Clarence Jack Milner was born November 21, 1918, to Francis William and Olive M. Milner. They lived in Salt Lack City, Utah. He graduated South High School and was employed by the Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company prior to entering the Naval Air Corps in December of 1941.

Clarence married Pearl Louise Cutler. They had a daughter, Patricia Diane.

He received his wings and commission at Pensacola, Florida. He was sent overseas in November, 1944. Ensign Milner was reported missing May 6, 1945 over the southern coast of Korea. Ensign Milner was co-pilot of Crew 3, U.S. Navy PB4Y-2 "Privateer" Patrol Bomber Squadron VPB-118.

6 May 1945: Lieutenants Montgomery and J. A. Lasater were patrolling an area off the southern coast of Korea when they encountered a number of enemy destroyers and a small tanker. In the attack, the tanker exploded just as Montgomery's Privateer was entering its bomb run. 20-foot (6.1 m) of the ship's Hawser and the king post strap were imbedded in the starboard wing. Montgomery managed to return to Okinawa on three engines but Lasater elected to continue the patrol alone. He and his crew never returned and were listed as missing in action.

Survivors included his parents, widow and daughter and brother Richard. A memorial headstone for Ensign Milner is at Memory Grove Memorial, Salt Lake City, Utah and at the Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery.

References

Fold 3

Find A Grave

Newspapers.com

http://www.vpb-118.com/crew.php?crew=lasater

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

Clarence J Milner