World War II Honoree

Clifford M. Mills

Branch of Service

U.S. Army

Hometown

Troy, Indiana

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Private First Class. He was inducted into the United States Army December 16, 1942 at Evansville, Indiana, with recruit Training at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana. Later completed Paratrooper Combat Infantry Training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Deployed to Great Britain, assigned to the 319th Glider Field Artillery Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, a subordinate unit of the 82nd ‘All-American’ Airborne Division. His Division participated in the Invasion of the Netherlands against the German armed forces Code Named: Operation, Market Garden, the liberation of Holland. Reported missing in action Monday, September 18, 1944 on the second day of the invasion, after his glider crashed behind enemy lines. In remembrance of the brave, his name is permanently inscribed in the tablets of the missing, memorialized at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands. After the cessation of hostilities in Europe, the 407th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company, Quartermaster Corps conducted recovery operations in the Netherlands, and his remains could not be positively identified and were interred as an unknown in the Ardennes American Cemetery in Neupre, Belgium. In June of 2017, personnel from the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Agency disinterred an unknown from the Ardennes Cemetery. The remains were transferred to the Agency laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska were he was identified. The family of this Soldier received his remains for burial. He was laid to rest with Military Honors, March 30, 2019 at the Troy Cemetery in Troy, Indiana. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart with an Oak Leaf Cluster posthumously, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.