Ships
- USS Irwin (DD-794) Captain from 14 February 1944
Daniel B. Miller, of Camden, South Carolina, was born on 10 March 1905. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1926 and made his name in destroyers. He retired as a rear admiral and died on 28 October 1968.
He was still a lieutenant when he took the older destroyer Allen on 21 November 1941, and he commanded her through the first months of the Pacific war, leaving in September 1942. He became a lieutenant commander at the start of that year. On 21 November 1942 he took command of MacKenzie and kept her until October 1943. On 16 May 1943, northwest of the Madeira Islands, MacKenzie sank the German submarine U-182 with depth charges.
On 14 February 1944, as a commander, he commissioned the new Fletcher-class destroyer Irwin at San Pedro, California, where Bethlehem Steel had built her. After shakedown along the West Coast, Irwin sailed from San Diego on 26 April 1944 for Hawaii and then for Eniwetok, where the Marianas invasion force was gathering.
She left Eniwetok on 11 June in the screen of escort carriers covering the landings on Saipan on 15 June. In the Battle of the Philippine Sea, from 19 to 21 June, Irwin shot down a Japanese torpedo bomber while defending those carriers. She bombarded Japanese positions on Saipan from 21 to 29 June, screened the escort carriers off Tinian on 23 July, and fired in support of the troops fighting on Guam.
Miller then took Irwin into the screen of fast carriers striking the Palau Islands and the coasts of Luzon, Okinawa, and Formosa. Off Formosa on 14 October 1944 the ship shot down another torpedo bomber. She helped escort the bomb-damaged cruisers Houston and Canberra out of danger, then rejoined the fast carriers for the Leyte landings on 20 October.
On 24 October 1944, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, a Japanese bomb set the light carrier Princeton on fire. Miller laid Irwin close aboard through smoke, a rising wind, and repeated explosions, and her hoses were turned on the flames in the hangar. After a heavy blast tore away much of Princeton’s stern, Irwin recovered 646 men from the sea and from the carrier’s decks before Princeton was sunk. The destroyer received a Navy Unit Commendation for the rescue. Miller received the Silver Star for his handling of the ship that day.
After the survivors were landed at Ulithi, Irwin went to the San Francisco Naval Shipyard for an overhaul that ran from 17 November 1944 to 23 January 1945. She was back at Saipan on 14 February 1945 and supported the landings on Iwo Jima later that month. Miller stayed in command through the opening weeks of the Okinawa campaign and turned Irwin over on 3 May 1945. He had been advanced to the temporary rank of captain in March. As a rear admiral he received the Legion of Merit.