Today, the DPAA announced that PFC Charles Donald “Satchy” Miller of Albany, Indiana has been accounted for as of 19 May 2020. Read their press release here.
Charles was the son of Donald “Don” Miller and Lucille (Brown) Miller, both lifelong residents of Delaware County, Indiana. He grew up in Albany with his older sister, Nola Kathryn, and from a young age was active in sports – particularly baseball and basketball. Miller attended Albany High School, where he was a notable player on the school basketball team along with his buddies Ernie Bishop and James Haisley. In his junior year of 1941, “Satchy” led the Wildcat team for points scored in varsity games. He also played shortstop for the Albany Doodlesockers baseball club, and was regarded as a powerhouse at the plate and in the field. In the 1942 season, his last with the club, Miller “committed only one error in 223 fielding chances and batted .337” – and the Doodlesockers notched a 35-game winning streak.
Miller graduated from Albany High School in June of 1942 and, following in the footsteps of his buddy James Haisley, enlisted in the Marine Corps on 19 November. The news of Guadalcanal was in all the local papers, and if Satchy picked up a copy of the Muncie Evening Press he might have seen Haisley’s photo with a notice that he was serving overseas.
Miller’s own journey to combat began with boot training in San Diego and assignment to the 11th Replacement Battalion. He arrived in New Zealand in April 1943 – too late to take part in the Guadalcanal campaign – and was temporarily stationed with the headquarters battalion of the Second Marine Division. Satchy was probably pleased to be in the same division as Haisley, but if he hoped to serve directly with his former teammate in action, he was disappointed. In the summer of 1943, Private Miller was assigned to Company A, First Battalion, 6th Marines; shortly thereafter, he was promoted to private first class.
The following months were spent in training for the next operation, which turned out to be the invasion of Betio in the Tarawa atoll. It would be Satchy Miller’s first and last experience in combat. When he landed on Betio in a little rubber boat on the evening of 21 November 1943, he had been in the service for just over a year. With his buddies in A/1/6, he fought through innumerable Japanese fortifications in unbelievable heat; some of those buddies fell wounded, others fell dead. That night, 1/6 dug in and prepared to resist any counterattacks that might come their way. No less than three hit their lines, climaxing in an all-out attack by several hundred Japanese troops in the early morning of the last day of the battle. At some point during the action, bullets hit PFC Charles Miller in the chest and head. He was just nineteen years old.
The news of Satchy’s death reached the Albany area just before Christmas, 1943 – and just one day after the Haisley family received word that Sergeant James Haisley was also killed in action on Betio.
“Satchy” was buried in a long trench alongside some thirty other Marines later that day. The temporary markers put up by 1/6 did not last long; construction of a Navy base ultimately destroyed the scrap wood crosses, and the location of the grave was lost. It would remain undiscovered until 2019, when a History Flight expedition uncovered “Row D” and brought the remains back to the United States for laboratory analysis.
Charles Miller was identified on 19 May 2020 and has now been officially accounted for.
Welcome home, PFC Miller. Semper Fi.
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