My memories  of serving in the China-Burma-India Theatre in 1944 and 1945 consist mainly of people I associated with and not particularly the details of combat. We were told not to keep a diary, and the things I set down now have to do with my memory of this part of my life that occurred nearly fifty years ago. The following recollection of events are set down here to establish a relationship with Colonel Miller.

After I wrote my wife that I had come out of the jungle in Burma and was now stationed in China, she sent word that a Colonel in the Air Corps was in China. He was the husband of a woman who was living with her sister in Alvin, Texas at the time. It was a woman that we both knew, and Jane merely made the observation that now that I was in China, likely I would see Col. Miller. It was several months after I got her letter before I remembered that she said, "Mac, you are likely to see Col. Miller in China." I facetiously wrote her that one of the radio team that was with me was a fellow by the name of Mahan; that he lived in the West Texas Panhandle town of Sudan; that if she saw his mother to tell her that her son was a fine young man and I was glad to have him in my liaison radio team. Time passed. I did not have any particular thoughts about Col. Miller until after the surrender of the Japanese forces to the American and our allied command in Tokyo Bay on the 2^nd of September. After the Japanese surrendered I was sent to Nanking which was the capital of China at that time. It was an approximate four-hour plane journey from Chihchiang, China, to Nanking. There were four officers in the airplane, perhaps two or three non-commissioned officers, and the Jeep.

When we arrived in Nanking, we off-loaded the Jeep and stowed our gear. The Chinese told us to report to the Sun Yat-Sen Library, a magnificent building made out of marble. It was completely bare, but we had our army canvas cots with us so we had bedding to spend the night there. The next day we secured furniture to place in the building. I was on the detail to go to a warehouse where the Japanese had stored furniture from buildings they had requisitioned for use as headquarters in Nanking. Before we went to the supply station where the furniture was stored, the Chinese interpreter, who could understand English, joined us, and then we were joined by a Chinese interpreter who could speak Japanese. We had someone to guide us to the proper place. When we arrived we were challenged at the perimeter and the Japanese Commander of the warehouse came to see us. The interpreters went through their business of telling the commander that we were there to get furniture for the American headquarters. We went into the warehouse. The fellow who was with me, Major Gardner and I discussed the furniture that we needed. We wanted a dining table so we could set up an officer's mess, and we wanted various other items of furniture that was there. We would talk to the Chinese interpreter, who would talk to the Japanese Interpreter, who would talk to the Japanese. This went on until we had selected what we considered to be a truckload of furniture to take back to the Library. When we got back to the Library the furniture was unloaded and arranged in strategic places for the use of the people quartered in the Library.

The next morning it was decided that we needed more furniture. We could not roundup any of the interpreters, so Major Gardner and I went without them, since we knew the Japanese would recognize us. We arrived at the warehouse and were prepared to use sign language to designate the furniture we wanted. After we picked out an article, we indicated by sign language that we wanted this particular piece of furniture to be placed on our truck. The Japanese who was in command of the warehouse said to us in English "Well, what do you want to do about such-and-such. (Another piece of furniture we had discussed in his presence.) It turned out that he understood every word that Major Gardner and I had said the day before, but he did not let us know that he understood the language we were speaking. We obtained the necessary furniture to set up the headquarters.

Major Gardner and I spent time at the airport. It was our job to get the Chinese off the airplanes, to get all of their combat equipment and everything else off of the runway, so that the airplane could make the return journey to Chihchiang before dark. The airplanes would take off at Chihchiang, land at Nanking, unload, and take off again so they would have time to get back to Chihchiang before dark. They could take off while dark in the morning, but they couldn't land in the dark at night. My instructions were to quickly unload them so they could return the same day.

While I was on duty at the airport one day an airplane came in and an Air Force full Colonel got off. He looked around for transportation. He had apparently sent word that he would be in Nanking on that date and was annoyed that no one was there to meet him. When he saw me, and I was the only American available, he really did give me a good dressing down about what was going on in Nanking. I listened respectfully until he got through with his tirade, and then I talked back to him as he had not been talked to before, because he was a full Colonel and I was a Major. He left after I told him, "Take my Jeep, it's parked over there. You can go wherever you want to." He was gone about two hours. When he came back he came to me and said, "Major, I owe you an apology. You are the only person I have contacted in Nanking who is doing what they are supposed to be doing." He disappeared, and I did not know where he went. In about a week he came back to Nanking and assumed control of the airport, and I saw him there when I went out daily to perform the duties assigned to me. One morning he said, "Major, I want you to eat lunch with me today. We are having a new mess set up and this is the first meal. Air Corps personnel are in charge of everything." At that time most of the Air Corps personnel were eating in kitchens and dining halls that were maintained by the Chinese as a matter of lend-lease arrangements. I went with him to the mess hall, and during our conversation he made some snide remark about the "Kiddie Corps" at Texas A&M. It was then I realized that he was from Texas, and I knew his name. And so I said, "Well, Colonel Miller, when are you going back to Alvin?" He was really surprised that I knew that his wife was living in Alvin.

About five or six days Iater I went out to the airport and he called from the tower, "Hey, McNeil, I'm going home. I've got orders to leave tomorrow. I'm going to fly a war-weary airplane back to America. I'll be back in the USA in a week's time. I said, "Colonel Miller, if you are going to be back in the USA in a week's time, I want to send a letter to my wife. Will you take a letter to my wife in Alvin?" He said, "Of course I will." So, I went home that afternoon and spent several hours writing a letter to my wife. Incidentally, I didn't know at that time when I would be leaving, but I told her what I was doing. The next morning I went to the airport and gave Col. Miller the letter.

About five or six days after I gave him the letter, I got orders to go home. I was relieved from duty in Nanking, and went by plane to Shanghai, spending one night there, and then to Kunming by plane. I spent two or three days in Kunming before I boarded a plane going to Calcutta. As I went over the hump from China to Calcutta, I sat in the pilot's seat. We were flying at perhaps 25,000 feet and I could look to the North and view where I had entered the jungle in Burma, and then follow the trail down to where I flew out of Burma in December 1944. We landed in Calcutta about midnight. We got into the place where we were off-loaded in Calcutta; our baggage was put on the ground, and a sergeant came out and said, "There are some vacant tents down yonder at such-and such a place. Here are some blankets you can take with you, and you all can go and bed down at such-and such a row of tents." I was really unhappy because I thought I deserved better treatment, particularly since I had been sent to Nanking after the surrender instead of home. I muttered and told-off the sergeant, and it wasn't very long before a staff car came and took me to Camp Angus in Calcutta. I bedded down for the rest of the night in this Field Grade Officers' Quarters.

The next morning I went to breakfast and Colonel Miller was in the Officers' Mess. I said, "Col. Miller, I thought you were going to be in America in seven days." He said, "Oh, I got fouled up and haven't gotten a "war-weary" airplane yet. I said, "Well, you might as well give me the letter." He said, "No, I'm going to deliver that letter to your wife, because I'm going to be there long before you are." We were in Camp Angus as much as three or four weeks awaiting transportation. Finally, a ship came in and we loaded out. I had a very undesirable bunk in a stairwell on the ship, but it really didn't matter to me as long as I was heading home. The first time I went to mess on the ship, I ran into Col. Miller, and I said, "Col. Miller, I thought you were going to fly a war-weary airplane back. He said, I found out they were so obsolete they weren't worth flying home." We were on the ship together, which went through the great circle route, stayed close to Alaska, and landed at Seattle. We were off-loaded from the ship at a seaport inside the Strait in Washington State. We arrived there about noon, off-loaded the ship, got into Ft. Lewis and I put my gear by a bed, and went directly to a telephone to call my wife. People were standing in line waiting for telephones, as there were not nearly enough to take care of the crowd. I did not get to eat my evening meal, because I did not want to lose my place in line. I stayed in that line for ten hours before I could use the telephone, I called at 11:00 PM which was 1:00 AM in Texas. When I got my wife on the telephone. I said, "Honey, I'm in Washington State. I've just gotten in." She said, "Yes, I know, Col. Miller's wife called me three hours ago and told me that you were in Washington."

When I saw Col. Miller the next morning, I said, "Colonel, do you still have that letter to my wife?" He said, "Yes, I have, and I am going to fly from here to San Antonio and you'll have to ride the troop train." and that was true. I went to the dock and obtained my baggage, as well as, baggage for Col. Miller and for several others from Texas. I had just enough time to load all our luggage and the train took off for Texas. It was five days from the time we left Tacoma, Washington, through San Francisco, and El Paso, Texas, and on to San Antonio. I arrived about 8:00 PM, December 5, 1945. My wife was there to meet me, because I had called her from El Paso, and we went to a cousin's house to spend the night. The next morning we went to Ft. Sam Houston for me to be processed out of the Army. About 10:00 AM, when I was half-way through my processing, a fellow walked through the door and started his processing, and I said, "Well, Col. Miller, do you have that letter?" He said, "Yes. Where is your wife? I'm going to give it to her." and he gave my wife the letter I had written about the 20^th of October, and which he had carried all the way from Nanking, China, to San Antonio, Texas. He had been held up by a snow storm at an airport in Idaho, and he got into San Antonio about twelve or fifteen hours after I got there.

Col. Miller stayed in the Air Corps and the last I knew about him was that he was assigned to an airfield out in Denver, and was killed when his airplane crashed into a mountain about four or five years after we got home.