Here’s a little Glen Miller info for those of you who might be interested. I’m surprised there isn’t more made of this mystery, like the Amelia Earhart mystery.
In 1942, at the peak of his civilian career, Glenn decided he could better serve those in uniform by putting one on himself. By doing this, the band gave up a $20,000 weekly income. Too old to be drafted at age 38, Glenn first volunteered for the Navy but was told that they didn’t need his services. Not giving up, Glenn wrote to the Army’s Brigadier General Charles Young on August 12, 1942. Miller persuaded the Army to accept him so he could in his own words, “put a little more spring into the feet of our marching men and a little more joy into their hearts and to be placed in charge of a modernized army band.” After being accepted in the Army, Glenn’s civilian band played their last concert in Passaic, New Jersey on September 27th, 1942. It was such a sad event that the band couldn’t finish playing the closing theme song, Moonlight Serenade.
Glenn soon became part of the Army Specialists Corps with the rank of captain. For the next year and a half, besides arranging music, Glenn created and directed his own 50-member band. Captain Miller’s mission was morale building, bringing a touch of home to the troops and modernizing military music. Glenn was also a talented fund raiser, and raised millions of dollars in war bond drives. He also attracted Air Corps recruits through his I Sustain the Wings weekly radio broadcasts.
Still wanting to do more, Glenn arranged for overseas duty for the band. Arriving in London, the band was quartered at 25 Sloane Street, an area in constant barrage by German V-1 buzz bombs. Glenn was immediately concerned for the band and made arrangements for the unit to move to new quarters in Bedford, England. The band moved on July 2, 1944, and the very next day a buzz bomb landed in front of their old quarters, destroying the building and killing 100 people. The Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band was extremely busy and Glenn wrote home that in one month they played at 35 different bases, while performing 40 radio broadcasts in their spare time.
Finally, on December 15, 1944, Glenn boarded a single engine C-64 Norseman aircraft to travel to Paris, France where he was to make arrangements for a Christmas broadcast. Tragically, the plane never reached France and was never found.