Published in The Cary News Nov. 6, 2003.
A book about the Korean War that might have been
published decades ago had it not been for another war
—Vietnam — has finally found its way to print.
It's a bittersweet achievement; the author, who
shopped "Korea's Sleeping Ghosts" to publishers in the
late 1960s, didn't live to see his name on a book cover.
Army Lt. Lee H. Miller passed away in 1992, and it
was his son who picked up the old manuscript — plucked
out on a manual typewriter — and made his father's
wishes come true. Keith Miller of Raleigh calls his
efforts to get his father's work published a tribute to
his memory.
And it's fitting that the book should come out this
year, the 50th anniversary of the end of the Korean War.
Miller will discuss and sign copies of his father's book
at Barnes & Noble in Cary on Veterans Day, Nov. 11.
The store has shifted its usual evening hours for book
signings to 4 p.m. so that retired veterans who may not
want to drive at night can attend.
"The commercial sales end of it takes a back seat to
the other things which are important — that veterans
read it," Miller said during a phone interview last
week. His father's hope for the book was "that veterans
and their families would get the chance to share these
experiences."
In "Korea's Sleeping Ghosts," the elder Miller chose
to tell true stories of his war experiences and those of
his comrades through fictional characters. For instance,
he calls himself Lt. Pete Mullins in the book. Some
sequences of events also have been changed, Keith Miller
said, but all the stories are taken from actual events.
In fact, his father kept a daily journal that the son
used to verify events in the book. "It has been like
gold to me," Miller said.
He's not sure why his father changed the names of
characters in the book but supposes that it was to
protect their privacy — in some instances he had "not
too kind things to say," Miller said.
From his father's journal, Miller was able to figure
out the real names of some characters — which has made
his own involvement in the process more meaningful. He
was able to meet with one of his father's fellow
lieutenants, who wrote the book's foreword.
"We sat around the whole day, and he showed me photos
and shared old stories — it was really great for me,"
Miller said.
Just last week he had a "stunning" phone call from a
"character" ripped right from the pages of the book. The
caller had served along with his twin brother under Lt.
Miller's command.
Miller, the father, writes in the book of being upset
that twin brothers had been assigned to the same Army
unit.
"Brothers aren't even supposed to be together, much
less identical twins," Keith Miller said.
One twin was killed in action, bleeding to death in
his brother's arms; Lt. Miller witnessed the whole
thing. "It really tore him up ... one brother was dead,
and the other was in total shock," Miller said.
Through a combination of research and coincidences,
Miller found himself talking on the phone to the
surviving twin last week.
"I was almost speechless. I didn't know he was alive
much less ever how to find him," Miller said. "He broke
up a couple times on the phone talking about what
happened. He had no idea that it had affected his
commanding officer — my dad — so much."
Miller said his father wrote "Korea's Sleeping
Ghosts" before he was born. As a young husband, the
elder Miller spent about two years working on the book
in the evenings after work. A publisher, Doubleday,
wanted it.
"I have all the letters advising him on changes. Back
at that time it was more difficult. He actually had to
retype all the pages, and that took a while," Miller
said.
Then came the Vietnam War. American sentiment about
the military took a nosedive and the publisher "backed
off," Miller said. His father "just stashed the book
away. Growing up I had heard comments from my mom but
had never seen it, never read it ... I knew he was very
proud of what he and the other guys had done over
there."
The Gulf War in the 1990s largely restored America's
pride in its troops, and the elder Miller, who worked
for Aeroglide Corp. in Cary for 25 years, decided to
shop his book around again. He retired in 1991, but was
diagnosed with pancreatic cancer shortly thereafter; he
died the following year.
"Then a couple of years ago my mother handed me this
manuscript, pages he had typed up, and I sat down and
started to read it," Keith Miller said. "I was amazed at
the things he had done and had never said anything
about."
He said the book contains more than just bloody
battle scenes of war. "It's focused on the relationships
between the men, and a few women. It's what veterans
like reading about," Miller said. "What they remember
are not the battles. They remember the relationships
they developed on the line with their fellow soldiers,
and the crazy and funny things they did. Those things
stick with them forever."
Contact Wendy Lemus at 467-3391 or wlemus@nando.com
