Miller, Roger G. 1946- (Roger Gene Miller)

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Miller, Roger G. 1946- (Roger Gene Miller)

PERSONAL:

Born September 3, 1946; son of Charles O. and Mabel Lee Miller; married Chris Vidas; children: Travis Alexander, Sophia Marie. Education: North Texas State University, B.A., 1969, M.A., 1976; Indiana University, Ph.D., 1987.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Air Force Historical Studies Office, HQ USAF/HOH, 2822 Doherty Dr. S.W., Ste. 404, Anacostia Annex, Washington, DC 20373-5899. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

North Texas State University, Denton, assistant instructor, 1969-1970; U.S. Air Force, officer, 1970-75; Indiana University, Bloomington, American Studies Program, research assistant, 1976-77; U.S. Air Force, Lowry Technical Training Center, Lowry Air Force Base (AFB), Denver, CO, center historian, 1980-83, Headquarters Air Training Command, Randolph AFB, San Antonio, TX, staff historian, 1983-87, Seventeenth Air Force, Sembach AFB, Federal Republic of Germany, command historian, 1987-89, Air Staff Branch, Office of Air Force History, Pentagon, Washington, DC, staff historian, 1989-93, Air Force History and Museums Program, Bolling AFB, Washington, DC, staff historian, 1993-2007, senior historian, 2007—. Historian advisor to the U.S. Air Force Centennial of Manned Powered Flight Office and the U.S. Air Force Representative on the History and Education Committee of the National Centennial of Flight Commission, 1999-2003; director of the history of air power course for the U.S. Air Force Intern Program, Pentagon, Washington, DC, 1996-2003. Military service: U.S. Air Force, officer, 1970-75.

MEMBER:

H-War (an online discussion list for military historians; Michigan State University, advisory board member), Air Force Association, Organization of American Historians, American Model Yacht Association, Maryland Model Yacht Club, Academy of Model Aeronautics, Capitol Area Soaring Association, Phi Alpha Theta.

AWARDS, HONORS:

U.S. Air Force Commendation Medal, 1975; Sustained Superior Performance Award, 1982, 1988, 1990-2007; Air Force Achievement Ribbon, 1988; Department of the Air Force Certificate of Achievement, 1993; Department of the Air Force Special Service Award, 1997, 1998.

WRITINGS:

Crime, Corrections, and Quality Force: A History of the 3320th Correction and Rehabilitation Squadron, 1951-1985, History and Research Office (Randolph Air Force Base, TX), 1987.

(Editor) Seeing Off the Bear: Anglo-American Air Power Cooperation during the Cold War: Proceedings, Joint Meeting of the Royal Air Force Historical Society and the Air Force Historical Foundation, Air Force History and Museums Program (Washington, DC), 1995.

To Save a City: The Berlin Airlift, 1948-1949, Air Force History and Museums Program (Washington, DC), 1998.

A Prelude to War: The 1st Aero Squadron and the Mexican Punitive Expedition of 1916, Air Force History and Museums Program (Washington, DC), 2003.

Billy Mitchell: "Stormy Petrel of the Air," OTTN Publishing (Stockton, NJ), 2007.

Like a Thunderbolt: The Lafayette Escadrille and the Advent of American Pursuit in World War I, Air Force History and Museums Program (Washington, DC), 2007.

Contributor to books, including Golden Legacy, Boundless Future: Essays on the United States Air Force and the Rise of Aerospace Power, edited by Rebecca Cameron, Air Force History and Museums Program (Washington, DC), 2000; The Diary of Old No. 1, edited by Meghan Cunningham, Air Force History and Museums Program (Washington, DC), 2003. Contributor to periodicals, including Air Power History, Royal Air Force Historical Journal, The ITEA Journal of Test and Evaluation, Air Force Journal of Logistics, Military Affairs, Journal of the Western Front Association, and the Indiana Magazine of History. Assistant editor of the Indiana Magazine of History, Indiana University, Bloomington, 1977-1980; editorial assistant for the Indiana Office of Historic Preservation, Indianapolis, 1980.

SIDELIGHTS:

Writer and historian Roger G. Miller was born September 3, 1946. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees, both in history, at North Texas State University, then continued his education at Indiana University, where he earned his doctorate. Miller served as an officer in the U.S. Air Force from 1970 to 1975. He went on to use his background to take a civilian position in the United States Air Force's history program in 1980. As a result of his job, Miller has been stationed at various Air Force bases around the world, including Lowry Air Force Base in Colorado, Randolph Air Force Base in Texas, Sembach Air Base in West Germany, and at the Air Staff at the Pentagon in Washington, DC. In 1993, he transferred to the associated book writing program stationed out of Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, DC, a position that has given him the opportunity to write about the history of various war efforts and combat situations. He has served as both director of the department's History of Air Power Course, and as the director of the Contract History Program. His published works include titles such as Crime, Corrections, and Quality Force: A History of the 3320th Correction and Rehabilitation Squadron, 1951-1985, To Save a City: The Berlin Airlift, 1948-1949, A Preliminary to War: The 1st Aero Squadron and the Mexican Punitive Expedition of 1916, Billy Mitchell: "Stormy Petrel of the Air," and Like a Thunderbolt: The Lafayette Escadrille and the Advent of American Pursuit in World War I, as well as Seeing Off the Bear: Anglo-American Air Power Cooperation during the Cold War: Proceedings, Joint Meeting of the Royal Air Force Historical Society and the Air Force Historical Foundation, on which he served as editor.

To Save a City tells the story of the historic air lift that proved an important move in the first action against the Soviet Union at the start of the Cold War, without dropping a bomb or shooting any planes out of the sky. Miller gives an in-depth explanation of the history behind the air lift, discussing the division of Berlin following World War Two, and explaining how the increasingly difficult relations between the United States and the Soviet Union led to the use of the Soviet quarter as a political battleground. He had access not only to Air Force files, but to many newly declassified records that were part of the National Archives. Dr. Roger D. Launius, in a review for Air Power History, found the volume to be "a useful resource for all who seek to understand the development of Air Force roles and missions, the importance of strategic airlift in executing national policy, and the significance of the technology of aviation in the Cold War."

In A Preliminary to War, Miller introduces readers to the first real use of airplanes in a United States military action. A slim volume, it nevertheless contains a thoroughly documented accounting of the pursuit of Pancho Villa in 1916, following his attack on Columbus, New Mexico. The government approved the use of airplanes in the pursuit, and General John J. Pershing followed Villa and his accomplices south of the border into Mexico. Miller provides background on the 1st Aero Squadron, including how they trained prior to being called in for this mission. Mark A. Johnson, who reviewed the book for Air Power History, commented that "the reader gets a good sense of the insurmountable problems faced by the founders of American military aviation and how these experiences shaped their future beliefs and began to form Air Force doctrine."

Billy Mitchell was published in 2004, as part of the festivities to mark the one hundredth anniversary of flight. Miller took a chronological approach to Mitchell's life in the compact volume, including his early achievements. He touches on Mitchell joining the Signal Corps, but focuses primarily on the period following 1916, when Mitchell was first named the deputy head of the Aviation Section, an event that marked his introduction to aviation assignments. Miller also takes care to note the achievements earlier in Mitchell's career that made him a good candidate for aviation duty, and that prepared him to take on that position, and to eventually help establish the Allied Expeditionary Force's United States Air Service. Miller details this time, leading up to Mitchell's eventual court martial in 1925. He chronicles both Mitchell's successes and his failures, not trying to white wash his career, but merely to show his role in the history of aviation, and the contributions that he made, particularly to the U.S. Air Force. Jim Schier, reviewing for Air Power History, commented that the book "is convenient and easy to read and will satisfy the interest of people wanting to gain a reasonable degree of insight into Mitchell and his accomplishments." He concluded that "despite its relatively minor flaws, Miller's text is well worth reading for an intermediate depth understanding of this key figure in aviation history."

Miller told CA: "When I was eleven or twelve, my parents bought the Richards Pictorial Encyclopedia. In it, I first read about the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage. One picture showed Carthaginian war elephants stomping Roman soldiers, and I do believe it was the war elephants that converted me. I decided to become a history teacher. In college, however, I began to realize that I wanted to do more, and that meant researching and writing histories of my own.

"I had special teachers who influenced me, especially Mr. Charles E. Neff of John Marshall High School in San Antonio, Texas, and professors Bullitt Lowry and A. Ray Stephens of North Texas State University in Denton. Inspiration also came from my parents, Charles O. Miller and Mabel Lee Neill Miller of San Antonio. My wife, Chrissie Vidas, is precious; she keeps me going.

"I really don't write; I rewrite. Nothing I put on paper is any good until about the fifth or sixth version. By then it is at least intelligible.

"The most surprising thing I have learned as a writer is the power of the written word to elicit emotion: to reach out and touch someone.

My favorite books include anything by William Shakespeare. It is all so powerful. I read and reread Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August hoping that her style will rub off on me. She knows how to tell a story. So far, it has been a forlorn hope.

"I want to share with the reader my passion and enthusiasm for the study of the past."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Air Power History, summer, 2001, Dr. Roger D. Launius, review of To Save a City: The Berlin Airlift, 1948-1949, p. 52; fall, 2005, Jim Schier, review of Billy Mitchell: "Stormy Petrel of the Air," p. 59; spring, 2006, Mark A. Johnson, review of A Preliminary to War: The 1st Aero Squadron and the Mexican Punitive Expedition of 1916, p. 48.

Publishers Weekly, December 11, 2000, review of To Save a City, p. 79.