Frank Leon Miller

Frank Miller ca. 1942

Spokane Chronicle, August 23, 1949

Quick Facts

Significance:

US Navy Sailor, World War II, KIA

Place of Birth:

Missoula, Montana

Date of Birth:

June 20, 1922

Place of Death:

Off the Southwestern Coast of Okinawa

Date of Death:

July 30, 1945

Place of Burial:

Cathlamet, Washington

Cemetery Name:

Greenwood Cemetery

Born in Missoula, Montana, Frank Leon Miller grew up as the youngest of three siblings. At 20 years old he was working in the family run Miller’s Garage as a mechanic’s helper in Cathlamet, Washington, a trade he learned at the side of his father Frank T. Miller and his older brother Gratian.

In August 1942, Miller traveled to Portland, Oregon, and enlisted in the US Navy, starting as an apprentice seaman. At the US Naval Training Station in San Diego, California, he completed his basic training. Miller then continued in the Service School expanding his mechanical expertise while working his way up in rank from apprentice seaman, to seaman 2nd class, and fireman 1st class (F1c). After a short trip home, he reported to the cruiser USS Nashville (CL-43) April 15, 1943. On May 12, 1943, while shelling Vila airfield on Kolombangara, Nashville had a powder charge explode in one of its turrets which killed 18 sailors and wounded another 17. In August, shortly after the ship returned stateside for repairs, Nashville was busy again in the Pacific.

In early October, F1c Miller was back in California. The following month he started a round of training to prepare him for working on a destroyer (firefighting, gunnery, night lookout, and learning how to be a petty officer in E.P.O. School). On December 31, 1943, he joined the crew (plank owners) of USS Cassin Young (DD-793). Frank continued to work his way up the ranks as a water tender (WT3c in February of 1944, WT2c February of 1945). He qualified to stand watch in the fireroom.

On April 12, 1945, while on picket duty off the coast of Okinawa, a kamikaze struck the mast of Cassin Young and exploded. Shrapnel rained down on the ship, killing one sailor and wounding 59 more. Miller was wounded in the leg and awarded a purple heart.¹ Cassin Young went to Ulithi Atoll where the radar and mast were repaired, and then returned to picket duty. In The Two-Ocean War historian Samuel Eliot Morrison writes, "Radar picket duty could be as suicidal for the picketing sailors as for the attacking Japanese."²

On July 30, 1945, USS Cassin Young was struck by a kamikaze a second time. This time the plane crashed through the main deck and into the forward fireroom, causing a significant explosion. WT2c Miller was fatally injured and passed away later that day aboard USS Cascade (AD-16). This kamikaze attack killed 22 sailors, including the 23-year-old Miller.

In 1949, Frank Miller’s final resting place became the Greenwood Cemetery in his hometown of Cathlamet, Washington.

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Footnotes:

1. Official Military Personnel File of Clyde Milton Reasoner, National Personnel Records Center, National Archives and Records Administration, St. Louis, MO.
2. Ralph Samuel Rhoads, USS Cassin Young (DD-793) A Sailor’s War Diary (2017), entry for May 15, 1945