Thomas John Miles was born on July 9, 1920, to Thomas C. Miles and Odette Boyer Miles, who lived in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Thomas was one of four children: Thomas, Charles, Louise, and Patricia. The family moved to Fair Hills in North New Jersey in 1928, and to 128 Linden Street in West Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1932.

Thomas’s father was a cabinetmaker and attended the Carlisle Indian School, which later became Dickenson College. He played football under the famous “Pop” Warner. His father was first cousin to Jim Thorpe, the famous Indian athlete (declared the greatest athlete of the first half of the 20th century).

Thomas attended West Chester High School, then located on the northeast corner of Church and Washington Streets. He was on the Varsity Track team in his 1st, 2nd and 3rd years, Football JV 1st , Varsity 2nd, 3rd, Boys Athletic Association 1st, 2nd, and Cooperative Council, President his 3rd year.

The yearbook says of Thomas:

Tommy has gained great renown by his ability in athletics, his personality, ambition and enthusiasm.

Thomas enjoyed driving his 1937 Ford. His sister remembers him as a great big brother – kind to his little sisters and very protective of them. He was remembered as being outgoing and good-natured.

Thomas graduated in 1939. He went on to attend the Pierce Business School in Philadelphia while working at Lukens Steel Company in Coatesville from 1939-1940.

Thomas enlisted in the Army Air Corps 1941. He married Vera Columbia Bostelle on December 27, 1941. He was sent to Penn State for basic training, and aviation training.

Thomas received training as a gunner, and flew on B-17’s as a tail gunner. He flew on patrol missions out of Panama. The Canal was a very strategic site, and had to be well protected. Thomas was stationed in Panama for over a year. He later applied for training as navigator and after training was sent to England, to fly bombing missions over enemy territory.

After the war, he transferred in the Military Air Transportation Service (MATS) which was formed in 1948 with the Army Air Corps which became the US Air Force. MATS combined the former Air Transportation Command and the Naval Air Transport Service. Thomas was promoted to Master Sergeant.

From June 1948- May1949 he served in the massive Berlin Airlift. The Russians, due to ‘technical difficulties’, closed the roads through East Germany to West Berlin. Berlin was deep inside of East Germany and itself was divided into a Communist East Berlin, and a Free West Berlin. Their plan was obvious, to starve the West Berliners, so they would surrender, and no longer become a thorn in the side of the Russians, seeking to control all of Germany.

The Allies responded with an unprecedented and an impossible task – so though the world. The Allies flew in supplies, from milk to coal, food and clothing, the necessities of life, to a war devastated people – our former enemies. At the peak, the aircraft landed every 3 minutes round the clock, and in mid April managed 1,398 flights carrying 12,940 tons in a single day! In May, the Russians gave up and opened the roads to West Berlin.

After the success of the Berlin Airlift, MATS activity returned to a normal level.

Master Sergeant Thomas John Miles was Missing on October 15, 1951 when his aircraft went down. He was radio operator on a Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter - a big-bellied transport evolved from the famed B-29 bomber. He was on a flight from Europe back to his base, Westover AFB in Chicopee, Massachusetts. His plane went down near the Portuguese Azores. His aircraft was never found.

Thomas is survived by his sisters, his wife, Vera,
and three children: Johanna, Peter, and Christopher.