Senator Young Honors Hoosier Veteran Clyde Milligan

WASHINGTON, D.C.–Hoosier World War II Veteran Clyde Milligan turned 100 years old on Thursday. He was honored by Indiana Republican Senator Todd Young on the Senate floor.

“At the end of 1941, a teenage attendant was knocked down when an air compressor exploded at a Hoosier Pete filling station in Indianapolis. The blast broke windows, tore off the roof of a room, and cracked a wall. But it could not keep Clyde Milligan down,” said Young.

Young said it didn’t take Milligan long to recover from that and get into a recruiting station. He later became a staff sergeant.

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“As a staff sergeant, he guarded beaches in Virginia and Maryland, then vulnerable to U-Boat attacks. This assignment was made sufferable by the dances held at the camp. But those evenings and any other comforts were just memories by the time Clyde deployed to the South Pacific,” said Young.

Milligan became a soldier for the 111th Infantry Regiment,

“He crossed the Marshall Islands, leading a squadron during the allied invasion of Kwajalein [KWAA-JUH-LINE] Atoll. Clyde and his men helped secure American control of the island…and destroy a link in the Japanese defensive perimeter.For his valor, Clyde was awarded numerous honors, though the one he was most proud of was the Combat Infantry Badge,” said Young.

Milligan said in the past that he witnessed things while he served in the South Pacific that no teenager should have ever seen.

Young called Milligan a hero for several reasons, but especially for the way he answered his country’s call in a time of peril and for the way he lived his life after the war ended.

Milligan was married to his late wife Marie for many years and Young said he’s proud to see Milligan “still spending his energy on behalf of New Hope Christian Church in Whitestown.”

“On this monumental birthday, we send him our best wishes and enduring thanks,” Young concluded.