World War II veteran Milton Leroy “Milt” Staley was not your typical international rock star. The combat decorated, twice-wounded Redding resident died peacefully at his home on Jan. 19, five months short of his 100th birthday.
But, he left a large, international legion of friends — who called him their “rock star” — after several return visits to WWII battlefields and sites from Normandy, France and Belgium to the Southwest Pacific island of Espirito Santo.
In 1968, he and his family moved from West Covina in Southern California to Shasta County, where he became a successful business owner. He also gave back generously to fellow veterans as a founding member of the Military Order of the Purple Heart’s Shasta chapter. On a more personal level, he befriended younger veterans coping with post-service issues.
Milt’s overseas visits were his avenue to numerous new friendships and resulted in a huge following on social media such as Facebook.
On his first return to Normandy in 2011, Milt met Hervé Chalmeton of St. Chely-d’Apcher in southern France. “(Milt) became a member of our family... Always smiling and positive, he will stay in our hearts forever.” Another of his new friends is the grand daughter of Gen. George Patton, in whose Third Army Milt marched and fought from Utah Beach in France to Czechoslovakia by war’s end.
During his D-Day 70th anniversary visit, Milt spent more than two hours signing autographs and shaking hands with admirers
But, he never sought fame. “He was a quiet, unassuming man who always said, ‘I was just doing my job’,”said one of his many friends. Milt was very reluctant to discuss his Silver Star, the nation’s third highest honor for combat gallantry; two Bronze Stars; turning down a battlefield commission; or how he received two Purple Heart medals — and probably merited a third. On one of his last post-war visits Milt was presented the French Legion of Honor, which recognizes distinguished French or allied military service.
Milt was one of relatively few Americans to fight in both major theaters of WWII. In November 1942, Milt was on the SS President Coolidge troopship as part of Army reinforcements for US Marines on Guadalcanal. He sat directly over the spot where a US Navy mine fatally damaged the Coolidge as she entered harbor at Espirito Santo, America’s most advanced Pacific support base.
On Santo, he contracted malaria and was eventually transferred to the D-Day Utah Beach-bound 90th Division (the Texas and Oklahoma National Guard “Tough ‘Ombres”). Santo drew him back in 2008 as the last survivor to visit the Coolidge wreck site. Milt’s video reminiscences now are a key exhibit at Santo’s new South Pacific WWII Museum.
Milt believed hard times made people tougher. Growing up in the small, Great Depression Era northern Minnesota town of Penguilly, he and his father, Harvey Addison, and three brothers worked at any jobs that put food on the table. His mother died giving birth to a sister he never knew — the infant was stolen from the hospital and could never be found. As teenagers, Milt and brothers Edward, Vernon and James (all deceased) sometimes hitchhiked or jumped on a California-bound freight train during the summer to earn money picking fruit.
After the war he returned to Minnesota and married his high school sweetheart, Doris (“Dorie”), who died in 1998 at age 77 after nearly 53 years of marriage. In 1950 Southern California beckoned and the family relocated to West Covina with son Jim (who died in 2015 after a lengthy illness).
When the Staley family moved to Shasta County, Milt and Dorie first opened a laundromat. Later, they bought the Continental Meat Co., a thriving Northern California restaurant and commercial distributor, which they operated for eight years. After retiring, they travelled the US in an RV for more than a year.
Milton is survived by three grandchildren: Jimmy Staley, Redding; Kasey Williams, Redding; and Brandi Breaux, Beaumont, TX; and 10 great grandchildren.
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