Mills’ heroics saved lives in war
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Even when he obtained a 1945 newspaper clipping of events he was involved in, which featured the perspective of a Michigan man who Mills saved by taking the brunt of a grenade during World War II, he didn’t say much. But a copy of the article, coincidentally obtained by two sisters who lived in Detroit at the time and who sent it to him, is included in that envelope.
The subject of the article, William Hancock, was sitting in a foxhole when a grenade went off, tore through the palm of his hand and lodged in his chin. He didn’t really know what happened, but found out later Mills had struggled with the enemy and took most of the grenade for him.
Mills, 76, has never talked to the man he saved or had an inclination to publicly discuss what happened. But the documents tell his perspective after more than 50 years of his reluctance to share what happened.
In 1942, he was 18 and was drafted into the United States Army, where he was trained in chemical warfare. He was attached to a chemical division which went along with an infantry unit “just in case they got in trouble,” he said.
Mills might have known about poison gas as he was trained, but he very quickly learned about foxholes. In September of 1944, he found himself sitting in one with two others, including Hancock, in the early morning hours.
A private at that time, he was on guard duty near Mt. Tenjo, Guam, when a Japanese soldier threw a hand grenade into the trench, where two others slept. When he picked up the grenade to throw it out, it exploded, seriously wounding him and blowing him from his trench.
“I went to throw it out. The other two guys were asleep. They didn’t know it was in there,” he said.
Although injured and the Japanese soldier was armed with a pistol, he wrestled with him until others came to his aid and killed the enemy. Mills is credited with saving men from the grenade and from attack before they were fully awake. He was stabbed in the thumb, lost the use of his eye and lost his hand – and he had to wait through the night for medical help.
“I didn’t go anywhere for six or seven hours. It happened at night. I had to lay there until daylight until they could get me out of there.”
He was awarded the Purple Heart and the Silver Star for being wounded in an armed conflict and for showing gallantry in action against an enemy of the United States. Those medals, along with others honoring his service, are kept hidden away.
Mills stayed in the hospital for 13 months, being shifted from Honolulu to Atlanta and was released in 1945. For the family, who had received a telegram advising them of his injuries and who had another son involved in the war, it was quite a shock.
“It was pretty hard, especially on my family. Of course, I kindly got used to it, but they hadn’t seen me.”
He came back to Warren County and made a life for himself, marrying and having one child. Today, he is a grandfather to two grandchildren. And for Memorial Day, Mills thinks the memory of veterans should be kept alive, even if the reality is that “war is hell.”
Although seriously injured, he knows the war was necessary and those who died are “heroes.”
“I would do it again,” he said. “That was a war we had to win, otherwise the Germans and the Japanese would have taken over the United States. We’d be living under Japanese and German power now.”
And, he feels fortunate to be alive.
“How I got through it, I don’t know, but I consider myself lucky to be alive and living in the United States,” he added.