Musician and Army Air Forces officer. He received international recognition as an American jazz bandleader, arranger, and trombonist in the 1930s and 1940s. Born Alton Glen "Glenn" Miller (he changed the spelling of Glen to Glenn during high school) in Clarinda, Iowa, the family soon moved to Grant City, Missouri, where he went to grade school. While working for the town bandsman, he was given a trombone and learned to play proficiently enough to perform in the town band. The Miller family moved again, this time to Fort Morgan, Colorado, where he went to high school, excelling in sports. However, his interest was in dance band music. He skipped his graduation while his mother accepted his diploma while he went to Laramie, Wyoming to play in a band concert. He was headed for a career as a professional musician. There were numerous band opportunities, as the Big Band era was in full swing. He played with several area groups until landing in Boulder, Colorado playing with the Holly Moyer Orchestra which financed his two years at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He left college to work full-time playing and arranging music which led him to the Ben Pollack Orchestra. He roomed with another rising star, clarinetist Benny Goodman. Finally, in 1937, Glenn organized his own band. After a couple of years of trying times, the band was on its way with a booking at the Glen Island Casino, in New Rochelle, New York. Frequent radio broadcasts led to a nationwide following culminating in a series sponsored by Chesterfield cigarettes. Glenn Miller and His Orchestra was soon the most popular big band in America. Starting with the band theme song, "Moonlight Serenade," many Glenn Miller tunes became popular such as "In the Mood," "Tuxedo Junction," "I'll Never Smile Again," "Pennsylvania Six-Five Thousand," (AKA: Pennsylvania 6-5000) and "Chattanooga Choo Choo." The band appeared in two movies, "Sun Valley Serenade," and "Orchestra Wives." In 1942, at the height of his career, he joined the Army to serve in World War II. Too old to be drafted, he persuaded the Army to accept him. The United States Navy had turned him down. For the Army (Air Corps) or Army Air Forces (as it was called) he served in the role of organizing a military band to entertain the troops. Glenn became part of the Army Specialists Corps with the rank of Captain. After his tour of duty at Maxwell and Fort Meade, he transferred to Yale University for a couple of years. For the next year and a half, besides arranging music, he created and directed his own 50-member orchestra, and raised millions of dollars at war bond drives. He hired professional musicians from excellent orchestras and bands across the U.S., and formed an orchestra with a large string section added to a big band. Still wanting to do more, Glenn arranged for overseas duty. Arriving in London, the Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Orchestra was extremely busy. In one month, they played at 35 different bases and did 40 radio broadcasts. On a foggy day, on December 15, 1944, he flew with pilot Flight Officer John R. S. Morgan, U.S. Army Air Forces (35th Repair Squadron, 35th Air Depot Group), and Lieutenant Colonel Norman F. Baessell, U.S. Army Air Forces (Headquarters Squadron, VIII Air Service Command) in a single-engine C-64 Norseman aircraft from England headed to Paris, France. He was to set up arrangements for his band's arrival in Paris and a Christmas program. Investigations point to the icing up of the plane's wings causing the plane to drop into the English Channel. Army flights were canceled that day, one day before the Battle of the Bulge, but the pilot took off anyway. After the disappearance of Major Glenn Miller, the orchestra/band did the planned Christmas concert in Paris and continued to play in Europe until after the war. Their last concert before it was disbanded was in November 1945 at a National Press Club dinner for President Harry Truman in Washington, DC, where General Eisenhower and General Arnold thanked the band for a job well done. He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star Medal and has a memorial headstone/cenotaph at Arlington National Cemetery (MH-464-A). His name is etched as Alton Glenn Miller, U.S. Army (Air Corps), Major, MIA and there is a trombone and the words Bronze Star Medal on the reverse. There is a fan-placed, shiny, black monument with his picture etched on it at Grove Street Cemetery, New Haven, Connecticut, near Yale University. He is also remembered on the Tablets of the Missing at Cambridge American Military Cemetery and Memorial in Cambridge, England. He is honored with a memorial at the Corn Exchange, Bedford, Bedfordshire, a wartime base of the Major Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Orchestra in England, situated close to Twinwood Farm Airfield in Bedfordshire where the Norseman departed on its fateful journey. He is honored with a large boulder cenotaph in the front yard of the house where he was born in Clarinda, Iowa, and where the Glenn Miller Birthplace Society holds the Glenn Miller Music Festival every June. "The Glenn Miller Story" was filmed by Universal Studios in 1953 with Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson portraying Glenn and Helen Miller. The entire organization is honored at Arlington National Cemetery near his memorial headstone on Wilson Drive with a tree with a black granite marker that reads, "Dedicated to the Major Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Orchestra / In Service from 20 March 1943 to 15 January 1946 / An American Holly on 15 December 1994. It bears the images of a trombone and the Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), and the Army Air Forces (AAF) insignia. It was dedicated on the 50th anniversary of his death.