Lewis Lee Millett Sr. (December 15, 1920 – November 14, 2009) was a United States Army officer who received the Medal of Honor during the Korean War for leading the last major American bayonet charge.
When he thought that the United States would not participate in World War II he deserted and went to Canada with a friend where they joined the Canadian Army and were sent to London.
While serving with the Army in World War II, he received a Silver Star for driving a burning ammunition truck away from a group of soldiers before it exploded.
[2] While still attending high school in Dartmouth, he enlisted in the Massachusetts National Guard in 1938 and joined his uncle's old regiment, the 101st Field Artillery.
[1][3] With a friend who had received a bad conduct discharge from the U.S. Marine Corps, Millett hitchhiked to Canada and enlisted in the Canadian Army.
[2] Assigned to the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery, he was sent to the United Kingdom, where he served as an anti-aircraft radar operator in London during the Blitz.
[1][3] It was at this time that the U.S. Army discovered Millet's 1941 desertion; he was court-martialed, convicted, ordered to pay a US$52 fine (roughly $825 in 2022)[4] and stripped of his leave privileges.
Davis DFC, 2 Sqn SAAF attached to 18 Fighter Bomber Wing, crash landed his F-51D Mustang in North Korea.
[5] By February 7, 1951, Millett was serving in South Korea as a captain and commander of Company E of the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment.
On that day, near Soam-Ni, he led his company in an assault on an enemy position atop Hill 180 near Songtan or Anyang.
Upon reaching the top of the hill, his men stormed the enemy position and forced the opposing soldiers to withdraw.
While at the 101st Airborne in 1959 he was the commander of the first "Recondo" (reconnaissance–commando) school which trained NCOs in small unit tactics and patrolling skills.
[2] Millett's son John, an Army staff sergeant, was among more than 240 U.S. military members killed in 1985 when their airplane, Arrow Air Flight 1285, crashed in Gander, Newfoundland, while carrying them home from peacekeeping duty in the Sinai Peninsula.
[3] He died at the Jerry L. Pettis Memorial VA Medical Center in Loma Linda, California, after being hospitalized four days earlier.
While personally leading his company in an attack against a strongly held position he noted that the 1st Platoon was pinned down by small-arms, automatic, and antitank fire.
His dauntless leadership and personal courage so inspired his men that they stormed into the hostile position and used their bayonets with such lethal effect that the enemy fled in wild disorder.
Millett were directly responsible for the successful accomplishment of a hazardous mission and reflect the highest credit on himself and the heroic traditions of the military service.