Like her sister ships she was built in the Bollinger Shipyards, in Lockport, Louisiana.
Like her sister ships, Harold Miller is designed to perform search and rescue missions, port security, and the interception of smugglers. She is armed with a remotely-controlled, gyro-stabilized 25 mm autocannon, four crew served M2 Browning machine guns, and light arms. She is equipped with a stern launching ramp, that allows her to launch or retrieve a water-jet propelled high-speed auxiliary boat, without first coming to a stop. Her high-speed boat has over-the-horizon capability, and is useful for inspecting other vessels, and deploying boarding parties.
The crew's drinking water needs are met through a desalination unit. The crew mess is equipped with a television with satellite reception.
Harold Miller was delivered for her pre-commissioning sea trials on April 2, 2020. She was commissioned on July 15, 2020 at her homeport of Galveston, Texas.
In 2010, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard Charles "Skip" W. Bowen, who was then the United States Coast Guard's most senior non-commissioned officer, proposed that all 58 cutters in the Sentinel class should be named after enlisted sailors in the Coast Guard, or one of its precursor services, who were recognized for their heroism. The Coast Guard chose Harold Miller as the namesake of the 38th cutter. Miller, and three other Coast Guard sailors, piloted the first landing craft during the United States's first amphibious landing, in the Pacific Theater, during World War II. Miller and his three colleagues were each awarded a Silver Star medal for this task. His colleagues Daniel Tarr and Glen Harris have Sentinel-class cutters named after them, as will his other colleague William Sparling.