As noted below in the personal endorsement by FA Halsey in his autobiography, FA Halsey lobbied both the Dept of Defense (DoD) and the Navy to award Miller the Medal of Honor(MOH).
The efforts to finally award the MOH award continue because Congress passed a special Bill authorizing the DoD to make the Award anytime beyond the usual 5 year limit on such recommendations (as noted in the Gadsden, AL Times also shown below)
One of the key items that Miller took with him when he escaped from Arundel Island was the above silk banzai flag being carried by a Japanese Lieutenant that Miller killed with a bayonet in his first hand grenade attack.
The Japanese Lieutenant was leading a patrol that got too close to Miller's hideout on Arundel Island.
The flag remains with Miller's family. Miller later returned the valuable sword set of this Japanese Lieutenant to his family in Japan in recognition of the Japanese reformation..
In the photo above, Then Admiral Halsey (later promoted to Fleet Admiral, a 5 Star position only occupied by a few Officers of all US services in the history of the US), Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of President Roosevelt, and Miller in the middle, at the first of several medal ceremonies for Lt. Hugh Barr Miller, Jr. – The Navy’s One Man Army .
Added Biography Details
Why Miller has not yet received his Medal of Honor
Retired Captain Hugh Barr Miller, Jr's
Official portrait.
Dozens of Other publications ...
... also tell much shortened versions of this story. Like the "100 Best True Stories of World War Two"; where Miller’s story is entitled “The Castaway on Arundel Island, p. 219-225, or "Into the Shadows Furious: the Brutal Battle for New Georgia" starting on pages 123-124 and completing on pages 128-135; and the many comics books of the 1940’s, 50’s and early 1960’s like the 1963 Bluebook and Male magazine stories of his heroics.
Extracts from several of the 1950's comic books about Miller's exploits are used to illustrate the book and can only be found therein at this point.
All of these not-so-original sources, which the Author acknowledges and thanks, as well as the many comic book & other magazine versions of Miller’s story that continued to be published into the early 1960’s, persevere because they are truly “amazing but true” and inspire us all.
Frank Tremaine, the famous Life war correspondent with Lt. HB Miller, Jr shortly after Miller's rescue, on Guadacanal in 1943, as they discussed Miller's extraordinary exploits on Arundel Island (since renamed)
The War was hanging in the Balance, and the USA needed Heros - Lt. Miller was sent on a nation-wide tour
Typical of Miller's war publicity and encouragement of the general public's efforts to support the war was this tour of a radio manufacturing factory
