D. Clarke Evans Photographer

Monroe Miller

Pharmacist Mate 3rd Class, U.S. Navy
1943–1945

Monroe Miller
San Diego, CA, 1943

At Saipan we took care of a young coxswain who looked 16. We landed, he got out of the boat and got shot. It’s things like that you can’t forget. I wish no one had to face that crap, and it’s never going to stop.

I was born May 17, 1925 in Brooklyn, New York. When I was 18, I already had two years of pharmacy school, which I hated. I was drafted in 1943 into the Coast Guard thinking I would be able to stay in the country. I went to boot camp in Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn, and was then assigned to an attack transport unit. Because of my background in pharmacy, I was made a medical corpsman. I had some training with the Marines as they did not have their own corpsman. I was in five invasions: Saipan, Tinian, Peleliu, Okinawa, and the Philippines. We would go ashore with the Marines and were there for probably 5-7 days on the beach until it was secured. Then we would go back to the ship and work on the people in the operating room.

The fighting at Saipan was horrible. I landed with the 2nd Marines. The troops moved inland after four days, and we would move in with them. If you look at a map, the landscape goes up and then falls off with a cliff. Literally the Japanese were pushed off the cliff, their bodies just floating in the surf. It was my first exposure to death. At Saipan we took care of a young coxswain who looked 16. We landed, he got out of the boat and got shot. It’s things like that you can’t forget. I wish no one had to face that crap, and it’s never going to stop.

Tinian was easier; it was not too far from Saipan. After Tinian we went to Peleliu and a couple of other places. It was the same thing all over again. I was 18. It was a shock. Once, on the way back our ship was torpedoed and half of it was destroyed. The ship stayed afloat and we were towed back. There were lots of good days. I worked in the OR between invasions and I ran the pharmacy. We had our own still in the bowels of the ship and I was responsible for the liquor.

The war ended after Okinawa and we came back to the States. I was ready to leave the military. When we came back, in one way or other we were screwed up. After the war, I never talked about it to anyone. A lot of guys were just like me. We were always looking ahead rather than looking behind. I ran into a couple of guys and I realized how lucky I was. They had really gone to pot. When you think of the things we did… it stays with you a long, long time.

I went back to school, graduated and got a master’s degree, met a young lady and we were married. At that time, life was not easy; around 1946-1949 we had to make a place for ourselves. I started as a salesman for a pharmaceutical company and through hard work and a bit of luck, I became president of the company. I was also the president of a division of Warner Lambert. In 1970, I was recruited by a company in Houston to come down and become their chief operating officer. After they were sold to a German company, I returned to New York and started an investment banking firm that did pretty well. In 1990 I was ready to retire; I was 65 years old. I gathered the wife and a few animals and visited some properties we had in Texas.

My wife was a native of New Braunfels. Her dad was getting up in age and we decided to come here to take care of him. I got involved in city government, started out as a volunteer and became head of the economic development board for a number of years. I was chairman of the board of Eden Homes for a few years. I seldom thought about myself as being a veteran. When I got involved with the Honor Flight, I guess I became more of a veteran in the past year than I had in the previous 50. {02-07-2017 • New Braunfels, TX}