Nearly 70 years after he was declared as Missing In Action during the Korean War, Mathews County resident Marjorie Hantwerker still gets choked up when she’s talking about her brother.
Army Ranger William Thomas Miles Jr. was reported MIA on July 8, 1951 near Karyoju-ri, North Korea. While his final whereabouts and remains have faded from the pages of history, the story of his life is now being told in a new book, “To The Last Man” by Alexander Cohen.
Marjorie Hantwerker, who resides in Port Haywood with her husband Andreas (“Andy”), shared some details of her brother’s Ranger career that saw him receive the nation’s second-highest commendation for valor—the Distinguished Service Cross.
Miles was born to working-class parents in Philadelphia in 1929. He worked for the United States Postal Service during World War II, as he was too young to enlist. However, by the time the 1950s arrived a new war was brewing in Korea.
Rangers like William ...