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<em>Troup Miller, Jr</em> was born on 30 August 1908 in Omaha, Nebraska, the only son of Brigadier General Troup Miller, USMA 1902, and Rosa Coffin Miller. When Troup arrived, his father was stationed at Fort Omaha, then the headquarters of the Army’s Western Command. Troup’s paternal ancestors were Georgians and his mother’s family, the Coffins, were a well-known family from Knoxville, Tennessee. Troup was raised in the Army, but considered Georgia his home.</p>
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When Troup was two years old, the family was posted to Fort McKinley in the Philippines, and it was here that he first became infatuated with aviation. It seems that one 2nd LT Frank Lahm (MG F. P. Lahm, USMA 1901) would come by the Millers’ quarters and pick up the young Troup who would then accompany the flyer down to the polo field where he would sit on the ground and watch while Lahm flew in circles in a Curtiss Pusher. Troup thus brushed the beginning of flight since Lahm was one of the Army’s first two aviators and was taught to fly by Wilbur Wright.</p>
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Troup’s early education involved attendance at a number of post elementary schools due to his father’s many differing assignments just prior to and during the First World War. Troup graduated from Western High School in Washington, DC at the tender age of 16. Too young to enter the Academy, he spent the next year preparing for USMA at St. Luke’s School (now Valley Forge Military Academy) in Wayne, PA.</p>
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The recipient of a Senatorial alternate appointment from Georgia, Troup was successful when the principal faltered and he entered the Academy in July 1926. His winning personality, affable manner, and relative ease with academics allowed Troup to take life on the Hudson in stride. Well-liked by his classmates, highly competent but not overly serious, Troup was already demonstrating those qualities and personal traits which would make him not only an immensely capable military leader but also a highly popular individual throughout his life. Troup had a keen interest in sports, and served a stint as assistant baseball manager, but it was during his stay at West Point that Troup nurtured one of his great loves—the game of golf.</p>
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Upon graduation in June 1930, Troup was commissioned in the Cavalry but was immediately detailed into the Air Corps. After a leisurely three-month graduation leave, Troup began his primary flight training at March Field, CA in October 1930, and completed Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field, TX in September 1931. It was a great thrill for him to receive his wings from General Lahm, the same individual that he watched fly the earliest of Army planes in 1914. From October 1931 through July 1936, Troup served in a variety of assignments with the 2nd Bomb Group, located at Langley Field, Virginia. These included squadron engineering officer, assistant operations officer, and temporary details to CCC duty and “flying the mail.”</p>
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It was shortly after reporting to Langley, in May of 1932, that Troup married Miss Julia Lowry Meador of Atlanta, GA; a young lady that he had first met in 1926 while he was still at St. Lukes. Julia was to be Troup’s one and only for the next 56 years, and there can be little doubt that few marriages contain the degree of love, compatibility, and just plain old friendship and good times that the two of them were to enjoy. Blessed with three daughters, Julia (Judy) was born at Langley in 1935; Marilyn at Kelly in 1938; and Katherine (Taffy) at Maxwell in 1943.</p>
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In July 1936, Troup returned to Kelly Field as a flying instructor, thus beginning a series of training assignments that can be viewed in retrospect as early recognition of his leadership, flying skills, and ability to work with hundreds of young men entering the Army Air Corps as World War II approached. In 1940, now a captain, Troup moved to</p>
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Maxwell Field, Alabama to command a training group at the Air Corps Advanced Flying School. In 1941, he was sent on a special project to open up the training field at Valdosta, Georgia, which ultimately became Moody AFB; sent back to Maxwell in October 1941, now Major Miller, he became the commander of the Air Corps Replacement Training Center. Next, as a lieutenant colonel, came back-to-back assignments in 1942-43 as director of training at the Army Air Forces, Combat Crew School, Smyrna, Tennessee, and assistant commandant of the Pilot School at Maxwell Field. Finally, after graduation from the Army-Navy Staff College, Colonel Troup Miller realized his fondest wish and gained assignment to an active combat theater, reporting to General MacArthur’s Southwest Pacific Headquarters in Brisbane, Australia in February 1944.</p>
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He had served only a brief period in the Transportation Section of MacArthur’s Hqs, when General Kenney, CG Fifth Air Force, recognized his talent and potential and made Troup his Deputy Chief of Staff-Operations. Troup’s knowledge, experience, and dedication quickly reflected itself in the superior planning and coordination which resulted in the outstanding success of the Hollandia Bay operation in New Guinea. With the creation of the Far Eastern Air Forces (FEAF) in July 1944, General Kenney selected Troup for the same job with FEAF, and he repeated his Hollandia performance in the Leyte operation. In January 1945; he was named commanding officer of the 59th Air Service Group on Leyte; then in April, he became the chief of staff, XIII Bomber Command (Thirteenth Air Force) operating from Morotai Island; and in May 1945, he became the XIII’s commander, conducting and participating in combat air strikes against Japanese installations on Borneo and in Indochina.</p>
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With the conclusion of the war, it seemed perfectly logical that Troup would be tapped to play an important part in the founding of the Air University at Maxwell AFB. Given his extensive staff and training experience and his even temperament and patience with students, the Air Force didn’t err when they made him the Air University’s first Chief of Academic Plans. Instrumental in curriculum design and in career development plans, Troup experienced his own handiwork when he attended the Air War College in 1948-49. After Maxwell came the Pentagon and successive assignments as executive officer, DCS/Material and director of Industrial Resources, DC S/Material. It was in the latter job that Troup received his first star in 1951. Dispatched to England in June 1953 as commander of Northern Air Material Area (NAMA), Troup quickly demonstrated an insight into the intricacies of leading an organization that had supply, maintenance, and procurement responsibilities for various USAF as well as NATO commands. Despite the long hours, Troup did manage to preserve enough time to become thoroughly acquainted with the English and Scottish golf courses and do some long overdue traveling with the family on the European continent.</p>
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In 1956 Troup was promoted to major general and selected by General Tom Power of Air R&D to head up the Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) at Tullahoma, Tennessee. AEDC, created in the early 50’s, was to be the major aerodynamic test facility for the United States, but had gotten off to a stumbling start. Troup was selected not on the basis of his engineering skill but because AEDC was badly in need of a leader who could get the best out of a small Air Force contingent and a large civilian contractor staff. Troup made his presence felt quickly by delineating responsibilities, streamlining the organization and eliminating the dissension between the military and civilian staffs. He set the organization on a course that allowed it to become the top rate facility that the Air Force and nation required.</p>
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In 1960, Troup became the vice commander of the Air University, which proved to be just a brief refresher course as on 1 August 1961, Troup was named Air University commander and promoted to lieutenant general. Probably no officer before or since has ever been more destined for, or suited for, an assignment. Troup had extensive service as a young officer in Air University’s predecessor organizations, and as a midgrade officer played an important part in determining the programs, policies, and curriculum design at the creation of the Air University following World War II. But Troup was always looking forward not backward, and his tenure as Air University commander was marked by significant improvements in instructional techniques, expanded curricula, the institution of a degree completion program with George Washington University, the establishment of associate courses at bases other than Maxwell, and the introduction of tuition assistance for Air Force ROTC students.</p>
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Troup retired from the Air Force on 1 January 1964. He had proven his ability in just about every phase of Air Force activities: he was a superb aviator, an outstanding flight instructor, a natural trainer, a talented staff officer and planner, a successful combat commander, and a leader/ manager of large, complex Air Force organizations be they concerned with operations, logistics, research and development, or education and career development. His real strengths lay in his love of people, his good humor, his quiet competence, and the easy manner in which he wore his stars and shouldered large responsibility.</p>
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Troup enjoyed his retirement. He and Julia settled in Atlanta but were constant travelers. Besides frequent auto trips visiting friends and relatives throughout the United States, they also managed out-of-country trips on an annual basis. These included Mexico, Alaska, Bermuda, most of Western Europe and other parts of the globe. Both immensely enjoyed social life, not only entertaining old friends but always enjoying meeting and making new friends, particularly young people. They truly could be described as a “fun couple” and the word “retirement” really falls short because the Millers were constantly on the go! Golf was no longer a sideline for Troup but a main thrust and though his age increased, his handicap remained low. He was a participant in the Southern Seniors on several occasions and a longtime member of the well-known Peachtree Golf Club in Atlanta. While Troup loved golf, he still had room to follow all other sports, to take an active interest in national and local politics, and always to be an interesting conversationalist on a wide variety of topics.</p>
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In the summer of 1987, shortly after returning from a trip through the Panama Canal, Troup was diagnosed as having lung cancer. This seemed particularly ironic since he had quit smoking some forty years before. Despite a desperate battle on his part and a never-quit attitude, Troup passed away in his sleep on 14 May 1988. The nation lost a renowned airman and a concerned citizen, the family lost a loving leader, and a great number of people lost one of their best friends. He was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. He is survived by his wife, Julia Meador Miller; three daughters, Julia Tobin of Springfield, VA, Marilyn Emmons of Longwood, FL and Katherine Wallace of Atlanta, GA; nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild.</p>
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