Alton Glenn Miller was born March 1, 1904 in Clarinda, Iowa. He was the second of four children of Elmer and Mattie Lou Miller. The Miller family moved around the Midwest a few times during Glenn's youth, living in Nebraska, Missori and finally settling in Fort Morgan, Colorado. Along the way, Glenn's musical aspirations grew as he started with a mandolin, traded it for a horn and worked his way to playing in a local town band when the family lived in Missouri. In highschool in Fort Morgan, Glenn joined the school band and also played in a band outside of school. When he wasn't playing music he was playing football and at one point was an All State player.

Although he graduated highschool in 1921, Glenn was not a studious student. With the exception of mathematics, he was a "C" student. It was becoming quite clear that the young Mr. Miller already knew what his chosen career path would be. Infact, he didn't even attend his own graduation, as he was already on the road with a dance band led by Boyd Senter. His mother picked up his diploma for him, the principle saying to her, "Maybe you're the one who should get it anyway; you probably worked harder on it than he did!"

Glenn worked with the Senter band until 1923, when he entered the University of Colorado. Post secondary education, like highschool, held little allure for Glenn and after three semesters he dropped out and focused his energies on playing and arranging music whenever and wherever he could. College did have one bonus, as he met his future wife, Helen Burger, there. They later married in October of 1928.

Through the 20's and 30's, Glenn worked in various bands, starting with Ben Pollack in Los Angeles, then moving to New York to work freelance as an arranger and musician for studio work and the pit bands for Broadway shows. He studied music theory and composition with Joseph Schillinger, worked for the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra and helped organize an orchestra for Englishman Ray Noble. During this time, Miller worked to develop what would eventually become his signature sound of the clarinet lead over saxaphone.

The trick was finding a band willing to try it. The different bands Miller worked for showed little interest in the idea so, in 1937, Glenn tried his hand at organizing his own orchestra. The band garnered little attention and just over a year and $18,000 later, Glenn disbanded it.

Not one to stay down, Glenn organized a new band a few months later and things began to click. Engagements at the Meadowbrook Ballroom and Glen Island Casino exposed the Miller orchestra to a nationwide audience via the radio. By the spring of 1939, the Glenn Miller Orchestra was well on it's way.

Between 1939 and 1942, the Glenn Miller Orchestra enjoyed phenonimal success and popularity, scoring some 70 top ten hits and 23 number ones. The band had a radio series on CBS that aired three times a week and was featured in two films, 1941's "Sun Valley Serenade" and 1942's "Orchestra Wives." Miller was making anywhere between $15,000 to $20,000 a week.

Although Miller certainly enjoyed the financial windfall of success, there was no price tag for his very deep patriotism. In the months following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, he set out to enlist in the armed services. Since most of the kids who bought his records and attended performances were now in the service, Miller figured to bring his music to them, personally. He tried the Navy first, but was rejected. He then applied for the Army, writing to Brigadier-General Charles D. Young and outlining exactly what he wanted to do and why.

"For the past three or four years my orchestra has enjoyed phenomenal popularity until we have now reached a point where our weekly gross income ranges from $15,000 to $20,000. Needless to say, this has been and is most profitable to me personally but I am wondering if it would not be more in order at this time for me to be bending my efforts toward the continuance of this income if it could be devoted to USO purposes, the Army Relief Fund or some other approved purpose. If, by means of a series of benefit performances or other approved methods, even some part of this income could be maintained and used for the improvment of army morale I would be entirely willing to forego it for the duration. At the same time, by appropriate planning, programs would be regularly broadcast to the men in the service and I have an idea that such programs might put a little more spring into the feet of our marching men and little more joy into their hearts."

What was the Navy's loss was the Army's huge gain. Upon being accepted, Glenn disbanded his orchestra in September of 1942 and reported for duty a month later. Commissioned a Captain in the Army Specialists Corps, Glenn went through basic training and then had to endure several months of Army bureaucacy before the Specialists Corps was discontinued and he was transferred into the regular Army. He was then transferred again into the Army Air Corps and was finally able to put together the band he wanted.

Glenn Miller's Army Air Force Band (aka, The Army Air Force Training Band/American Band of the Allied Expeditionary Forces) was an all out triumph and was a huge morale booster. The band played for cadets who were training stateside, took part in war bond rallies and then finally transferred to England to play for the troops who were doing the fighting. The band put in an incredible number of hours performing, both live shows and broadcasts, all the while ducking buzz bombs and enduring as best they could the Army life.

Miller and the band would be recognized for their achievements. General Jimmy Doolittle extolled in July of '44 that "next to a letter from home, Captain Miller, your organization is the greatest morale-builder in the ETO." By September, Miller was promoted to Major.

In December of 1944 with the band preparing to transfer to Paris, Miller boarded a plane on December 15th to fly ahead of the band to arrange for quarters and transportation. He never arrived. It's unknown what happened, as neither the plane nor it's occupants have ever been found, but it's generally accepted that plane went down over the English Channel. Glenn Miller was only 40 years old.

-Sources include "The Glenn Miller Orchestra" by George Simon and liner notes by Ed Polic for the CD "Glenn Miller: Operation Build Morale"