so Raymond traded for a 1930 Model A Ford coupe for $90. That car would last Raymond fifteen years until 1954 when he sold it for $120. It provided transportation for his father and Richard, which Raymond was most proud of.

In 1939, Raymond became heavily involved in playing baseball, which pleased his father. He hadn't participated in a whole lot of sports. His major sport was baseball, although he did play on the golf team and played a little football. Raymond graduated from Marion High School in Indiana in 1940. There was a local restaurant called the Hilltop where the young people gathered after games and dances. Raymond would stop at Hilltop Restaurant and listen to all the latest of news.

In school Raymond took science classes and for his merit performance received the Bausch and Lomb Honorary Science Award. Raymond was intelligent. While he was in the sixth grade he was promoted a half grade ahead from class 6-A to class 6-B.

In 1940, Raymond went to work at the Anaconda Wire Factory. During that time, he played a lot of ball. After staying out of school for a year, in 1941, Raymond enrolled in Marion College, and in the spring of that year, he traveled to Greenville, Tennessee, and tried out for a class D professional baseball team. To his amazement, his father let him and Russell use his new 1939 Plymouth Chrysler to drive to Tennessee. Raymond tried out and made the club. He joined the team at the end of the school term. After some time, he received word from Greenville that the league was folding because of the war and there was no transportation.

Raymond was at the Marion Armory playing basketball on December 7, 1941. When Raymond got home, they received news that Pearl Harbor had been attacked by the Japanese. The next day, President Roosevelt stood before Congress and called to America to fight. He called December 7 a "date which will live in infamy."

Congress declared war against Japan. At the time, Raymond's father thought that he was the one who was going to have to go into the service. The next week, young men flocked to volunteer because of the shock and carnage of the Japanese's surprise attack. The Selective Service Act ratified in 1940 was better known as the Selected Training and Service Act. The United States Navy and the Marine Corps did not participate in conscription. The conscript swelled the ranks of the United States Army. In one month, sixty thousand men had enlisted in the United States Army and Navy.

When Raymond's father found out that it may be his sons who would be going into the military, he suggested that he take them down to the Everglades and hide out. "Well," Raymond says, "you can imagine our reaction. We refused to do that."

Russell graduated from high school in 1941. In the fall of 1942, Raymond and Russell enrolled in Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. On October 13, 1942, they walked across the West Lafayette Bridge to the recruiters' office in Lafayette, Indiana and enlisted in the Reserve Army Air Corps. This allowed them to keep attending school and be available if they were needed. Raymond had gone to Purdue University majoring in civil engineering. He was to play on the baseball team in the spring, and during the winter, he cleaned the locker room and was given all his meals free at the student union. In those days, it was known as a scholarship-type token, just at a totally different scale than today. Purdue began to give out scholarships in 1958. Raymond and Russell stayed at a rooming...