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These Tough Americans Fought In WWII, Korea, and Vietnam

Khalid Elhassan August 2, 2019 23 min

Basil L. Plumley - Sgt. Maj. Basil Plumley

6. From the Army to the Air Force

Harry Miller stayed in Europe after the war, until 1948, when he was reassigned to Japan. There, he ended up as a communications specialist in Douglas MacArthur’s headquarters. When the Korean War broke out, Miller accompanied MacArthur when he became commander of the UN forces in that conflict. Unlike in Europe, Miller’s HQ job kept him away from the front lines in Korea. After his tour in MacArthur’s HQ ended, Miller tried to get new orders for Korea, but it did not pan out.

In 1954, after completing his second enlistment, Miller joined the Air Force, and ended up in the communications staff of the Strategic Air Command. In that capacity, he helped plan the communications and cryptology of bombers in the Vietnam War. He retired after 22 years of service, with fond memories of his time in uniform. As he stated in 2018: “I tell people in the military to stay in for as long as you possibly can … For me, I retired 52 years ago and I’ve never once, not for a moment, been sorry about my time in the military“.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.