Talk:Hugh B. Miller

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From "The Castaway of Arundel island", by Hugh Barr Miller, Jr., U.S.N.R. As Told to Frank Tremaine (published in 100 Best True Stories of World War II; Wise & Co., NY, 1945):

"It was the Fourth of July, 1943..."

"I know that there were twenty-three of us in the water that night..."

"We had returned to Munda in time for lunch that day, August 16th..."

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All of these published memories by Miller contradict items in the Wikipedia article. Whether July 4 or 5, whether 38 days or 43 from torpedo until rescue (Miller in "Castaway" says 43 days, July 4 to Aug 16), additional references cited in the article also contradict the facts given in the Wikipedia article and support Miller's account (see below).

The listed number of men in the water (23 plus Miller) is not a number given in the reference cited for that "fact" (Ref #3). Ref #5, however, contradicts the July 5 and 38 day information given in the article, but does support the July 4 and 43 day information from "Castaway", as does reference #2, which also says 23 men in the water INCLUDING Miller. I will change the page accordingly, as the preponderance of evidence supports numbers different from those given in the article.

Awards received

I have a problem with the amount of awards listed as received by Cmdr Miller. The article states "2 Silver Stars, 6 Bronze Stars, 2 Purple Hearts, and 27 other individual and unit decorations."

I read The Castaway's War and it has Miller away from his ship during its first two naval combat actions. Then Miller rejoins the ship and in its next action it is sunk. Aside from his heroic actions taken while he was on the Japanese held island, this was the only period of combat Miller was involved in during World War II. Yes, he was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions, and he probably deserved the two purple hearts too, but "2 Silver Stars, 6 Bronze Stars... and 27 other individual and unit decorations" is a bit too much. I strongly suspect the awards he received were strongly inflated by action magazines in which his adventure story was told. But I can't find anything online stating the U.S. Navy awarded him these additional decorations.

After his recovery from the island, Miller was never again in a combat situation.

The only sources I could find supporting these additional awards were magazine articles, all of which were copies of each other. I don't know where to go into official Naval Records, but someone needs to do so and check on the awards he received. He probably received a number of unit awards and other general decorations, such as Pacific Theater medals, Victory medals and such, but not additional medals for bravery. And, after reading The Castaway's War I think I would certainly have supported awarding him the Medal of Honor.

I'm not going to change the article, but as a former veteran myself, I think it is a disservice to Cmdr Miller to credit him with awards he probably didn't earn and most probably never claimed to have been awarded. Basically, stating he received all those awards is branding him as a Stolen Valor imposter, something I feel sure Cmdr Miller would never had done. Thomas R. Fasulo (talk) 01:24, 23 July 2021 (UTC)