This is the life and times of Pfc Jimmie Millican after joining Hq Co 1st Bn 501st Prcht Inf from October 30, 1942 to the June 11, 1944 when he killed in the battle of Graignes.

Letters Home between October 1942 to June 1944 (and beyond to his family)

(The writing below is from Lois Hutto, Jimmie's cousin.  She is the little blonde girl above along with Jimmie's nephew Mike.) 

I have copied some pictures of the family to make the letters more understanding. The pictures were made when he came home on leave just before going to Fort Benning.

We left Oklahoma City bound for California sometime in 1940 or 1941. Jimmy’s Dad was an oil man who had some bad luck and went broke. He worked in the oil fields after that in several states then in the shipyards in California.

When Jimmie decided to go in the army he went back to Oklahoma to join. The first few
letters are when he got to Oklahoma City. Then he went to Fort Sill and then on to Camp
Toccoa and Fort Benning. To me the letters are interesting because they follow a paratrooper all the way to England.

Jimmie’s Sister Mildred’s husband was in the Air Force, they were in California awhile
then went to Greenville, SC and then Demming, New Mexico. He was in pilot training,
ended up a navigator. He was from a pioneer ranching family in Carlsbad, N.M. The
reason we ended up there after the war. Then when they started building the labs at
Los Alamos we went there.

There is a letter from Jimmie’s Dad included in these letters. We aren’t sure he ever got
this letter. It was in the personal effects they sent home after D-Day. Uncle Jim got tired
of California and went back to Oklahoma-Texas oil field. In the last few letters Jimmie is talking of his concern about Aunt Ruth and Mike making the trip to Texas alone.

In the end my Mother and Father and I went with her as far as Amarillo, TX and my Dad went back to the oil fields there.

We were only in Amarillo a few days when Mildred called trying to get in touch with her mother because she had been notified that Jimmie was MIA. Soon after that we were all
back in Oklahoma City and it was there that we were notified he was KIA. My Mother
and my Aunt were very close so we stayed with them for a number of months after that.

I would like to see these letters preserved in some form of publication.

Lois Hutto