On Memorial Day, remembering our heroes: A tribute to Asa Benson Miner and his sacrifice

North Kingstown's Will Kin, a retired Army Vietnam veteran, inspired me to write this column for Memorial Day. For a long time, Will wanted to add more of a human element to the town’s ceremony.

“The names of our war dead are inscribed on these monuments,” he said. “I just wondered if anyone at our Memorial Day events ever wondered who these people were, where in town they lived, what they did before they served and where their families are today.”

Will visited North Kingstown’s World War II memorial and selected a name, hoping he could track down a living descendant.

The genesis of Memorial Day in RI: Why we remember our fallen heroes

The name he chose was Asa Benson Miner, known by friends as 'Benson'

The name he chose was Asa Benson Miner, known by friends as "Benson." Miner was born in the village of Saunderstown in January 1921. His father, Asa L. Miner, was a World War I veteran who later commanded the American Legion post in North Kingstown.

Four months before his 1939 graduation, Miner enlisted in the National Guard. He joined the Searchlight Battery of the 243rd Coast Artillery, headquartered at the Varnum Armory in East Greenwich.

Working as a field lineman, he was promoted to private first class by early 1940 and to corporal in May 1940. As the situation worsened in Europe, Rhode Island Guard units were federalized one by one starting with the 243rd, which was inducted into federal service on Sept. 16, 1940.

The regiment moved to Fort Adams in Newport; then the various units were deployed to other Harbor Defense forts in Narragansett Bay. The Searchlight Battery (later known as Battery K) was assigned to Fort Getty in Jamestown. By this time, Benson Miner had been promoted to sergeant.

On Nov. 7, 1941, he became engaged to Barbara Ann Garlick of Jamestown, daughter of Capt. and Mrs. Rueben Garlick. Her father was a Jamestown ferryboat captain.

Miner goes to the Caribbean

In early 1942, Sergeant Miner and a few other members of the 243rd were selected for deployment to the British West Indies as part of a buildup of coast artillery strength to counter the growing German submarine threat — and to protect the Panama Canal. American coast artillery units were based in Jamaica, Trinidad, Bermuda, Bahamas, St. Lucia and Antigua.

For whatever reason I could find no record of these assignments in the National Guard archives. Fortunately, however, Benson wrote a letter on March 28, 1942, detailing his travels.

First stop was Camp Pendleton, near Virginia Beach, for about 11 days. Realizing that he was going overseas for many months, he and Barbara decided to get married. On the day before they left Virginia, an Army chaplain tied the knot. According to a 1998 interview with his widow, the Army “allowed them only their wedding night” before shipping him off to the Caribbean for 22 months.

The next day Miner and his group left for New Orleans awaiting sea transport to Puerto Rico. After a few weeks of training in San Juan, Miner embarked on the final leg of his journey to St. John’s, Antigua, 300 miles from San Juan.

Antigua, the government seat of the Leeward Islands, is only 12 miles long but, as the northernmost link in a chain of airbases and coast artillery installations, it was extremely important. Benson and his comrades manned a shore defense battery on the island.

As the U-boat threat diminished, a drawdown in the West Indies began. Fulfilling a childhood dream to fly, Sergeant Miner was accepted into the Air Cadet program. He returned to the U.S., arriving home in Wickford on Dec. 27, 1943.

Twists of fate take Miner out of the air

In January 1944, he entered the University of Arkansas for the year-long Air Cadet training program. However, the demand for pilots lessened as casualty rates dropped and the Allies gained air superiority.

The entire Air Cadet program was abruptly canceled, and all cadets were reassigned. Unfortunately for Miner, the demand for ground combat officers was growing. By 1944, he was serving in a field artillery assignment at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

By mid-October, he was on a troopship headed for New Guinea. When he arrived he was assigned to the 148th Infantry Regiment of the 37th Infantry Division, an Ohio National Guard unit that had been in the Pacific since 1942. They fought at New Georgia and Bougainville islands.

Miner saw his first action when he was sent to Bougainville as part of the mop-up operation. Then, the 148th participated in the first assault on the Philippines.

The artilleryman quickly adapted to infantry combat. He fought in the Central Luzon plain (especially in the Clark Field area) and advanced on Manila. The 148th fought to reclaim the Philippines capital from 20,000 entrenched Japanese naval and marine forces.

On Feb. 4, units from the 37th Division seized Bilibid Prison, freeing 800 civilians and soldiers who had been captured on Bataan and Corregidor in the spring of 1942. The 3rd Battalion, 148th Infantry (Miner’s unit) pushed deeper into the heart of fiercely defended Manila.

In February 2024, This Week in Military History reported, “As the Pacific Theater’s only example of sustained urban warfare during World War II, the Battle of Manila was a harbinger of what an actual assault on the Japanese home islands would have looked like and the monumental casualties it would have incurred.”

From his discharge document, he earned the Combat Infantry Badge on Luzon which later qualified him for the Bronze Star Medal.

Back to Rhode Island, where he starts a family

Miner returned home in August 1945 and was discharged. The North Kingstown Standard covered his return to Wickford, reporting he had seen “eight months of combat on Bougainville and Luzon.”

Ironically, Miner then registered for the draft. He signed up from Jamestown, his wife’s family home. A week later he was assigned to the Enlisted Reserve and returned to active duty in February 1946. Shortly thereafter, he was assigned to the ROTC cadre at Rhode Island State College (which became the University of Rhode Island in 1951).

Readjusting to a peacetime Army, he and Barbara settled in North Kingston and eventually had three daughters — Barbara, Susan and Patricia.

By 1947, he had been promoted to staff sergeant, and by 1949 he was a sergeant first class.

Peace ends for Benson Miner

In June 1950 the Korean War began and, with his considerable wartime experience, Miner was called for combat duty.

His third daughter, Patricia, was born on June 16, 1950, amid this turmoil. Around that time Benson accepted an invitation to attend Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning.

By mid-July, the Standard reported that the newly minted Lieutenant Miner was “home on a short furlough … having graduated on July 10, 1951, from the Infantry Officers Course.”

He was due to report to the West Coast on July 31 for deployment to Japan, then Korea. His orders posted him to the 2nd Infantry Division, where he was assigned as a platoon leader in the 9th Infantry Regiment.

Called to fight. This time in Korea.

On Sept. 1, his first day in combat in Korea, he led his troops in an assault during the battle for Bloody Ridge. The lead company suffered such heavy casualties (including the company commander) that Miner’s unit went to their aid. Miner took over both units.

In a letter to his wife, Miner said he stooped to pick up a grenade, and as he came back up an enemy machine gun round hit him in the right shoulder.

After recuperation, he “again assumed command of his platoon," which was engaged in the famous Heartbreak Ridge battle.

Heartbreak Ridge was the longest and most costly hill battle of the war, and the Americans did not plan or execute well. The North Koreans had turned a four-mile ridgeline into a fortress with 1,000 bunkers so sturdy that even direct artillery sometimes bounced off. The terrain was the most difficult in Korea.

Two units of the 2nd Division bore the brunt of this battle; the 23rd Infantry Regiment lost 1,650 men, half its strength. The 9th Infantry lost 200 men in three days at the beginning of the battle.

On Oct. 9, 1951, Asa Benson Miner was killed in action — taken out once again by a North Korean machine gunner. He would posthumously receive his second award of the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Bronze Star Medal with the “V” device for valor and his second Purple Heart.

Epilogue

North Kingstown’s Memorial Day observances will begin May 27 at 9 a.m. Gold Star Father Richard August will emcee. After a wreath laying, Will King will tell Lt. Asa Benson Miner’s life story. Patricia Miner Szarek, Miner's daughter, will accept a proclamation from U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, along with a flag that has flown over the U.S. Capitol.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: North Kingstown's Memorial Day: More than just names on monuments