Sgt. Andrew Miller
Staff Sergeant Andrew Miller, a native of Wisconsin attached to Company G, 377th Infantry, 95th Infantry Division, was killed in action on 29 November 1944 near Kerprich Hemmersdorf, Germany. During the two weeks preceding his death, as his company pursued a relentless drive from Woippy, France, through Metz, to Kerprich Hemmersdorf, Sgt. Miller performed a series of heroic deeds.
On the 16th, when his squad was pinned down by enemy machinegun crossfire, he ordered his men to remain under cover and entered a building housing one of the guns. After forcing five Germans there to surrender, he took the second position with grenades, killing two enemy soldiers and capturing five more. The next day, outside of Metz, he covered his companions as they regrouped to push on in the face of heavy enemy fire despite the withdrawal of friendly tanks.
On the 19th, he led an attack against an enemy barracks; then, covered by his squad, crawled to a barracks window, climbed in and captured six riflemen occupying the room. His squad, and then the entire company, followed, and, continuing through the building, took 75 prisoners. Gestapo officers prevented the surrender of German troops in another building and Sgt. Miller, with three others, volunteered to capture the officers. After running through machine gun fire, Sgt. Miller was lifted through a window into the building, where, despite his being covered by a machine pistol, he was able to talk the officers into surrender.
On the 20th, as his company again came under heavy enemy fire, he succeeded in destroying a well-placed enemy machine gun by climbing to the roof of a nearby building with a bazooka and firing on the enemy emplacement from that highly exposed position. On the 21st, in Metz, Sgt. Miller captured 12 more prisoners and silenced another enemy gun in advance of his company's position.
Eight days later, on the 29th, the company advanced on Kerprich Hemmersdorf and was pinned down on a hillside. Sgt. Miller again took the initiative and moved ahead. His squad followed. He and his men stood up and determinedly advanced toward the enemy's higher positions. Their platoon, and then another, followed, destroying enemy resistance. But Sgt. Miller was killed. For his actions during the advance from Woippy and for his leadership and sacrifice on 29 November, Sgt. Miller was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
Sgt. Andrew Miller was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract on 22 February 1945 as Radcliffe Victory (MCV hull 743) by the Permanente Metals Corp., Richmond, Calif.; launched on 4 April 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Charles H. Owens; and delivered to the Maritime Commission's War Shipping Administration (WSA) on 28 April 1945 for operation by the American-West African Line Inc.
After the end of World War II, Radcliffe Victory was returned to WSA and was further transferred to the War Department for operation by the Army Transportation Corps on 26 July 1946. Renamed Sgt. Andrew Miller on 31 October 1947, the cargo ship remained with the Army Transportation Corps until 1 March 1950, when she was transferred to the Navy for operation by the newly established Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS), becoming USNS Sfft. Andrew Miller (T-AK-242).
Homeported at San Francisco, Sgt. Andrew Miller made a round-trip run to Hawaii and back in April; and, in May, she sailed for Yokosuka, Japan. From there, she continued on to Naha, Okinawa, whence she returned to the west coast.
Arriving after the outbreak of war in Korea, she loaded cargo for units being shipped to Japan and Korea; and, on 18 July, she sailed west. On 3 August, she stopped at Sasebo; and, on the 4th, she arrived off Pusan to commence offloading. Two weeks later, she started back across the Pacific to Hawaii, where she took on more cargo; and, on 15 September, she again sailed west. During November, she delivered cargo at Inchon and Chinnampo; then put into Yokohama. In early December, she got underway for Wonsan but was diverted back to Yokohama, where she joined TG 90.2, the Hungnam evacuation force. On 13 December, she sailed for that North Korean port; where, from the 18th to the 20th, she took on men and equipment as units fought back to the harbor after the entry of Communist Chinese forces into the conflict.
The ship offloaded at Pusan; then returned to Sasebo, whence she made another run to Korea before sailing for Pearl Harbor and San Francisco. Arriving at the latter port in early February 1951, she made runs to bases in the Central Pacific and in the Aleutians into the summer; and, in August, she resumed runs to Japan and Korea. During April and May of 1952, she again carried cargo to islands in the Central Pacific; then, in June, returned to logistics support of United Nations forces in Korea. In September, her operations in the Far East were extended to include Okinawa; and, early in 1953, her calls at Central Pacific ports were made enroute to the Far East. During the spring of that year, she resumed non-stop runs to Japan and Korea.
After the truce agreement in July 1953, Sgt. Andrew Miller continued runs to Japan and Korea and to the islands of the central and northern Pacific. In the summer of 1954, she was called on to assist in Operation "Passage to Freedom" which moved Vietnamese from Haiphong to Saigon following the division of the former French colony. Following one run, she resumed her transpacific operations and expanded her range to include ports in Taiwan; in Thailand, and in the Philippines. During the late 1950's and into the 1960's, she occasionally interrupted her Pacific operations for brief periods of service on transatlantic runs; but, into the fall of 1974, she remains in the Pacific in the Military Sealift Command fleet.
