USS Miller (DD-535)

Figure 1:  USS Miller (DD-535) in San Francisco Bay, California, 21 September 1943. Miller was photographed from an aircraft based at the US Naval Air Station at Alameda, California, which was flying at an altitude of 400 feet. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 2: USS Miller (DD-535) alongside USS Independence (CVL-22) while transferring mail, 11 October 1944. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 3:  USS Miller (DD-535) at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 24 August 1945. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.     

Figure 4:  USS Miller (DD-535) at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 24 August 1945. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 5: USS Miller (DD-535) underway soon after she was re-commissioned, circa 1951. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 6:  USS Miller (DD-535) returns to Newport, Rhode Island, from overseas duty, 1956. In the background are other Atlantic Fleet Destroyer Force ships moored to buoys in Narrangansett Bay. USS Dortch (DD-670) is in the left center and USS Hickox (DD-673) is at right. The original print bears the stamped date 20 August 1956. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 7:  USS Miller (DD-535) comes alongside USS Wasp (CVS-18) for a refueling demonstration during the carrier's family day cruise, 16 April 1959. Some of Wasp's crew members and their families are observing the procedure. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 8: USS Miller (DD-535) underway while in a harbor, circa the early 1960s. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.   

Figure 9:  USS Miller (DD-535) underway at sea, circa the early 1960s. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.  

Figure 10:  Commander Thaxter P. Spencer, USNR, commanding officer, USS Miller (DD-535), brings his ship into port as she returns to Boston, Massachusetts, after four months in the Eastern Atlantic on anti-submarine exercises, 21 February 1962. Photograph released by the First Naval District Public Information Office. Note Spencer's megaphone and binoculars. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 11:  "Travel." This is a US Navy recruiting poster published by the Navy Recruiting Aids Facility circa the later 1950s. It features a painting by Lou Nolan depicting USS Miller (DD-535) visiting a Far Eastern port. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.  

Figure 12:  USS Miller’s (DD-535) cloth jacket patch featuring the ship's emblem, as used circa 1961. Courtesy of Captain G.F. Swainson, USN, 1969. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Named after Quartermaster James Miller, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his gallant actions on board the gunboat USS Marblehead during the Civil War, the 2,050-ton USS Miller (DD-535) was a Fletcher class destroyer that was built by the Bethlehem Steel Company at San Francisco, California, and was commissioned on 31 August 1943. The ship was approximately 376 feet long and 39 feet wide, had a top speed of 37 knots, and had a crew of 314 officers and men. Miller was armed with five 5-inch guns, ten 40-mm guns, seven 20-mm guns, ten 21-inch torpedo tubes, and depth charges.

Miller conducted initial training operations along America’s west coast and off the Hawaiian Islands before arriving in the Pacific combat area in January 1944. For the next several weeks, the destroyer participated in the invasion of the Marshall Islands, performing escort and gunfire support duties. In late February 1944, Miller began escorting aircraft carriers. While escorting carriers from March to May, she participated in the carrier raids which took place in the central Pacific and on northern New Guinea. For the rest of 1944, Miller took part in the conquest of the Marianas Islands (which included the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June), the assault on the Palau Islands in September, raids against Japanese positions in the western Pacific and in the South China Sea, and, in October, the Battle of Leyte Gulf off the coast of the Philippines. On 26 October 1944, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Miller used her guns to assist her sister ship, the destroyer USS Owen (DD-536), in sinking the Japanese destroyer Nowaki.

Miller continued escorting aircraft carriers for the first half of 1945 as they supported campaigns to capture Luzon in the Philippines and the Japanese islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Miller also provided desperately needed assistance to the carrier USS Franklin (CV-13) after that ship was badly damaged by an enemy air attack on 19 March 1945. Miller went alongside Franklin to aid in rescue and firefighting operations and then covered the carrier’s withdrawal, for which actions she was awarded the Navy Unit Commendation.

On 20 April 1945, Miller was detached from escort duties and ordered to steam back to the United States for an overhaul. She arrived at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, on 9 July and was still there when the war in the Pacific ended. Not needed in the greatly reduced post-war active fleet, Miller was decommissioned on 19 December 1945 and placed in the Pacific Reserve Fleet at San Diego, California.

The increased need for warships during both the Korean War and the Cold War brought Miller back to active duty.  She was re-commissioned on 19 May 1951, was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet, and was based at Newport, Rhode Island. Just prior to being re-commissioned, Miller was modernized, losing one 5-inch gun and receiving in its place a new battery of twin 40-mm guns. The ship also was provided with new electronic equipment. Miller then went on to make one combat deployment from 1952 to 1953. During this cruise, which eventually took her around the world, the destroyer completed numerous gunfire support missions against communist positions in Korea. Miller also served with Task Force 77, escorting aircraft carriers as they conducted air operations against North Korean ground forces.  Miller returned to Newport on 11 February 1953.

After her return to the United States, Miller resumed operations along America’s east coast with periodic deployments to the Mediterranean Sea. In 1958, while serving with the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean, Miller participated in the famous “Lebanon Crisis,” providing military assistance to the pro-Western Lebanese government of President Camille Chamoun against internal communist opposition and threats from Syria and Egypt.

In 1959, Miller became a Naval Reserve training ship based at Boston, Massachusetts. As a training ship, Miller conducted cruises for more than 11,000 reservists. After serving in this role for five years, Miller was decommissioned at the end of 1964. In August 1971, while in “mothballs” as part of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, the destroyer was re-named James Miller to free up her original name for assignment to a new escort ship. But USS James Miller had no active service under that name. The ship was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in December 1974 and was sold for scrapping in July 1975.