In 1942 Milton enlisted in the ROTC at the University of Illinois.
He was accepted into the aviation cadet corps as a weather officer.
In June, 1943 he was called to active duty and completed his
basic training at the Boca Raton Club in Florida. There he found out that the
air corps didn’t need weather officers but did need communications officers. He
was sent to Yale University and completed 5 months of training.
After the training Milton was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant
and was assigned to Army Airways Communications service. AACS provided
navigation aids to military aircraft and operated the control towers in combat
areas.
In July, 1944 Milton and 30 other officers from the U.S.,
U.K. and other countries boarded a Norwegian freighter for a 29 day trip to
Milne Bay at the tip of the island of New Guinea in the South Pacific. It
anchored at this location because of a submarine scare. Milton was flown to
Brisbane Australia. Then later he was flown back to Papua, New Guinea. This was
a forward B-25 base. In January, 1945 Milton became part of the invasion force
that landed at Subic Bay on the west coast off Luzon, Philippines.
By the summer of 1945 Milton found himself at Nichols Field
which was the principle airfield in Manila, Philippines. Milton was still in
Manila when the Japanese emissary’s for the surrender of Japan landed there in September,
1945.
With the surrender of Japan, Milton was part of the
occupation force in Japan. He spent a total of 8 months in Japan and Milton
says that this time was the highlight of his wartime experience.
Milton was in Tokyo until November, 1946 and was discharged
with the rank of Captain.
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