James Thomas Miller

The Greatest Generation has lost another member. James T. Miller died on June 26, 2016. He was 93 years old.

Jim was born into a difficult family situation in San Mateo, California, on December 7, 1922. As the next to youngest of five children, early on he developed the characteristic of endurance, which was to serve him well at times throughout his life. As an early adolescent, Jim shattered his knee in a bicycle accident. However, the ongoing pain and impairment brought on by this situation did not stop him from leading a full and active life. Nor did it prevent his joining the Army Air Corps in 1942. He simply concealed his pain from medical personnel.

Jim's endurance was further tested as a tail gunner in a B-17 bomber. He was required to sit in a cramped space on a bicycle-type seat, with both legs bent backwards, for eight to ten hours at a time. Other men might have used such an impairment as a way to avoid dangerous combat. Jim did not.

When his airplane was shot down over Eastern Germany in May, 1944, he was forced to bail out along with the rest of his crew. After being captured by German forces, he was transported to a prisoner of war camp for non-commissioned officers. He, along with 200 other airmen, was crammed into a rail freight car meant for no more than 40 individuals. He endured a five day journey with little food or water, never being allowed out of the rail car during the journey.

As the war was ending, Jim's captors attempted to elude being captured themselves, by marching their prisoners along the length and breadth of Germany. This trek began during the coldest recorded European winter. It was to last a grueling 80 days. Jim endured and survived.

After discharge, he came home to a wife he barely knew and an infant son he had never met. The marriage resulted in the birth of three sons: Frederic William "Bill," Joel Thomas and Steven Wade. It was not always a happy marriage, but Jim committed to it. Jim had already had to cope with the death of his 23 year old brother and his 55 year old father, when his wife, Geneve, died after surgery to remove a brain tumor. This family tragedy was compounded with the passing of his oldest son Bill in Viet Nam in 1967.

However, not all was sadness and loss in Jim's life. Two years after Geneve's death in 1955, he married who was to become his dearest companion, Vashti Barth. With this marriage, his family began to thrive and prosper. He worked for many years as a Nuclear Inspector Supervisor at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington. He and Vashti moved to Hillsboro about nine years ago.

In the end, Jim taught, by example, his remaining sons the value of honesty, fidelity, playfulness and, most of all, endurance. So Godspeed to you, Sergeant Miller, and to all the Sergeants who came before and those who will surely come after. Godspeed to you all.

In addition to his wife of 58 years, Jim is survived by sons Joel (Donna Bauermiller) and Steve (Laura), granddaughters Annie Miller and Molly Bauermiller, grandson Sam Miller (Alina), great granddaughter Hazel, a great grandson to be born in August, and sister-in-law and "surrogate daughter," Sharon Miller.

A memorial service will be held Saturday, July 16 at 2:00 pm at First Congregational United Church of Christ, 494 E. Main St. in Hillsboro. The family would be grateful if any donations in Jim's memory would be to Oregon Food Bank.