Alton Glenn Miller was born March 1, 1904, and was probably killed on December 15, 1944. An American jazz musician and composer, he was a pioneer in the swing era of music. Between 1939 and 1942, he was one of the most popular recording artists in America, with songs such as "Chattanoga Choo Choo," "Tuxedo Junction," and "Little Brown Jug." In 1942, when he was 42 and far beyond draft age, he joined the army after personally petitioning an Army Brigadier General asking to "be placed in charge of a modernized army band." He was accepted into the army, and just before Christmas in 1944, en route to play for soldiers in the newly-liberated France, Major Miller's plane disappeared over the English Channel. No trace was ever found, and he, along with the others on the plane, were assumed dead.
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