“I stay pretty busy, I suppose,” said Miller, who turned 81 in December 2017 and has lived about half of his life in Beaufort. Though Miller has retired three times – from the Marine Corps in 1979, from civil service in 2000 and as the unpaid American Legion Post 9 athletics officer in 2016 — he hasn’t quite gotten the hang of leisure time. Miller’s American Legion meetings are on the first Thursday of every month. Am Vets convene on the second Thursday, Veterans of Foreign Wars on the third Thursday, Disabled American Veterans on second Mondays and the Military Order of the Purple Heart on third Mondays.

Between meetings, Miller helps run the Legion post’s baseball program, organizes a golf-tournament fundraiser and regularly visits residents of the Veterans’ Victory House in Walterboro. “Each of these groups do something a little different,” Miller said. “Legion does a lot with youth baseball; the DAV helps veterans with claims and paperwork; and Am Vets have a house here and help a lot of youth.

“But what they all have in common is that a lot of what they do is veterans helping veterans.” Miller’s community legacy includes nearly two decades of involvement in the Beaufort Ospreys American Legion baseball team. When he took over as Post 9’s athletics officer in 1998, what once was all-star level baseball for high-school aged ballplayers was declining statewide. Many of the best players were eschewing the community-based teams for regional AAU travel squads and weekend showcase tournaments. Ironically, as many of the teams in the Ospreys league were folding in the face of this competition, posts on Hilton Head and in Bluffton began fielding teams, reducing the Beaufort squad’s pool of available players.

The Hilton Head and Bluffton teams eventually folded, too, but the Ospreys kept plugging along, even adding a junior team. The post fielded a senior team in each year of Miller’s tenure, until he suffered a heart attack in 2015. Bob Shields took over as Post 9’s athletics officer, and the Ospreys were back in 2016 — and so was Miller. Though he no longer leads the program or travels to road games, he still assists Shields.

Miller said he is again in good health and couldn’t step away entirely from something that gave him so much fulfillment. Though only a handful of his players earned baseball scholarships, a majority went on to college and productive careers, he said. “And that’s the thing. It’s working with young kids and watching them progress,” Miller added. “… I got the same enjoyment out of being a scoutmaster, too, and a drill instructor.

“In the Marines, the recruits come from all walks of life. You knew when you put them on that bus (after basic training), they’d be something. They’d make it.” Miller served for a while as a drill instructor and received his training on Parris Island in the mid-1960s. That’s where he met his future wife, Beaufortonian Carol Owenby. The couple moved with each new set of orders but still owned a home back in Beaufort. When George retired from the military, the Millers moved back to the Lowcountry. He also returned to familiar work. Miller joined the civil service and participated in engineering and maintenance projects at the recruit depot and Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.

Miller had spent most of military career operating heavy equipment in engineering units, often overseas. He cut roads and built structures in Korea, the Philippines and in Vietnam, where he took a piece of shrapnel in his shoulder and received a Purple Heart. During his down time, he played intramural baseball, softball and football. “We weren’t always out front, but you were still in areas where there was conflict,” Miller said. “It was a good life, though. I got to play some ball, and I got to see a lot of different places, just like I wanted.”