Veteran Interview with Dan Miller (E)
Mr. Miller describes events that occurred at Army rest camps during World War II. (5:00)Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive Interview with Dan Miller June 24, 2011 Florence, Alabama Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood Also present are Mr. Miller’s wife, Winnie Miller and his s...
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| Format: | Electronic |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library
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| Online Access: | https://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/war/id/141 |
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Electronic |
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War Years at Home and Abroad Collection |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library |
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Military life |
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Military life Veteran Interview with Dan Miller (E) Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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Military life World War 1939-1945; Military camps |
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Mr. Miller describes events that occurred at Army rest camps during World War II. (5:00)Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Dan Miller
June 24, 2011
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood
Also present are Mr. Miller’s wife, Winnie Miller and his son, Larry Miller
Clip 5
Dan Miller: Okay, and while I was there, there was a boy in our company was a good, good musician, he played, played guitar and then the bands come in there and he’d join their bands and stuff, and he was about two doors down from me living in the room there where I was in that hotel. And we’d get together and play guitar together, you know, I’d go in there and play with him. And we were friends, you know, just goo—; they were about two or three doors down from me. So I played there from, till about nine o’clock and that was the time to go to bed, for we got to go to work at eight. And about twenty minutes after I left there, his roommate came in, well, I said, about twenty minutes later I heard a gunshot. His roommate came in and this boy that played the guitar went berserk some way or another and shot his roommate, but ah, the only two people killed in our company of all the folks that was there that was one of them and I don’t know who that other one was they said. But that’s the only two comp—that was the only body got hurt in our company. Anyway, that’s why we stayed there and while we was there, we, ah, one experience I had there in that summer, ’44, we, we were there close to the ocean that was on the east side, I forgot what the name of that ocean on the east side of the peninsula—
Clint Alley: Is that the Adriatic?
DM: Adriatic, I guess, on the right, we’d go over there and swim. If we worked the night shift they would, they’d have, furnish us a truck and there was about fifteen miles over there to it and we’d get up a truck load and we’d go over there and swim for two or three hours, come in during our break time, see, we had some, a few hours to do that every day. And there was two, a couple English soldiers out there swimming out. I had a float, you know, just a air float got a hold of somewhere, like the Army might have furnished it to me, I don’t know. But anyway, they, they were just out there waist deep a little bit and just bouncing around in the water. I didn’t know they couldn’t swim and I had my float; I was between them and the bank. And so I, I saw them out there about to go under and I, I took my float and went on out there; I didn’t call for help which I should have done. But I went out there and I thought I’d get them back on that float and bring them in. Got to the first one and got him pushed, pushed him back, but I should have gone to the second one first; I didn’t do that. I got the first one back where he could stand up and then I started for the other one and he started going down before I could get to him, I was about ten feet from him, but he went down and it was finally about twenty or thirty minutes, why, he floated to the bank. But that was a bad situation there. I wish I could have done better. But anyway, that was my experience in Foggia. [Mr. Miller reads from a written summary of his company activities.] On August 20, 1944, we became, we became the Company B of the 1710s Signal Division Aviation Battalion. The allies took France, Italy—, our allies took France and Italy, too, and we moved to Florence, Italy and continued operation there with Air Force headquarters in November and then it says here that we received commendations from Major General Cannon, Commander of the 12th Air Force, and that’s what you’ve got the copy of.
CA: Um-hm. Yeah.
DM: They shipped us to Florence, Italy and, ah, the city of Florence and we stayed there the rest of the time in the communications. All army bases over there, after you stay there a while, the months, they set up a rest camp area. And so we went over to the beach area, they’d set up a res—, rest camp over on the beach and I went over there one, well I, well I made, really two trips while I was there in Florence. I stayed there over a year, about a year and a half, and made two trips over to that beach area. And, of course, down there the kids and families didn’t have anything. They, they was tore up, I mean, they’re short of food and everything else. You see that in, in all war zones. Kids out there, course we had to, in the rest camps we were circled with wire and stuff where kids couldn’t get in to us, where they had our area. But we, where we ate there was pretty close to the fence and kids out there lined up, dozens of them, wanting food. Ah, you just couldn’t, you couldn’t eat all your food, you had to give them some. Well, that’s enough of that.
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| title |
Veteran Interview with Dan Miller (E) |
| titleStr |
Veteran Interview with Dan Miller (E) |
| author |
Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
| author_facet |
Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
| id |
FLCPLwar141 |
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https://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/war/id/141 |
| thumbnail |
http://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getthumbnail/collection/war/id/141 |
| _version_ |
1705462192814424064 |
| spelling |
Veteran Interview with Dan Miller (E)World War 1939-1945; Military campsMr. Miller describes events that occurred at Army rest camps during World War II. (5:00)Florence-Lauderdale Public LibraryFlorence-Lauderdale Public LibraryDan Miller2011-06-24sound; textaudio/mp3; text/pdfEnglishPart of the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library CollectionMay be protected by U.S. Copyright laws. Contact the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library for permission to use.Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Dan Miller
June 24, 2011
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood
Also present are Mr. Miller’s wife, Winnie Miller and his son, Larry Miller
Clip 5
Dan Miller: Okay, and while I was there, there was a boy in our company was a good, good musician, he played, played guitar and then the bands come in there and he’d join their bands and stuff, and he was about two doors down from me living in the room there where I was in that hotel. And we’d get together and play guitar together, you know, I’d go in there and play with him. And we were friends, you know, just goo—; they were about two or three doors down from me. So I played there from, till about nine o’clock and that was the time to go to bed, for we got to go to work at eight. And about twenty minutes after I left there, his roommate came in, well, I said, about twenty minutes later I heard a gunshot. His roommate came in and this boy that played the guitar went berserk some way or another and shot his roommate, but ah, the only two people killed in our company of all the folks that was there that was one of them and I don’t know who that other one was they said. But that’s the only two comp—that was the only body got hurt in our company. Anyway, that’s why we stayed there and while we was there, we, ah, one experience I had there in that summer, ’44, we, we were there close to the ocean that was on the east side, I forgot what the name of that ocean on the east side of the peninsula—
Clint Alley: Is that the Adriatic?
DM: Adriatic, I guess, on the right, we’d go over there and swim. If we worked the night shift they would, they’d have, furnish us a truck and there was about fifteen miles over there to it and we’d get up a truck load and we’d go over there and swim for two or three hours, come in during our break time, see, we had some, a few hours to do that every day. And there was two, a couple English soldiers out there swimming out. I had a float, you know, just a air float got a hold of somewhere, like the Army might have furnished it to me, I don’t know. But anyway, they, they were just out there waist deep a little bit and just bouncing around in the water. I didn’t know they couldn’t swim and I had my float; I was between them and the bank. And so I, I saw them out there about to go under and I, I took my float and went on out there; I didn’t call for help which I should have done. But I went out there and I thought I’d get them back on that float and bring them in. Got to the first one and got him pushed, pushed him back, but I should have gone to the second one first; I didn’t do that. I got the first one back where he could stand up and then I started for the other one and he started going down before I could get to him, I was about ten feet from him, but he went down and it was finally about twenty or thirty minutes, why, he floated to the bank. But that was a bad situation there. I wish I could have done better. But anyway, that was my experience in Foggia. [Mr. Miller reads from a written summary of his company activities.] On August 20, 1944, we became, we became the Company B of the 1710s Signal Division Aviation Battalion. The allies took France, Italy—, our allies took France and Italy, too, and we moved to Florence, Italy and continued operation there with Air Force headquarters in November and then it says here that we received commendations from Major General Cannon, Commander of the 12th Air Force, and that’s what you’ve got the copy of.
CA: Um-hm. Yeah.
DM: They shipped us to Florence, Italy and, ah, the city of Florence and we stayed there the rest of the time in the communications. All army bases over there, after you stay there a while, the months, they set up a rest camp area. And so we went over to the beach area, they’d set up a res—, rest camp over on the beach and I went over there one, well I, well I made, really two trips while I was there in Florence. I stayed there over a year, about a year and a half, and made two trips over to that beach area. And, of course, down there the kids and families didn’t have anything. They, they was tore up, I mean, they’re short of food and everything else. You see that in, in all war zones. Kids out there, course we had to, in the rest camps we were circled with wire and stuff where kids couldn’t get in to us, where they had our area. But we, where we ate there was pretty close to the fence and kids out there lined up, dozens of them, wanting food. Ah, you just couldn’t, you couldn’t eat all your food, you had to give them some. Well, that’s enough of that.
http://server15947.contentdm.oclc.org/u?/war,141 |