October 17, 2024:
WACO Historical Society Aviation Lecture Series
WACO Air Museum, 1865 South County Road 25A, Troy, Ohio 45373
Thursday, October 17th, 2024 – doors open at 6:30 p.m., lecture at 7 PM
“Your Soldier is Our Soldier”
“Your Soldier is Our Soldier” will be presented on October 17th at 7 p.m. at WACO Air Museum. Sue Brueggemeier, niece of Verl E. Miller, will present the details of this story and reveal her personal connection with her uncle who died at the age of 19 in WW2. This is the first lecture of the WACO Aviation Lecture Series for the 2024/2025 lecture season.
The talk centers around her uncle, Verl E. Miller, who served as a private in the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, in Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands. He died there at the age of 19 on September 24, 1944, and is buried at the Netherlands American Cemetery. The grave adoption program by the Dutch people, and in particular, the adopters of my uncle’s grave, have gone to such great lengths to provide our family with details and experiences, that Verl Miller has in some way again come alive in the hearts of those who knew him, and even in those who came after him. According to the Dutch military historian who adopted his grave, he was a passenger in a WACO Glider with Airborne Serial #A-90, sub number A-15. Company E was made up of 193 men who traveled in fifteen gliders with chalk numbers W-31 / W-45.
Sue Bruggemeier is neither an aviator nor a WWII historian, but simply a wife, mother of 2 grown children, grandmother to 4, and a retired elementary school teacher and reading specialist for “at-risk” young children. A number of ironic events led her to put together this presentation, and previously self-publish 3 books for her family to remember and honor her uncle, Verl Miller, a WACO Gliderman, who died seven years before she was born.
All aviation lectures are free and open to the public; donations to WACO Air Museum are gladly accepted. Lectures are held in the Willis Wing of the WACO Air Museum at 1865 South County Road 25A in Troy, OH. Doors open at 6:30 and the program begins at 7 p.m. Programs are scheduled to last one hour with questions to follow. For questions, please call 937-335-9226 or visit www.wacoairmuseum.org.
WACO Air Museum & Learning Center
1865 S. County Rd. 25A
Troy, OH 45373
937-335-9226
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WACO Air Museum & Learning Center is Site #11 on the Aviation Trail
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