Mr. Miller volunteered for naval duty at the age of 17 years, after the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor. He was a senior in high school in the Class of 1942, but left school for the Navy in January, 1941. He received his basic training at San Diego, California, after which, he volunteered for submarine duty and was assigned to the U.S. Submarine School in New London, Connecticut. After submarine school he was assigned to the USS Scorpion.

Departing Pearl Harbor on December 29, 1943, the USS SCORPION I (SS-278) under the command of Cdr. M.G. Schmidt, stopped at Midway to top off with fuel, and left that place on January 3, 1944 to conduct her fourth war patrol during WWII. Her assigned area was in the northern East China and Yellow Seas.

On the morning of January 5, 1944 SCORPION reported that one of her crew had sustained a fracture of the upper arm and requested a rendezvous with USS HERRING (SS-233) which was returning from patrol and was near her. The rendezvous was accomplished on the afternoon of January 5, 1944 but heavy seas prevented the transfer. HERRING reported this fact on 6 January, and stated "SCORPION reports case under control." SCORPION was never seen or heard from again after her departure from that rendezvous. On February 16, 1944, USS STEELHEAD (SS-280) and SCORPION were warned that they were close together, and that an enemy mine-laying submarine was in the vicinity.

SCORPION was lost soon after these mines were laid, or at a time when they presumably offered the greatest threat. She could have been an operational casualty, but her area consists of water shallow enough so that it might be expected that some men would have survived. Since we know of no survivors, the most reasonable assumption is that she hit a mine.

In her first three patrols, SCORPION sank ten ships, for a total of 24,100 tons, and damaged two more, for 16,000. Her first war patrol was in the approaches to Tokyo in April 1943. Here she sank two freighters, four sampans and two patrol craft. In addition, she damaged a freighter. On her second patrol, conducted in the Yellow Sea, she sank two freighters. Her third patrol was made in the Mariana Islands, and resulted in damage to a tanker.