029: Mike Miller - We Were A Band Of Brothers

Maybe even before racing was a part of your life, where were you born and what was childhood like for Mike Miller?

I was born in New Prague, Minnesota in 1945.

I'm like 80 years old now.

Can't believe I made it this long.

And I grew up there in 1966.

I joined the U.S. Army.

I volunteered.

That was during the Vietnam War.

Okay.

I don't think I knew that.

Okay.

But I wanted to become a helicopter pilot.

In the meantime, I had started flying.

I had my commercial instrument tickets and so on.

And one thing led to another, and the helicopter thing didn't work out.

The Army, in their infinite wisdom, kept postponing it, blah, blah, blah.

And by the time I got orders to go to flight school...

I wasn't going to make a nine-month commitment plus the three-year commitment after flight school.

And I ended up in Korea as an air traffic controller.

And I had acquired my aircraft instructor's license.

And I was actually teaching some, I was an E-5 sergeant, and I was actually instructing some of the officers, like the captains and the majors, on how to fly fixed wing because they were helicopter, you know, they were rotary wing qualified.

So it was kind of a strange relationship, you know, sitting in the right seat.

No, sir, that's not how you stall an airplane, you know.

So it was kind of neat.

What got your interest piqued in flying?