Serving with Honor: Donald Gallagher, Buddy Miller share their experience

by Maury Gallagher

Donald Gallagher
Donald Andrew Gallagher, son of Maurice and Estella Gallagher, was born in Waukon November 26, 1932. He graduated from St. Patrick High School in Waukon, and enlisted in the United States Air Force in March 1952. After completing Basic Training at Lackland Air Force Base (AFB) in Texas, he reported to Sheppard AFB in Texas for A&T  (Aircraft and Engine) School, followed by Jet Engine School at Chanute AFB in Illinois.
Don’s first assignment to an operational squadron was in January 1953 to the 303rd Bomb Wing, 360th Bomb Squadron at Davis Monthan AFB in Tucson, AZ, where he served as a jet engine mechanic on the B-47. The B-47 “Stratojet” was America’s first multi-engine, swept wing bomber.
In late 1957, after a three month temporary duty assignment to Anderson AFB in Guam, he was selected for, and assigned to, Flight Engineer School at Chanute AFB in Illinois. Flight Engineer training was followed by Flight Training at Randolph AFB in Texas. Don completed Flight Training in July of 1958 and returned to Davis Monthan AFB, where he was assigned to the 43rd Air Refueling Squadron.
After becoming fully qualified on the KC-97 “Stratotanker,” he began a series of 17-31 day temporary duty assignments to remote bases in Canada and Alaska. The purpose of those assignments was to refuel B-52 Bombers which would be launched if war broke out with the Soviet Union. This pattern of assignments, which had Don home about half of each year, continued until 1965.
In December 1960, Don was transferred to the 40th Air Refueling Squadron at Schilling AFB near Salina, KS, where he worked in ground support of bomber refueling. “During the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962,” Don said, “we were in alert status, and were told not to be more than three rings from a telephone.” In August 1963 he was assigned to the 9th Air Refueling Squadron at Mountain Home AFB in Idaho.
In June of 1965, Don was assigned to Goose Bay AFB in Labrador. “In November, 1965,” Don said, “my wife and four kids arrived at Goose Bay in the middle of a 30-inch snowfall.” In Labrador, Don stopped flying KC-97 refueling aircraft and flew C-97 cargo aircraft for mission support of the Goose Bay Air Defense Sector. “One advantage to flying the cargo aircraft was that we flew to the States every week to pick up supplies we could not get in Goose Bay, like whole milk.”
After three years at Goose Bay, Don transferred to Vandenberg AFB in California, where he flew missions in support of the ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) Program. In January 1971, he volunteered to transfer to Barksdale AFB in Bossier City, LA to serve as a flight engineer and evaluator for the Combat Evaluation Group (CEVG) of the Strategic Air Command (SAC). While at Barksdale AFB, he also qualified on and flew the C-118 “Liftmaster” cargo aircraft as a flight engineer and flight evaluator.
In August 1975, after 23 and a half years of service, Don retired from the Air Force as a Senior Master Sergeant. He accumulated 8,500 flight hours during his career.
Don and Charlene Comello, a native of Cincinnati, OH, were married in June 1957. They have four children, Donald Jr., Cindy, Rick and Judy, 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. They live in  Shreveport, LA.
“I enjoyed my Air Force career as a Flight Engineer,” Don said. “I visited many places that I would not otherwise have seen. I visited Germany, Denmark, England, Taiwan, Japan, Pago Pago, and most of the islands in the Pacific. I also visited remote sites like Thule, Greenland and Iceland. While at Goose Bay, Labrador, we had the privilege of transporting Prince Knud of Denmark from Sondestrom, Greenland to Copenhagen, Denmark.
“The only time I can remember getting scared in flight was during training at Flight School at Randolph Field in Texas. We were on final approach to landing and I felt the nose of the aircraft go down. When I looked up from my panel, both pilots had the yoke pulled into their bellies, which should have had the plane climbing, but the plane was still going down. Control of the aircraft was finally regained at about 100 feet, and we continued on to land safely. The cause of the problem was a reflection in the windshield that the pilot thought was an approaching airplane and he dove to miss it.
“One other time we were flying in icing conditions when one of the engines quit. We were working on getting it restarted when another engine quit. In the end, all four engines had quit on us, but we managed to get all of them running again.
“In looking back at the start of my career in the Air Force, it was a whole new life for a farm boy from Iowa. That first morning we got rousted out at 4 a.m., out into the cold and rainy weather with no idea what we were supposed to do. It was a learning experience, and we did learn. That was the beginning of an interesting and fulfilling career. Without the Air Force, I would never have met Charlene and had our family.
“After retiring, I bounced around for five years until I went to work for General Motors in Shreveport, LA. I finally retired from there in 1997. We are now enjoying the good life.”

Buddy Miller
Lloyd H. “Buddy” Miller was born in LaCrosse, WI. He attended Blessed Sacrament Elementary School and graduated from Aquinas High School. March 13, 1951 he enlisted in the U.S. Army and was sent to Schofield Barracks in Hawaii for Basic Training. After Basic Training, Buddy completed 13 weeks of infantry training in Hawaii.
In August 1951, he was transferred to Korea. His troop transport ship, named “Aken Victory,” arrived off the coast of Inchon after the invasion there was complete. “The harbor there was too shallow for the ship to pull into a pier,” Buddy said. “We crawled down cargo nets to the landing boats that took us to the beach. Once we got to the beach, we marched inland to where the 3rd Infantry Division was. Some of the other guys went to the 24th Infantry Division. Once we got to the 3rd Infantry Division, we boarded a train to Seoul and then moved north.”
Buddy was assigned to the H Company (Buddy called it “Hell” Company) of the 15th Infantry Regiment. The 15th Regiment was a unit of the 3rd Infantry Division. “H Company was heavy weapons,” Buddy noted. “We had weapons like mortars, bazookas, 75 recoilless rifles, etc. I mostly used the recoilless rifle. It was like a small cannon, usually mounted on a jeep. It could also be mounted on a tripod. The recoilless rifle was used to fire on enemy positions, and we would go out at night looking for enemy tanks. You had to find them before they found you.
“We knew when we got close to the front lines. We could hear their bugles, which they often blew before they attacked. In late September 1951, during the second Battle of Heartbreak Ridge, I was returning from a mission with my jeep when we passed by an area where there was action going on. I accidentally became an ammo bearer that day. The MPs pulled us over and said, ‘We need ammo bearers!’ So that’s what we did. They loaded us down with ammunition, 30-caliber for a machine gun, I think it was, and pointed us up the hill. The Chinese were really hammering us. There was dirt flying from their artillery shells that were hitting all around us. We still crawled through it and got the job done. We got to the top of the hill and handed the ammo to our guys. They were really happy to get it. We were on the hill all day. I don’t remember how many trips I made up that hill. It was a big mess. I saw them bringing down the wounded and dead. The next morning I was walking on the hill. I saw a bunch of stretchers on the hill, all lined up. I never went over there because I didn’t want to see if any of them were somebody I knew. We held the hill, and I went back to my unit and ran patrols.
“We were operating north of the 38th Parallel, in North Korea, when I got sick to my stomach, and my hearing was getting bad from the artillery. The doctors didn’t know what my problem was. They shipped me to a MASH (Mobile Hospital) unit, and they sent me on to the hospital ship ‘Repose.’ I was there several weeks and I kept losing weight and getting paler. They sent me to a hospital in Osaka, Japan. After a while there, they figured out that it was parasites that were making me sick. They tried different medicines until finally one seemed to work. I was hospitalized for about three or four months until I got healed up.
“In March 1952 I went back to Korea. I was assigned to the 68th Chemical Smoke Generator Company, a unit of the 4th Chemical Generation Battalion in Pusan. The primary mission of the Company was the generation of smoke screens to hide potential targets in the Pusan area from enemy air attacks. But we traveled all over Korea, wherever they wanted or needed us. For example, we would provide smoke screens to cover units as they moved forward in valleys etc. The heat that those smoke generators developed was intense. We lost a few guys when one of the units was hit by enemy fire and exploded.
“I was in the Chemical Company until I was transferred back to the States in December 1952. I went over there when I was 18, and came home when I was 20. While I was in Korea, most of the time I was a driver. I got to know my way around. I drove ammo trucks, but mainly I drove jeeps with the cannon. Because of the places where we went, I don’t know how many times I tipped over the goofy things. It wasn’t hard to do. We would crawl out, tip it back upright and go again.
“In Korea I also met “Beetle” Bailey. He was a really good guy, but he was also a real character. They wanted him to be a jeep driver. He said, ‘No way I’m going to drive that.’ They put him in a jeep, and he immediately ran it right into a fence. They made him a mechanic in the motor pool.”
Buddy returned to the States in December 1952. He was stationed at Fort McCoy for 30 days until his Post was closed. He was then transferred to Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. “I was assigned to the motor pool,” Buddy said. “We tested new trucks, jeeps and other vehicles.” After three months at Aberdeen, in March 1953, Buddy was transferred to Paris, France, where he served as a courier on the staff of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). In February 1954, he returned home and was released from active duty February 24, 1954.
March 11, 1955, Buddy reenlisted in the Army, and after 15 days at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, he was transferred to the 6th Armored Cavalry in Straubing, Germany. In Germany, Buddy was assigned to the motor pool where he did odd jobs, drove tanks and became a dispatcher. In the spring of 1957, his unit rotated back to the States and was assigned to Fort Knox, Kentucky. Buddy worked at Fort Knox until the fall of 1957 when he was transferred on temporary duty to Camp Perry, Ohio. In Ohio he worked as a vehicle dispatcher for a few months and then returned to Fort Knox.
“I got the orders I wanted, and went back to Germany. I was assigned to the 85th Car Company at the 7th Army Headquarters in Stuttgart. I chauffeured officers all over Germany and France. I got to know Paris inside out. I ran into my Commanding Officer from Korea. He wanted me to come work for him at an intelligence unit. I went to driving for him for a year. It was very interesting.”
In 1960, Buddy again returned to the States and was assigned to the Headquarters Company of the 2nd Infantry Division. “I was a driver for the Chaplains Section,” Buddy said. “I had it made there.”
In 1962 Buddy received an Honorable Discharge. During his service he earned the Combat Infantry Badge, The Korean Service Medal with three bronze service stars, the United Nations Service Medal, The National Defense Service Medal, and a Meritorious Unit Commendation. After his discharge, he worked a variety of jobs for a few years, mostly driving trucks.

October 16, 1971, Buddy married Wilma Phipps in Lansing. A few years later, Buddy went to work in the maintenance department of the Blumenthal Lansing Company, a button factory in Lansing. After 21 years there, he retired in 1995. Buddy and Wilma now make their home in Waukon.