My first cousin Maj. Curtis Dan Miller was shot down over Laos on March 29, 1972 while flying a C-130 gun ship. Their mission was to search out and destroy supply trucks on the Ho Chi Ming trail in Laos, a supply line to North Viet Nam when they were hit by a missile called a flying telephone pole. There were reports of beeper signals from parachutes, so our hope was always that Dan would be found alive someday. Although the chance of him escaping the flight deck of a C-130 was highly impossible from the reports of nearby support aircraft of the severe hit the C-130 received from the missile.
My first POW Bracelet was silver and I wore it throughout High School and at college, which was followed by a red one and it always received attention from people not sure of its meaning. This past year Dan was identified through bone fragments that the USAF had excavated from his crash site after his immediate family protested the planned burial of several unidentified bone fragments in a grave with the names of the five members from his aircraft that had not been personally identified from previous tests. Since they have now identified a bone fragment as Major Curtis Dan Millers, his service is scheduled on the day he went missing 38 years later. By wearing the Killed In Action bracelet at his Funeral/Memorial service it will give me a chance to take a step forward in realizing that he like many others will never return and wearing the KIA bracelet will always remind anyone who asks, that there are sacrifices that we endure for the freedom that so many take so lightly.
Kevin M.
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Dan graduated in 1964 from the small Texas town of Palacios. He was one of 50 graduates. Several of our classmates also served in Viet Nam. One actually was on the search party of Dans crash. Many of our classmates are planning on attending his funeral and burial in Ft. Worth and Dallas. We plan to never forget Dan. "You are not dead until you are forgotten."
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