Name: Miller, Irvin Seumas
Rank: Chief Petty Officer
Rating: Machinist Mate
Date of Enlistment: Dec. 26, 1917
Age: 40
D.O.B.: Dec. 26, 1900
Place of Birth: Boston Mass.
Marital Status: Single
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 175 lbs.
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Distinguishing Marks: Anchor Tattoo - right forearm
Asian Female Tattoo- left forearm
Vertical Chinese Characters (4) Tattoo - left side of left
pectoral region
3 Bladed Ship's Propellor Tattoo - left shoulder
5 inch scar - right side lower abdomen
Dental: fillings outer molars upper and lower both sides
left lower canine missing
Duty Stations: Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Illinois - 1918
Cavite - USS Elcano (PG-38) 1918-1920 E-4
Shanghai - USS Elcano (PG-38) 1921-1924 E-5
Naval Submarine Base New London (BESS) - 1925
Mare Island - USS S-14 (SS-119) - 1926 E-6
Panama Canal/St. Thomas - USS S-20 (SS-125) - 1927-1930
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii - USS S-20 (SS-125) - 1930-1932 E-7
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii - USS S-32 (SS-137) 1932-1937
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard - 1937-1940 (Participated on
shakedown cruises of SS-191, SS-199 and SS-200)
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii - USS Trout (SS-202) - 1941
As much information as the record shows and even as much inference as one might glean from reading between the lines, personnel records seldom tell the whole story.
Irvin Miller barely made natural born citizen status. His family immigrated from Ireland to Boston, arriving in September of 1900. Irvin's older brother, Donald Jeffery, walked down the gangplank under his own power at the age of six and had to go through the same naturalization process as their parents.
Don joined the U.S. Navy in 1912 at the age of 18. Irvin, who was bound and determined to follow in his older brother's footsteps, promised his mother that he would wait until his eighteenth birthday to enlist but that was before April 6, 1917 when the United States declared war on Germany. From that point Irvin petitioned her for a letter of consent, allowing him to enlist at seventeen. People were saying that the war would end in less than a year now that the U.S. was involved and Irvin wanted his chance to participate. Don was already on a destroyer, escorting convoys.
This was hard enough to consider when Irvin came of age to make that decision without her consent. The boy's father, Carmichael, died in 1910 working at the Naval Shipyard, constructing coal barges. He came over with that trade and it made for a decent living. The pension she received after his death was enough to keep a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs but now she was looking at seeing her youngest leave for a life of military service at sea. Giving up even one year of his being at home was a difficult thing to consider yet seeing how miserable he would be (and how miserable she would be, in turn) she made a Christmas gift of the letter he asked for and the day after Christmas Irvin enlisted.
It's been said by many a sailor that the more you want a specific type of duty or station location, the less likely you'll receive it ... even if it's to fight in a war. And so it goes that after graduation from boot camp Irvin was sent to be a basic seaman with the Asiatic Fleet. Even more so, the component which protected American interests on the Chinese Yangtze River.
Reporting aboard the old gunboat U.S.S. Elcano in 1918, as an apprentice, Irvin showed enough skill with machinery to become a striker for Machinist's Mate. And as he served in that capacity, hostilities with Germany ended in November.
Irvin saw U.S. submarines in Manila and became fascinated. He knew the German submarines of the war were a force to be reckoned with and recalled some of Don's post-war letters describing the tension of the destroyer versus submarine cat and mouse game as he participated in shielding merchants and transports from destruction. Seeing the U.S. version of those mechanical sharks of the sea made him wonder about duty on one as compared to a second-hand Spanish river patrol boat.
In 1921 the Elcano switched it's port of operations from Cavite to Shanghai. By that time Irvin was advancing from Third Class Machinist's Mate to Second Class. He also began acquiring tattoos, the first of which was the stereotypical 'anchor on a forearm.' He would acquire three more while he was part of the Yangtze River Patrol navy. They were, in this order, the three bladed ship's propeller as seen on the Machinist Mate rating tattooed to his left shoulder; a tattoo of a scantily clad Asian looking female on his left forearm; and, lastly, the Chinese symbols, vertically displayed, on the left side of his left pectoral region that supposedly mean 'Shanghai sailor' (though if seen and asked about he might randomly reply that it means 'Kiss my arse' or 'Horsec*ck' or whatever came to mind that amused him at the moment.
Service on the Yangtze was a mixture of boredom on the river, exotic experiences in Chinese drinking establishments (that offered way more than drinks), very dirty work on old engines and other machinery that was constantly on the verge of breaking down (which actually turned out to be very valuable experience) and contention with warlords and their minions requiring protection of both missionaries and the assets and personnel of the Standard Oil Corporation from such. Thus was the state of affairs when Elcan received her new commanding officer, Lcdr. Lockwood. He had recently served with the submarine service and it was during he 'review of the crew/time to re-enlist' one on one interviews with chiefs and petty officers that when the inevitable 'you are showing great promise and advancing well, where do you see yourself, in the navy in the next four years?' that Miller immediately replied, "Serving with the submarine force, sir!" Lcdr. Lockwood, impressed with the response and recognizing the potential, signed orders for him to go to submarine training upon re-enlistment which was performed post-haste.
Thus ends the transition from 'Shanghai Sailor' to 'Submarine Sailor' for MM2 Irvin S. Miller.
It would be hard to classify Miller's service with submarines as 'uneventful' but it did progress satisfactorily. After sub school he was assigned to USS S-14 out of Mare Island where he rose to the rank of MM1. In 1927 he transferred to SS-20 which was based out of the Panama Canal zone and cruised the Caribbean (U.S. Virgin Islands). He stayed with the SS-20 when it was transferred to Pearl Harbor and advanced to Chief in 1931.
When SS-20 was relocated from Pearl Harbor in 1932, Miller transferred to SS-32 which was still based there (he developed a particular fondness for that duty station and now that he was a chief he could influence his locale better).
It was at this time (1937) that Miller was approached about being specifically groomed to become a 'Chief of the Boat.' It seems that Lcdr. (now Cdr.) Lockwood had been keeping track of his progress from his position as Submarine Operations assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations and Miller was on the short list to be considered for Chief of the Boat for the new Tambor class submarine.
To transition from S class boats and familiarize himself fully with the Tambor class, Miller would report to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard to participate in classroom study, participation with construction and shakedown cruises, eventually to be selected as one of the 'Chiefs of the Boat' for one of the new Tambor class submarines (pending commanding officer approval). The new and improved fleet submarine had arrived.
Miller smiled to himself while reading his orders and chewing on his perpetually unlit cigar.
"Guess I gotta Re-enlist."