Thomas A. Miller, Jr. Interview (2007)
World War II Oral Histories
Details
Collection:LPB
Genre: Interview
Place Covered: Lancashire, England
Copyright Holder: Louisiana Educational Television Authority
Date Issued: 2007-09-27
Duration: 00:24:11
Subjects: Miller, Thomas A., Jr. | World War II | Military | Veterans | World War, 1939-1945 -- Campaigns -- Europe | United States. Army. Air Corps | Freckleton Air Disaster
Contributors:
- Miller, Thomas A., Jr. Interviewee
- Lefebvre, Marian Interviewer
Description
An oral history interview conducted on September 27, 2007, with Thomas A. Miller, Jr., a crew chief with the Army Air Corps during World War II. He discusses: his enlistment; his deployment to Base Air Depot #2 in Lancashire, England, a repair base for the 8th Air Force; traveling to Tel Aviv to transport 13 Jewish rabbis to Germany; the crash of a B-24 plane during a test flight into the kindergarten center at the Holy Trinity School in the village of Freckleton, England, resulting in the deaths of 61 people, including 38 children; serving as a pall bearer for Sonia Dagger, one of the children killed in the crash; befriending the Dagger family after the war; and naming his daughter Sonia. He also shares photographs of Sonia Dagger, the Dagger family and the funeral at Freckleton.