My name is Paul Miller. My obituary appears in the Individuals section of this website. Look for Miller, Dr. Paul A.

This sketch of Fort Hamilton was the centerpiece to the banner at the top of the Hamilton Evening Journal newspaper, which was published Monday through Saturday, from 1908 to 1933.

816. Nov. 12, 2003 -- 'Miller's Fliers' based in Seven Mile in 1944-45:    Journal-News, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2003 'Miller's Fliers' based in Seven Mile in 1944-45   (This column is part of a series on the history of flight in Butler County in observance of the Centennial of Flight in 2003.)   By Jim Blount   Allied forces were moving through Europe and the Pacific when the 1944-45 school year started at Seven Mile High School. The rural school was surrounded by farms producing food for local consumption and for American armed forces scattered around the globe. Some farmers in the Seven Mile area did double duty -- also working in war plants in Hamilton and Middletown. Principal Paul Miller did more than was expected, too, adding aeronautics to the senior curriculum.   "He was an outstanding administrator as well as a teacher," said Mac Sloneker, a 1945 Seven Mile graduate. "His instruction included life beyond school subjects."   "Mr. Miller foresaw the importance of air power that was taking place in World War II," Sloneker recalled, "so he instituted an aeronautics class in the fall of 1944. Fifteen senior boys were enrolled as 'Miller's Fliers.'   "We learned the technical stuff," including "a homemade wind tunnel where we tested the various air foils, or wing shapes, that we designed as part of our class work," Sloneker said.   "The real highlight of the class," according to Sloneker, "was taking individual half hour flying lessons at Hamilton Airport with the Hogan brothers as teachers. We did this on seven consecutive Tuesdays in the fall of 1944. Each student paid $2 per lesson. There was only one accident -- John Rand tore off a tail wheel in landing."   Sloneker said "in later years, two members of the class, Leighton Reynolds and Neal Moberly, earned their pilot licenses."   "I always wonder if any other public school in the country had a course which included actual flying lessons," said Sloneker, a former teacher and coach, who worked under Miller when the former Seven Mile principal was school superintendent in Warren, Ohio.   Miller came to Seven Mile in 1939 from Darrtown High School, which closed after the 1938-39 school year. He was at Seven Mile from 1939 to 1945, except for a year at Okeana, Sloneker explained.   Miller was a science teacher as well as principal at Seven Mile -- and he did much more, Sloneker emphasized in relating the "little known flight story" that took place at his alma mater that became part of what is now the Edgewood school district. (April 6, 1959, Seven Mile and Wayne schools merged to form the Shiloh District. The Shiloh and Trenton districts combined Feb. 14, 1968, to create the Edgewood district.)   "He [Miller] also filled in as part time football coach in 1942 when our coaches were drafted into the service" during the first year of U. S. involvement in World War II. "He also filled in as umpire when needed," Sloneker said.   "At least one winter night he stayed at the school all night to keep a faulty furnace working so school could be in session the next day." Sloneker said "Mrs. Miller, worried about his absence from home, called my dad late that night to ask if he would go to school to check on him. He did, and found Mr. Miller asleep on a bench in the furnace room."   At the 2002 Seven Mile alumni dinner, Sloneker presented a tribute to Miller, who died July 18, 2002.   Two teachers -- Robert Blackburn and Albert Cool -- weren't around in 1944 as the 15 Seven Mile seniors started flight training.   Blackburn was an industrial arts teacher and coach at Seven Mile High School when Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941. "Coach Blackburn was drafted into the navy in January 1942," Sloneker said. "He reached the rank of lieutenant commander and participated in the Normandy invasion in 1944 as a skipper on a LST."   Cool, a vocal and instrumental teacher, "finished the 1941-42 school year and went into the Army Air Corps, becoming a B-24 pilot," Sloneker said. "Many in school in the fall of 1943 will remember hearing a low-flying airplane as it passed over the school," Sloneker recalled. "Mr. Miller dismissed the entire student body to watch and wave as Lt. Cool made a return pass. The next word we received was that Lt. Cool lost his life in a raid over France in 1944."