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Colonel John Grider Miller, USMC
(ret.) was the managing editor of the Naval Institute’s Proceedings and Naval History magazines. A
1957 Yale University Graduate, Colonel John Grider Miller saw significant infantry service with the Marine Corps including
two tours of duty in Vietnam as a rifle company commander and an advisor to the South Vietnamese military. He
also served as the deputy directory of Marine Corps history and principal speech writer for three Marine Corps Commandants.
John Grider Miller is the author of The Bridge at Dong Ha; Battle to Save the Houston: October 1944 to March 1945;
and, The Co-Vans: U.S. Marine Advisors in Vietnam. Colonel John Grider Miller is also the
co-author of Punching Out: Launching a Post-Military Career. The Library Journal said of The Bridge at Dong Ha, “On
Easter 1972 Captain John Ripley braved light weapons fire from North Vietnamese troops to rig explosives to a bridge crossing
the Cua Viet River. When the span fell, a major route into the South was closed to the massed troops, and part of the momentum
for the so-called Nguyen Hue offensive was temporarily blunted. Ripley's gallant effort was especially courageous since
he was acting against a command suggestion to hold the bridge for a counterattack that could not have been mounted, and South
Vietnamese troops were in disarray and fleeing to the South all around the Vietnamese unit he advised. Miller's narration
of this small action tends more toward the sensational than the historical; the violent and vividly told story may appeal
widely to adventure readers.”
According to the book description of
Battle to Save the Houston: October 1944 to March 1945, “A World War II adventure story of
epic proportions, this book tells the heroic tale of a dedicated band of men who refused to let their crippled ship sink to
the bottom of the Pacific in late 1944. Based on over seventy eyewitness accounts and hundreds of official documents and personal
papers, it records in rich detail the USS Houston's 14,000-mile perilous journey home to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Part
of Bull Halsey's famous Pacific Task Force 38, the Houston had been supporting air strikes as a prelude to the Battle
of Leyte Gulf, when she took an aerial torpedo hit that caused serious flooding. Nearly two-thirds of the crew abandoned ship
before the damage-control officer convinced the captain she might be saved. Another torpedo hit two days later complicated
the crew's desperate fight. Surrounded by death, floodwaters, and fire, stalked by enemy subs, threatened by air attack,
and running from a typhoon, the men of the Houston remained towers of strength while knowing their ship was never more than
minutes away from breaking apart. John Miller's action-packed account gives insights into the nature of heroism and leadership
that remain valuable today. Exceptional photographic documentation accompanies the text.”
Publisher’s Weekly said of Punching
Out: Launching a Post-Military Career, “Because of military cutbacks, service personnel who expected to
complete their terms or to serve until retirement now find themselves unemployed in an overcrowded job market. Mastin, an
executive recruiter, and Miller, an editor at the U.S. Naval Institute, here offer guidelines for entering civilian life.
Their suggestions on taking stock of one's experiences and talents and assessing options are useful to anyone, military
or civilian, considering a career change. The authors also present techniques for securing interviews, making a favorable
impression and negotiating offers, material that is likely to seem simplistic to veterans of corporate America. But to those
for whom the process is unfamiliar, the book will be a helpful introductory guide to finding a job out of uniform.”
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According to the book description
of The Co-Vans: U.S. Marine Advisors in Vietnam, “Depending upon where and when they served,
Americans had vastly different experiences in the Vietnam War. Among the more unique experiences were those of the advisors
who worked closely with their Vietnamese counterparts, sharing the dangers, privations, local politics, tactical victories,
and ultimate defeat as part of the long saga of the Vietnam War. U.S. Marines worked more closely than other advisors with
the Vietnamese and were often on their own to deal with the vastly different culture and difficult cause. Despite these obstacles
and arduous circumstances, the advisors, called co-vans in Vietnamese, did a credible job amidst a war far from home, upholding
the honor of the Corps and infusing their allies with an esprit de corps that made the Vietnamese Marines a potent fighting
force. John Miller, a co-van himself, has
captured their experiences in this very readable, often humorous, sometimes poignant book. With the same writing style that
earned him writing awards and thousands of readers in his earlier book on John Ripley's heroism at a bridge in Vietnam,
Miller captures the grit of life in the field, the no-nonsense view of men at arms no matter what the nationality, and the
smell of cordite in the air. But more than a combat memoir, this is an introspective and thought-provoking look at an unusual
mission in a war in an inscrutable culture at a time when Americans and their values were under fire.”
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