“Shot at in Nanking, strafed in Japan, bombed in Pyongyang.” Gloria Miller-Potter emerged from Korea as the only woman eligible to wear four battle stars on her Korean campaign ribbon—just the latest in a family tradition of service. With her mother having driven ambulances in World War I, her own path to the military seemed preordained. Before joining the Army, however, she pursued higher education after graduating highschool in 1936. While women were not yet admitted to Harvard, she took pre-medical courses and received her Bachelor of Arts from Smith College in 1940. She married a dentist, Dr. Thomas J. Potter, the same year and went on to pursue a law degree from Temple University Law School. Rather than take the bar exam—an option pursued by only five percent of women at the time—she left her all-male class to enlist in the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) in August 1942. She was one of nine girls from the area to enlist. “After all,” she quipped, “the United States had never been known to fight a war without a Miller-Potter.”
With unwavering spirit and boundless determination, she envisioned sleuthing, thrilling espionage, and being dropped behind enemy lines when she first wrote to the FBI and Secret Service department before she was informed she had a place with the WAACs. She joined Company 3, 1st Regiment for training with the first WAAC officer training class at Fort Des Moines. It was the first officer training center established for WAACs and the first official effort to train women as military officers. More than 35,000 women applied, but only 440 were selected. Gloria was among the highly exclusive group. Within the next year, the Women’s Army Corps was created, finally granting women full status to serve in the military and not just with it, necessitating the drop of ‘Auxiliary’ from their title.
When a new recruit decided she did not care for the barracks and left without leave, one of the officers turned to Gloria and, laced with sarcasm, suggested to the aspiring sleuth: “Why don’t you go find her, Miller-Potter?” She took the comment seriously and took the afternoon off to investigate. She knew the escapee was a former strip-tease dancer who went by Amber, so she began checking cheap hotels in the area for that name. After searching twenty hotels, she successfully located the first AWOL WAC in history.
From Fort Des Moines, Miller-Potter was posted to a WAC Communication Company in Miami for duty with the American Intelligence Service. The semi-autonomous branch of the Military Intelligence Service focused on gathering and analyzing intelligence in the Western Hemisphere, mostly concerning Latin America and Axis subversive activities in the region.
She left Miami in October 1943 for a job at the Pentagon with the Military Personnel Division of Headquarters, Army Air Force. The Army Air Force was extremely ambitious about accepting and integrating WACs. They focused on policy making, field studies, and coordination. Gloria ultimately found herself assigned as Chief of Seperation Section where the most excitement entailed discharging movies stars and celebtiries like Clark Gable, novelist Thornton Wilder, and director Frank Lloyd. During her time in the position, she authored a manual of protocol which earned her a Commendation Ribbon and promotion to major.
CHINA
When the Chinese Communists surged south in 1949, Major Miller-Potter was still assigned to personnel duties, this time overseas with the Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group (JUSMAGCHINA). She served as Personnel Officer with the Air Advisory Group when, as she later recalled, “the Reds swept down like a curtain on the military airfield outside Nanking.”
Established in late 1948, JUSMAGCHINA was intended to assist and advise the Chinese Nationalist government in modernizing its air, sea, and ground forces. However, its scope was highly restricted—American personnel could not enter combat zones or provide direct strategic guidance beyond Chiang Kai-shek’s high-level plans. Their role was largely symbolic, limited to administration rather than active military operations.
Despite its formation, the Advisory Group’s mission collapsed almost immediately due to escalating Communist victories. The Communist forces had been gaining ground for years, forcing a continuous evacuation of U.S. personnel across China. The Advisory Group arrived too late to make a meaningful impact. By November 2, 1948—just one day after officially beginning operations—heavy fighting in Nanking threatened the safety of the command center. In response, orders were issued that no additional military personnel were to join JUSMAGCHINA.
As Nationalist forces crumbled, JUSMAGCHINA’s position became untenable. Intelligence reports grew increasingly grim, confirming that a Communist victory was inevitable. Discussions in Washington shifted from aiding the Nationalists to protecting U.S. interests in the wake of their collapse. The State Department and military advisors recognized that further support was futile, as mass defections and logistical failures diverted much of the aid meant for Chiang’s forces into Communist hands.
Miller-Potter had been in China for only three months when the situation deteriorated beyond recovery. Following standing orders from the Joint Chiefs, General Barr began evacuating U.S. personnel to Tokyo, leaving behind only a small housekeeping force. By March 3, 1949, JUSMAGCHINA operations were officially suspended. Along with other members of the Advisory Group, she was evacuated by plane and ship to Japan. As she later recalled, “It was an orderly evacuation. They flew us to Shanghai, and then we went by boat to Japan.”
KOREA
In late spring 1950, Miller-Potter was still in Japan as the 8th Fighter Bomber Wing Public Information Officer at Nagoya Air Force Base, Tokyo. In a brief peaceful reprieve, she organized the base newspaper, visits from Japanese press correspondents, and Armed Forces Day before beginning June with directing the American Cancer Drive. When the North Koreans invaded, the Public Information Office immediately transitioned to a 24-hour day and undertook the mission of obtaining maximum news and photographic coverage. Until more help arrived, they remained open at all times to handle stories, correspondents, and Japanese press during the first week of the Korean War. In the first four days, they covered stories and photos of evacuees, Korean pilots, aircraft kills and probables, and human-interest stories on maintenance and ground support crews.
Correspondents from all news services in the United States and abroad landed at Itazuke to be briefed by Gloria’s office. She organized transportation and accomodations for those going to and coming from Korea and established a news shack where they could write their stories before she would arrange transmission of their finished copy, television and newsreel films to Tokyo for trans-shipment to the States. Colonel Price remarked: “It is readily acknowledged that without her tireless hours of work and the 24-hour service she provided for the many war correspondents passing through this base, the smooth flow of news to the states would have been hampered during those first hectic days of the attack.”
In the first month of the war, their mission was to demonstrate the Air Force’s preparedness and successes to the American public. In addition to all civilian correspondents, Gloria established her own local news staff to provide state-side papers with stories and pictures about the local men in service at her base. She also handled representatives of the local Japanese press and published a base newspaper for information on Wing personnel.
The Major had prioritized securing stateside media coverage to inform American taxpayers about the Air Force’s mission. Her team’s efforts had been successful, earning extensive recognition in major U.S. publications. However, she had become aware that local military personnel in Japan had relied solely on Stars and Stripes and Air Force Times to gauge the Air Force’s work. As a result, they had remained unaware of the commendations and coverage the Air Force had received in stateside media. To ensure proper coverage, she urged Far East Air Forces to place greater emphasis on local media engagement, so that Air Force personnel stationed overseas understood their contributions were being recognized beyond what they saw in Stars and Stripes and Air Force Times.
Additionally, she had advised that a formal directive be issued, emphasizing the transition from peacetime to wartime reporting. Too many personnel had not recognized that their duties had shifted from routine community activities to combat-related information. She had also noted that many did not fully grasp the critical role of press service correspondents, who had amplified the Air Force’s message to millions of Americans.
To ensure clarity, she had recommended all personnel interacting with media be briefed on the importance of their role in shaping the Air Force’s public image. She had believed that if properly executed, this would enhance morale and awareness among Air Force members while maintaining strong public engagement at home.
On November 28, she personally traveled to Pyongyang to report on the situation firsthand. Assuming the war was practically over, she joined the wing in the vacated capital with PIO Specialist Sergeant Donald E. Mahr and Photographer Sergeant Marvin Mindermann. They intended to provide coverage for the 8th Fighter Bomber Wing, documenting the rehabilitation of the base and airstrip, highlighting local personnel, and capturing special photographs to promote the Wing's activities. She was there for only a week in 20-below weather when the Chinese crossed the Yalu. For the second time, she was forced to flee in the face of an advancing Chinese onslaught. She was the only Woman’s Air Force present in North Korea at the time. Loaded with classified equipment and documents, she boarded the departing aircraft that were getting peppered by snipers.
During her three years overseas, she earned a Bronze Star Medal for her work as Public Information Officer and her four battle stars for Korean service. While stationed in Japan, she also met Captain Nicholas Levrero, a seasoned pilot with sixty combat missions in Korea. As one of the project officers for the filming of One Minute to Zero starring Robert Mitchum, she crossed paths with Levrero, and the two became engaged in Japan. They returned to the U.S. together in October 1951 and married shortly after.
Post-war, her role shifted to recruitment, a task she performed with enthusiasm. However, by 1952, she admitted that the work was “too dull” and longed to return to Korea. Her primary job was to track down reservists, update records, and recruit women into the Air Force to expand the Women in the Air Force (WAF) program from 7,000 to 48,000 personnel – a significant undertaking. She remained passionate about encouraging women to join the Air Force, explaining, “To train them we’ll need 2,800 officers, college graduates with at least three years’ business experience. The trouble is, we get most of our candidates now only by accident. They just don’t know of the program and the opportunities a woman has in the WAF. College graduates between 24 and 31 are eligible; If they’ll just write the commanding general, Mitchel Field Air Force Base, go to a local recruiting office of the Army and Air Force or Air Force Reserve Unit, we’ll be around to interview them. Maybe they’ll have as much fun as I’ve had!”