It feels like light years since I had something of interest to post in a blog. I got a bit of a surprise when I returned to an old message string in Facebook and realized that I hadn’t responded to a note I got a year ago in 2022! Stephen Harding covered the story of Lt. Hugh Barr Miller, Jr. very well in The Castaway’s War, but I’ve learned some new things about Miller and his career after WW2 ended. One man who worked with Miller held him in very high regard, and his son in law contacted me. This message was from one Rod Gillespie dated August 2022:
“Just finished The Castaways War! Great read, one question: what was Hugh Barr Miller’s title while in Guantanamo bay Cuba? My father in law worked under him back then and couldn’t remember his title. Jack Perry just passed away 3 weeks ago at 92 and always wanted to return to Cuba for a visit. Thank you.
Rod Gillespie
Ellsworth, Maine”
Wow, what a great message! The Castaway’s War was released in 2016 by Stephen Harding, so it’s really nice to see it’s still getting noticed. This story is something I believe would interest others involved in the STRONG project. I contacted Fitz Miller, Hugh Barr’s youngest son to confirm his title, which was JAG, judge advocate general. I got Rod’s permission to share the story with Fitz. Rod next shared this message, August 2023:
“My wife’s (Kathy Perry Gillespie) father, John (Jack) Perry worked for Commander Miller in Guantanamo in base housing. Jack often spoke how kind and generous Miller was to him as he kind of took Jack under his wing, took Jack bird hunting, fishing etc., which Jack said was unusual as Jack was just an enlisted soldier. Miller also told Jack towards the end of his tour that he still had some connections and could get jack into officer’s school if he wanted to go. Jack said “no thank you I just want to go home.“ Jack spoke of Miller often and mentioned the book about him, that’s where you came in and thank you so much. Jack Perry passed away one year ago last week at 93 years old.
Thanks again,
Rod Gillespie”
At this point in time it’s really rare to hear from anyone connected to the ship or the history surrounding STRONG. To hear from someone connected to the life of Miller after his amazing survival story is worthy of sharing. I want to thank Rod and his wife Kathy for giving me this privilege.
While processing this information from Rod, I took time to reflect on the information Fitz shared with me. He had some other interesting tidbits to share about Miller’s life after the war. If you read the book you can access more than I will relay here about his career, but on a more personal note…..Fitz was born in a Navy hospital there on the base in Cuba. He says, “…..I have absolutely no recollection of Cuba. My Mother tells me I spoke nothing but Spanish picked up from all the Cuban workers on the Navy Base during our stay in Cuba. Odd, because I did poorly in Spanish during middle and high school. My first memory was on a transport airplane when we returned to the continental US….This was the only time I remember my Mother getting on an airplane. I was just short of 3 years old.”
A few years later Fitz, his older brother Landon and oldest brother Hugh Barr III appeared with their parents on This is Your Life with Ronald Reagan as the host. Ralph Edwards was sick and asked him to step in. As for knowing more about his father’s life, “By the time I was old enough to understand the significance of my Dad’s life in the 40s, he had told his story so many times, he never got around to repeating it for me…….My understanding was that my Dad was the JAG guy in Cuba, which was his duty all through his post-combat career, except as a sting as the CO at a gunnery school in Dam Neck, Virginia.”
A bit of a historical perspective here from Miller indicates the lapse in judgment the US made regarding Cuba and what eventually led to the invasion at Bay of Pigs and later the Cuban Missile Crisis: “The only conversation I had with my Dad about his time in Cuba was about Fidel Castro. In 1948-1950, Castro was deemed a back-water nuisance of no consequence – a colossal error of judgment. History has told us that it was Che Quevara that really got the Cuban revolution going.”
Miller used to take Jack Perry hunting and fishing, which according to Rod made him a valued father figure. You can see from the note above that these gestures had real meaning for Perry. At this time, both of Miller’s youngest sons were just too young to take on these adventures. A few years later the Miller family suffered the loss of his oldest son, Hugh Barr III, in a tragic plane crash. He was a pilot dead-heading (not a pilot on this flight, but being transported) for Pan American Airlines and was on a flight from Martinique in the Caribbean when it crashed on a mountain peak in Montserrat in September of 1963.
I never tire of learning more, and the fact that families are still willing to share personal perspectives is truly heartwarming. Keeping the story alive is important to me being able to effectively close this project in the next couple of years. Saying good-bye to all that’s happened over the decades will be hard, so if you still have stories to tell about your men or your families, please keep them coming!
-Tammi
PS: Thank you Fitz, Kathy and Rod for the sharing of information!
PSS: If you have not yet read The Castaway’s War, click the title for a link to purchase or download on a Kindle or Nook. Also check out your local library.
“Just finished The Castaways War! Great read, one question: what was Hugh Barr Miller’s title while in Guantanamo bay Cuba? My father in law worked under him back then and couldn’t remember his title. Jack Perry just passed away 3 weeks ago at 92 and always wanted to return to Cuba for a visit. Thank you.
Rod Gillespie
Ellsworth, Maine”
Wow, what a great message! The Castaway’s War was released in 2016 by Stephen Harding, so it’s really nice to see it’s still getting noticed. This story is something I believe would interest others involved in the STRONG project. I contacted Fitz Miller, Hugh Barr’s youngest son to confirm his title, which was JAG, judge advocate general. I got Rod’s permission to share the story with Fitz. Rod next shared this message, August 2023:
“My wife’s (Kathy Perry Gillespie) father, John (Jack) Perry worked for Commander Miller in Guantanamo in base housing. Jack often spoke how kind and generous Miller was to him as he kind of took Jack under his wing, took Jack bird hunting, fishing etc., which Jack said was unusual as Jack was just an enlisted soldier. Miller also told Jack towards the end of his tour that he still had some connections and could get jack into officer’s school if he wanted to go. Jack said “no thank you I just want to go home.“ Jack spoke of Miller often and mentioned the book about him, that’s where you came in and thank you so much. Jack Perry passed away one year ago last week at 93 years old.
Thanks again,
Rod Gillespie”
At this point in time it’s really rare to hear from anyone connected to the ship or the history surrounding STRONG. To hear from someone connected to the life of Miller after his amazing survival story is worthy of sharing. I want to thank Rod and his wife Kathy for giving me this privilege.
While processing this information from Rod, I took time to reflect on the information Fitz shared with me. He had some other interesting tidbits to share about Miller’s life after the war. If you read the book you can access more than I will relay here about his career, but on a more personal note…..Fitz was born in a Navy hospital there on the base in Cuba. He says, “…..I have absolutely no recollection of Cuba. My Mother tells me I spoke nothing but Spanish picked up from all the Cuban workers on the Navy Base during our stay in Cuba. Odd, because I did poorly in Spanish during middle and high school. My first memory was on a transport airplane when we returned to the continental US….This was the only time I remember my Mother getting on an airplane. I was just short of 3 years old.”
A few years later Fitz, his older brother Landon and oldest brother Hugh Barr III appeared with their parents on This is Your Life with Ronald Reagan as the host. Ralph Edwards was sick and asked him to step in. As for knowing more about his father’s life, “By the time I was old enough to understand the significance of my Dad’s life in the 40s, he had told his story so many times, he never got around to repeating it for me…….My understanding was that my Dad was the JAG guy in Cuba, which was his duty all through his post-combat career, except as a sting as the CO at a gunnery school in Dam Neck, Virginia.”
A bit of a historical perspective here from Miller indicates the lapse in judgment the US made regarding Cuba and what eventually led to the invasion at Bay of Pigs and later the Cuban Missile Crisis: “The only conversation I had with my Dad about his time in Cuba was about Fidel Castro. In 1948-1950, Castro was deemed a back-water nuisance of no consequence – a colossal error of judgment. History has told us that it was Che Quevara that really got the Cuban revolution going.”
Miller used to take Jack Perry hunting and fishing, which according to Rod made him a valued father figure. You can see from the note above that these gestures had real meaning for Perry. At this time, both of Miller’s youngest sons were just too young to take on these adventures. A few years later the Miller family suffered the loss of his oldest son, Hugh Barr III, in a tragic plane crash. He was a pilot dead-heading (not a pilot on this flight, but being transported) for Pan American Airlines and was on a flight from Martinique in the Caribbean when it crashed on a mountain peak in Montserrat in September of 1963.
I never tire of learning more, and the fact that families are still willing to share personal perspectives is truly heartwarming. Keeping the story alive is important to me being able to effectively close this project in the next couple of years. Saying good-bye to all that’s happened over the decades will be hard, so if you still have stories to tell about your men or your families, please keep them coming!
-Tammi
PS: Thank you Fitz, Kathy and Rod for the sharing of information!
PSS: If you have not yet read The Castaway’s War, click the title for a link to purchase or download on a Kindle or Nook. Also check out your local library.
RSS Feed