Richard "Dick" E. Miralles

Richard “Dick” E. Miralles, age 101, passed away peacefully on November 13, 2025, at The Farmstead Assisted Living in Dixon, California.

Born July 28, 1924, in Anderson, California, Dick was the youngest of three children. He had two older siblings, Dora and Floyd. During his early childhood, after his parents’ divorce, he and his siblings were welcomed into the home of Mrs. Roxanne Nelson in Shasta, California. Though they had little materially, Mrs. Nelson provided them with love, stability, and the values that shaped Dick into the responsible, hard-working, and principled man he became.

As World War II escalated, Dick followed his older brother Floyd into military service, enlisting in the U.S. Navy in 1942 at just 17 years old. Although he was at sea when his high school class graduated, the county school board honored their promise to award him his diploma.

In 1943, Dick was deployed to Guadalcanal in Air Group Eleven as a radioman and aerial gunner in the SBD Dauntless dive bomber. He survived numerous dangerous missions, including being shot down. He was honorably discharged in December 1945.

After returning home, Dick pursued his education at Chico State University, later transferring to Washington State University under the G.I. Bill, where he earned a degree in Forestry. He then accepted a summer position with the California Division of Forestry (CDF) in Shasta County. Before settling into a permanent career, he fulfilled a lifelong dream: spending six months traveling through Europe with a close friend, exploring the countryside on a secondhand motorcycle and collecting stories he loved sharing for the rest of his life.

In 1950, Dick returned to California and accepted a permanent position with the CDF. The following year, he married the love of his life, Joy Thompson, at the Methodist Church in Reno, Nevada. Together they welcomed three children—Kathy, Gary, and Rick—and built a life filled with family, friendship, travel, and adventure. Dick’s CDF career took the family to various communities as he rose through the ranks, ultimately retiring in December 1980 as the Ranger-in-Charge for Siskiyou County.

Dick and Joy shared many passions, including golf, traveling, and camping in their RV. Family vacations were spent fishing for trout in small mountain streams, a tradition that continued well into retirement as the couple traveled across the United States and Canada. Dick was an avid golfer throughout his life, continuing to play well into his mid-90s. He took great pride in having “shot his age” on more than one occasion.

During the COVID pandemic, Dick and his daughter Kathy spent many meaningful hours together writing his memoir, War and Fire: From Fighting California Wildfires, an autobiography by Richard E. Miralles. In its pages, he shares powerful stories of survival during World War II and of the many challenges and triumphs he faced while fighting fires with the CDF. The memoir is available on the Amazon Kindle store website.

In 2022, at the age of 98, Dick—accompanied by his son Gary and friend George Retelas—was given the opportunity, through the courtesy of the Commemorative Air Force Air Base in Georgia, to relive his wartime flying days with one final flight in an SBD-5 Dauntless dive bomber. It was a deeply meaningful moment, allowing him to reconnect with memories that had shaped his life so many decades earlier. The remarkable experience is captured in a short film on the TJ3 History YouTube channel.

George also later assisted in securing the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal, awarded by the U.S. Navy in 2024 for Dick’s meritorious achievement in aerial combat flight with Air Group Eleven—an honor he received at the age of 100.

Dick was a man of strong convictions and steady character. You always knew where you stood with him, and he lived his life with honesty, loyalty, and deep love for his family.

He is survived by his daughter Kathy and her husband Dave; his son Gary and his wife Diane; three grandchildren—Shawn and his wife Tamara, Corey and his wife Nicole, and Loriel Andre'a; four great-grandchildren—Aidan, Gavin, Avery, and Lily; and extended family members including Larry Miralles and his wife DeDe, Robert Miralles and his wife Sue, and the families of his late sister and brother. Dick was predeceased by his youngest son, Rick, whom he missed dearly.

Dick’s devoted wife, Joy, survives him, having walked beside him in love and partnership for an extraordinary 74 years.

Dick will be laid to rest at the Northern California Veterans Cemetery in Ono, California. Service details will be announced when available.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the USS Hornet Museum, to the “Dick Miralles Fund,” P.O. Box 460, Alameda, CA 94501, or online at “In Memory of Dick Miralles” at:

Donate – USS Hornet Museum (https://uss-hornet.org/support/donate/)