Earned in Blood - Softcover

Thurman Miller

4.09

46 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 125004863X ISBN 13: 9781250048639

Publisher: St Martin's Griffin, 2014

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Born in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia in 1919, Thurman Miller was the sixteenth of eighteen children in a family so poor, the local coal miner's kids looked down on them. For Thurman, Appalachia was not just a region: it was a culture, a frame of mind, a history, a family, a being. Miller enlisted in 1940 and served in World War II with the legendary unit K-3-5 of the First Marine Division, made famous in HBO's The Pacific. He was involved in some of the most horrific battles in the Pacific Theatre, including Guadalcanal and New Britain, where as Gunney Sergeant he sent men to their deaths and narrowly escaped it himself. Upon returning stateside, suffering badly from the malaria he contracted in the Pacific and unable to find work, Miller took a job in the coal mines in his home state of West Virginia, where he toiled in darkness for thirty-seven years. The blackness of the mines fed the terrors he lived with since the battlefield and the backbreaking labour ate away at his already compromised body. Bowed but unbroken, Miller survived because of his strength and lifelong devotion to his beloved wife of sixty-five years - a relationship that shines brightly in this distinctly American journey.

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Review:

T.I. Miller is as fine a Marine as ever put on the uniform. In training and in combat, he was my mentor, my example, and my inspiration. --R.V. Burgin, author of Islands of the Damned: A Marine at War in the Pacific At the end of this book I am left with a profound respect for this man, and filled with awe and gratitude. The levels of horror that he . . . endured in the name of service to country, home, and freedom is simply unimaginable. --Marcus Brotherton, bestselling author of A Company of Heroes A dramatic and compelling story, one every American should read and ponder. --Homer Hickam, author Rocket Boys and October Sky. Thurman Miller brings alive the humanity of those who fight our wars and the inhumanity of the wars in which they fight. --Lt. Col. Dick Renfro, U.S. Army, Ret. In Earned in Blood, Thurman Miller takes us through his hard but rich Appalachian boyhood, his harrowing experience as a Marine in the battles for Guadalcanal and New Britain, and his lifelong struggle with the aftereffects of all he gave to serve his country. In addition to recurring bouts of malaria, he suffered flashbacks so powerful that, when working as a coal miner, he saw his dead buddies piled up on the conveyor belt. Only the sheer strength of his spirit, the support of a loving family, and the reunion with his brother Marines made Mr. Miller's survival possible. His heart-searing story reminds us that a grateful nation is never grateful enough. George Ella Lyon Thurman Miller, now in his 90s, tells the iconic story of his generation: Living off the land on a hillside farm in West Virginia during the Great Depression, fighting in the South Pacific during World War II, returning home only to face the difficult life of a coal miner. But at the heart of this searing, honest book is the terrible combat on Guadalcanal and New Britain, and the Marines of K Company, locked in a primal struggle with their Japanese counterpart --Various

About the Author:

THURMAN MILLER, a native of Otsego, West Virginia, served as Gunny Sergeant with the First Marine Division in World War II and was one of the first Marines ashore on Guadalcanal. He fought in several other historic South Pacific battles, including New Britain, and returned stateside to teach at the Officer Candidate School at Camp Lejeune before beginning a three-decade career in the coal mining industry. He formerly served as president of the West Virginia Chapter of the First Marine Division and lives near Beckley, West Virginia.

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