Charles Donald Miller Pfc. Usmc Reserve

On October 23, 2020, Marine Corps Reserve PFC Charles Donald Miller, 19, killed in World War
II, will finally be laid to rest - in American soil - with full military honors.

Born October 5, 1924 in Albany, Indiana, Charles was the older of two children blessed to the union of Donald "Don" and Lucille (nee Brown) Miller.

Like most kids in the town, young Charles grew up attending Albany Elementary School, then Delta Middle and High Schools. Graduating with the Albany High School class of '42, he'd been a member of the Albany basketball team for three years and played shortstop on the Albany Doodlesockers baseball team.

Fired up from the attacks on Pearl Harbor, he was determined to join the Armed Forces. For Satchy - barely 18 years old - this meant leaving his family’s 356 State Street home and taking a trip to Indianapolis to enlist in the United States Marine Corps Reserves. His unit eventually made it to Wellington, where Satchy and his buddies enjoyed the sights, scenes and hospitality of New Zealand while awaiting orders.

Private First Class Miller was with his brothers in Alpha Company, 1st Battalion of the 6th Marines (A-1/6) when they landed on Betio as part of Operation: GALVANIC. The mission of the 2nd Marine Division was to secure the island in order to control the Japanese airstrip in the Tarawa Atoll; thereby preventing the Japanese Imperial forces from getting closer to the United States, and enabling US forces to get closer to mainland Japan. It would become one of the bloodiest battles in the Corps history.

It was November 22, 1943 (D+2 for the “Battle of Tarawa”) when young Charles - just 19 years old - perished. Satchy was reportedly buried afterwards in one of the sites on Betio - a temporary location until the Fallen could be recovered and returned to their families.

For his service and sacrifice, Satchy's father accepted his awards and decorations, including:
- Purple Heart
- Combat Action Ribbon
- World War II Victory Medal
- American Campaign Medal
- Marine Corps Presidential Unit Citation
- Asiatic-Pacific Theater Campaign Medal
- Marine Corp Expeditionary Medal, and
- Gold Star Lapel Button.

Also left to mourn his passing were his mother, Mrs Frank Wojack, and big sister, Kathryn "Nola" (Mrs Charles Wilson).

Despite the heavy casualties suffered by U.S. forces, military success in the battle of Tarawa was a huge victory for the U.S. military because the Gilbert Islands provided the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet a platform from which to launch assaults on the Marshall and Caroline Islands to advance their Central Pacific Campaign against Japan.

In the immediate aftermath of the fighting on Tarawa, U.S. service members who died in the battle were buried in a number of battlefield cemeteries on the island. In 1946 and 1947, the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company conducted remains recovery operations on Betio, but PFC Miller’s remains were not recovered. In 1949, a military review board declared Charles “non-recoverable”.

His father had a memorial marker placed at Strong Cemetery, in Albany, Indiana, in hopes that one day Charles would be found and returned home (52907155, a cenotaph).

On January 22, 2014, Jennifer Morrison, Chair of the Rolling Thunder Indiana Chapter 1 FRS Committee, found the family of PFC Miller and put them in contact with the Marine Corps POW/MIA Section. This (re)established lines of communication with Satchy’s family regarding the ongoing recovery and repatriation efforts, and offered Becky Klopfleisch and Tonnie Craw-Kaufman the opportunity to coordinate and provide the Family Reference DNA Sample ultimately necessary for her cousin Charles' identification. (Ms Morrison later located his niece, Suzanne Omtvedt, who submitted an FRS as well.)

In March 2019, History Flight excavations west of Cemetery 33 revealed a previously undiscovered burial site that has since been identified as Row D. The remains recovered at this site were transferred to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency Laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii for analysis.

On May 19, 2020, Charles' niece received "The Call" she never thought she'd receive. Rather than the knock on the door or that devastating telegram that her grandparents had received in 1943; it was the Marines telling Mrs Omtvedt, "He's coming home!" To identify his remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial and material evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

Satchy will soon be returned to his family and, on October 23, 2020, laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia, with full military honors (210329386).

Marine Corps Reserve Private First Class Charles Donald Miller is memorialized among the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific's Honolulu Memorial. Although he has now been recovered and identified, PFC Miller's name shall remain permanently inscribed within Court 4 of the "Courts of the Missing". A rosette will be placed next to his name indicating that Satchy has finally been found.