You've Heard of Jessica Lynch, Have You Heard of Patrick Miller?

All POW/MIA Website ^ | Joe Rodriguez - Wichita Eagle

[Mean Daddy]

Pfc. Patrick Miller stood his ground in battle with a malfunctioning weapon, feeding bullets into it by hand to protect two wounded comrades. Even after he was captured, he foiled his captors' attempts to get his radio frequency codes.

For such actions, recounted in a release by the U.S. Army, Miller, a Valley Center native, was awarded the Silver Star -- the third-highest military award for heroism in combat.

Miller, 23, also received a Purple Heart and Prisoner of War medals July 2 during an Independence Day celebration at Fort Bliss, Texas.

"I'm not real worried about awards," Miller said Friday from his home at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. "The way I look at it, I did my job."

Miller spent three weeks as a prisoner of war in Iraq with four other prisoners before Marines rescued them April 13.

In presenting the awards, the U.S. Army for the first time offered a glimpse into Miller's actions after his unit came under attack near An Nasiriyah in Iraq.

The Army release said Miller jumped from his vehicle and began firing on a mortar position that he believed was about to open fire on his convoy.

After he was captured, he was repeatedly questioned about radio frequencies that were written on pieces of paper inside his helmet.

"Thinking on his feet, Pfc. Miller told his captors that they were prices for water pumps," the release said. "Disgusted, the captors threw frequencies and his helmet into the fire."

Miller said Friday that he had read, but could not comment on, a report describing the attack on his unit. The report was leaked this week to the El Paso Times. According to the report, Miller may have killed as many as nine Iraqi fighters before he was captured.

The report also said that human error, stress and fatigue contributed to the attack on the 507th Maintenance Company, the death of 11 U.S. soldiers, and that the 33 soldiers "fought the best they could until there was no longer a means to resist."

It said a navigational error caused the 507th to come under enemy fire and that the ambush lasted 60 to 90 minutes.

Miller was driving with Pfc. Brandon Sloan and Sgt. James Riley when enemy fire struck and killed Sloan and disabled their truck, according to the report.

The report said Miller fired at the Iraqis several times before being surrounded and captured.

[mrustow]

Why should Pfc. Miller profit? Why should he even get a medal? I mean he's a ... he, for cryin' out loud! He's not a woman, and he's not pretty.

In the affirmative action military, medals for "males" must be suspended, until women soldiers get as many as all males have in the history of warfare. Only then, may we speak about a level playing field.

[mrustow]

Bravo! And thank you Patrick Miller! Jessica is just one of hundreds of such stories - only she became a victim of the media, and had enormous pressure from people wanting to make money on her story. She served her country well and we should all be thankful for her service for us.

Jessica Lynch, a media victim?! Jessica Lynch isn't anyone's victim, and she totally used the media! She's just an opportunist. I don't thank her for spit. All she did was cause real heroes -- men whose names we never hear, and who get no movie or book deals -- to risk their lives on her behalf.

[#3Fan]

These two are the real story, but they aren't blonde or female and Miller is not inclined to allow himself to be paraded and promoted by the press as a hero

Oh come on now, he's been on television.

[#3Fan]

In the affirmative action military, medals for "males" must be suspended, until women soldiers get as many as all males have in the history of warfare. Only then, may we speak about a level playing field.

Can you back this up with facts?

[#3Fan]

Jessica Lynch, a media victim?! Jessica Lynch isn't anyone's victim, and she totally used the media! She's just an opportunist. I don't thank her for spit. All she did was cause real heroes -- men whose names we never hear, and who get no movie or book deals -- to risk their lives on her behalf.

You Lynch-bashers are so attractive.

[VOA]

Park City had a party for him and only about 40 people showed up....including Toby Keith.
I think his low profile and all-around normalacy are what make him a hero.

Someone posted a short story and photo of the celebration here...
I'm still cursing myself for not copying the photo.
For those who didn't see it, it was PRICELESS...Miller in uniform belting out
The Angry American, Toby Keith in profile with his biggest grin, and some
"bubba" in a CAT cap whooping it up right behind them.

"Where do we get such men?"
Humble places like Park City/Wichita, KS.

[VOA]

...he's home with his wife and kid doing his job servicing equipment just like
before the war.
He's a great guy in my opinion and that's what our country is all about, IMHO.

I agree at the 1000% level.

[VOA]

In what way is Jessica Lynch related to Patrick Miller's story at all?

NBC had a special on Miller and three other soldiers...they were all part
of the same acton that Lynch was in.

I can't remember every detail, but I think one of the four said they checked the Hummer
that had been driven by the Navajo lady-soldier and she, and two other male passsengers
were killed; Lynch was in the rear of the vehicle...I think Miller or one othe other three
checked her and was sure (in the heat of battle) that Lynch was also dead.

Miller and his group tried to get away (this included the black lady-soldier)...and Miller
was the one who managed to make an attack to drive back the attacking Iraqis,
including wiping out a mortar crew that was starting to get the range on his buddies.
Miller said he was expecting to get battlefield justice from the Iraqis...he thought
they'd kill him as he'd taken out 8 or 9 of the Iraqis.

The four soldiers comported themselves very well on the NBC special...
they were modest, matter-of-fact, while showing a bit of the emotion about their experience.
No brags, just the facts.

They are just some of our real best-and-brightest.

[William Terrell]

Lynch bashers? Jessica Lynch was a girl out of her element that got hurt. There was no heroics, no self sufficiency, no attempt to remedy the situation on her part. She should have never been there in the first place. She was there because of president Clinton.

She is where she is entirely because of a progressive attempts to alter the infrastructure of our culture and society. She was cherry-picked from among others that actually did something because she is female and fits the political profile of those progressives.

Why would you defend her against people that see that? If I was taken in by this highly prejudiced propaganda, there would come some point where I would be ashamed for being so easily led.

[#3Fan]

Lynch bashers?

Yep.

Jessica Lynch was a girl out of her element that got hurt.

There were men in that Humvee that were killed. Were they out of their element also?

There was no heroics, no self sufficiency, no attempt to remedy the situation on her part.

Nor on the part of the men that were killed in the Humvee then.

She should have never been there in the first place. She was there because of president Clinton.

She was there because she went when called. If you have issues with Clinton, Lynch isn't a good poster-child for your cause.

She is where she is entirely because of a progressive attempts to alter the infrastructure of our culture and society. She was cherry-picked from among others that actually did something because she is female and fits the political profile of those progressives.

No, she was rescued in the first successful POW rescue mission since WW2. We remember the ones that happen to be unique, fact of life.

Why would you defend her against people that see that?

Because they namecall and focus on the negative. They nitpick.

If I was taken in by this highly prejudiced propaganda, there would come some point where I would be ashamed for being so easily led.

What propaganda? Should we not remember those that are rescued? I remember Terry Anderson and he wasn't even a POW. We remember those saved from death. I also know the name of Shiavo, even though 40,000 Americans die per day. Should I memorize all 40,000 names per day to be fair?

[Thebaddog]

Maybe there's a way to Freep up a book deal for Patrick Miller and get a few bucks for him and his family.

[VOA]

Maybe there's a way to Freep up a book deal for Patrick Miller and get a few bucks
for him and his family.

That's a nice thought.
BUT...from the time I saw him on camera in the NBC special, a subsequent news report,
and the impressions of a fair number of folks here...
I suspect that he would say "thanks very much, but I'm just an average guy who wants
to keep Army vehicles in good running shape and/or train new mechanics."

Seriously, I would not be suprised in the least if he's been approached and
gave an "aw, shucks" thanks, and a "I'm flattered, but I'd rather not."

About all I could see him doing is a project to keep the image of the Army up,
or maybe if all proceeds went to the children/family left by the soldiers killed
in the action.

Call me naive, but I get the feeling that Miller is the real-life man that
Frank Capra was trying to get on film with Jimmy Stewart.

[concentric circles]

A few brief excerpts from another story.

...Pfc. Patrick Miller, 23,... a lanky, bespectacled welder whose marksmanship skills had been mediocre before the battle — his bravery, like that of the others, untested — set out alone to wreak havoc and terror on a contingent of Iraqis who were trying to lob mortars on several of the soldiers from a mere 50 yards away....

...After he and four others were taken prisoner together, Miller convinced the Iraqis that the numbers on a scrap of paper they found in his helmet — the unit's secret radio frequencies — were just prices for power-steering pumps; the Iraqis tossed the scrap into a fire. And for three weeks he set about irking their captors with tone-deaf renditions of country singer Toby Keith's anti-terrorist anthem "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue."...

...With a seemingly inherent aversion to speculation or bragging, the small-town Kansan has no doubt about what he did or did not do, how many he killed or wounded: "Seven in the mortar pit, one in the tree line, and I ran over one guy."...

...If it wasn't for his actions during the ambush, which earned Miller one of the military's highest awards, the Silver Star, several soldiers feel certain they would not have survived....

..."We were all down, most of us wounded, and I looked up and saw Miller running by, bullets and rockets everywhere," recalled former POW Spc. Shoshana Johnson, 30. "I said, 'Miller, get down!' He said, 'I gotta go, I gotta return fire' … We were a big target, and if they'd have got off a mortar round we'd have all been dead. I tell you, Miller, ol' country boy, saved us."...

...Few from the 507th seem to resent the diminutive Lynch's fame and fortune. Separated from the other POWs and badly injured when her Humvee crashed, "Jessica is a hero in every way. Tiny little thing, she survived all that by herself. It's amazing," Johnson said, summing up the sentiments of many from the unit....

..."You want to know what the greatest injustice is?" Johnson continued. "Miller hasn't even been promoted."...

...After nearly three days and nights on the road, the 18 vehicles and 31 soldiers of the 507th — plus two soldiers from another unit — passed through a dark and quiet Nasiriyah about 5 a.m. The convoy took a now well-known wrong turn. Then another. Nearly two hours passed as the convoy felt about in the dark. Meanwhile, Iraqi irregular and Fedayeen Saddam fighters gathered to launch an ambush, according to Army investigators and members of the 507th....

..."The first time we moved through, no one was manning the fighting positions; no one was out," said Sgt. Curtis Campbell, who lost a fist-sized chunk of his left hamstring to an Iraqi round before being rescued by Marines. "By the time the sun was coming up, the whole town, it seemed, was out — and suddenly the fighting positions were all manned."...

...About 7 a.m., as many as 200 Iraqis began firing on the 33 Americans with AK-47s, heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. The 507th had a single heavy machine gun, a .50-caliber, which failed immediately....

...The convoy broke into three groups, according to the Army investigative report. The first fought its way through the ambush and sped toward nearby Marine Task Force Tarawa, which organized a rescue mission....

...In the second group, all five vehicles were quickly riddled with bullet holes and torn apart by rockets, and five of the 10 soldiers were wounded. With desert conditions causing weapons to malfunction — a problem that hounded many of the soldiers of the 507th — they were able to return only occasional bursts of fire. They would eventually be rescued by the Marines....

...At the end of the convoy, the third group was also being devastated by the attackers. Within minutes, several soldiers were dead, with more to die shortly. Lynch was injured — fellow soldiers thought she was dead — after the Humvee she was riding in was hit by an explosive and crashed into the back of another vehicle....

...After the ambush, the U.S. military intercepted a radio transmission describing a blond American woman who ferociously battled her attackers despite suffering gunshot and stab wounds. This was presumed to be Lynch, who was then missing, and the information was passed on to the media....

...The soldier described in the intercept may, in fact, have been a slim, blond male sergeant from Salem, Ore., 33-year-old Donald Walters, though no one knows for sure. His body — with several bullet and stab wounds — was later found near the battle site in a shallow grave. The Army has not determined the precise circumstances of his death, but investigators wrote: "There is some information to suggest that a U.S. soldier that could have been Walters fought his way south of Highway 16 toward a canal and was killed in action."...

...Miller was driving a military tow truck when the ambush began, with Sgt. James Riley, 31, in the passenger's seat. The two stopped to pick up Walters and Pvt. Brandon Sloan, whose truck had become stuck in the sand. Under heavy fire, Sloan climbed aboard. Walters disappeared. Miller stomped on the throttle....

...Moments later, the truck, riddled with bullet holes, began to slow, and the three were preparing to jump out when Sloan was killed by a shot to the forehead. Miller and Riley took off running toward the vehicles of Lynch, Johnson and others. Riley dove behind a truck and took command of several soldiers, most of them wounded. Miller kept running....

...The reason, he said, was that he saw an Iraqi dump truck on the other side of the highway. He figured he could get the truck running and spirit them away....

...As he neared, Miller dropped to his belly and crept up a sand berm. Peeking over the top, he saw the mortar pit right beside the dump truck. And he began his lone effort to pin down the Iraqi mortar men....

...As an Iraqi went to drop a round into the mortar tube, Miller fired and the man fell, he said. Miller's M-16, however, jammed, and for the next hour, he would pop up, fire one round, and then drop back behind the berm to manually reload another....

..."They didn't realize where the fire was coming from," Miller said. "They just saw their guys fall every time they'd try to set up the mortar."...

...After nearly an hour of pinning down the men around the mortar, according to investigators, Miller decided it was time check his back. He swept around, he said, and fired on an Iraqi approaching along a tree line. "That was the last guy I shot," he said....

...When he turned back around, Miller said, numerous Iraqi fighters were closing on him. He threw his rifle as far as he could and raised his hands in the air. "I said, 'OK, you win.' I kind of figured they'd shoot me right there, though."...

...About the same time, Riley, commanding the soldiers that the Iraqis had been trying to kill with the mortar, decided it was time to give up. None of their weapons were working and most of the soldiers were wounded. He, too, raised his arms and stepped into the open....

...The Iraqis quickly took the Americans prisoner....

...Miller began irritating his captors immediately. After asking about the scrap of paper, the Iraqis wanted to know about his can of Skoal tobacco....

..."I told 'em my chew was candy. Two or three of them opened it up and started eating. Idiots," he said with a roll of his eyes. "They saw their breakfasts again."...

...Over the next three weeks, the Iraqis moved the five POWs to seven different locations. In each cell he was kept, Miller carved the name of his wife, Jessa, and two children, Tyler, 4, and Makenzie, 15 months. He got sick, prayed a bit, and belted out lyrics from "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue."...

..."This big dog will fight/When you rattle his cage/And you'll be sorry that you messed/With the U.S. of A."...

..."I did that just to make 'em mad," Miller said with a hint of a smile. "They'd tell me to sit down and shut up. I would, for a while."...

...Investigations continue into possible war crimes by the Iraqi captors. In interviews, the POWs and other members of the 507th were careful in describing the actions of the Iraqis. They said enough, however, to suggest that the investigators have plenty to look at....

...When Iraqis captured wounded Spc. Joseph Hudson, 23, another member of the company said, "They beat him up right there."...

...In captivity, Johnson said, "From what I could hear — I couldn't see — Miller got it the worst. He was always mouthing off. And they knew he'd killed a lot of Iraqis."...

...On their 11th day of captivity, the Iraqis took Miller's wedding ring. He went wild with anger....

..."They'd tell him to shut up and he'd say, 'No! I want my wedding ring back! I want my wedding ring back!' " Johnson said. "I finally said, 'Miller, if you get your butt kicked over that wedding ring, your wife's going to kick your butt again.' "...

...Early on an April morning, in a house the POWs would later learn was just outside Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, a door flew open and a voice in English commanded everyone to get down. Marines swarmed the room. "If you're an American," one Marine shouted, "stand up."...

...Johnson is seeking a disability discharge after being shot in both legs. Spc. Edgar Hernandez, 21, who was hit in the face with shrapnel and shot in the arm, is getting married this week. Riley is back at work, now at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. Hudson, who suffered several wounds in the fighting, is also back at work, at the home of the 507th, Ft. Bliss, Texas....

...Miller was transferred over the summer to this post near Pike's Peak. He moved his family into a small home on the base....

...On the living room wall above his Kelly-green Barcalounger, he hung his Silver Star, POW medal and Purple Heart — which he diminishes, saying he wasn't badly injured. "They say part of it is for emotional injuries. Whatever."...

...At the center of the collection of awards is a poster memorializing the 507th. The eye is drawn to the unit's red flag and a group picture of the soldiers in their desert fatigues. It takes a moment to notice the ethereal, delicate images of the dead, hovering above the company....

...Miller spends his off time these days playing with his kids, sitting in his big green chair. He hates the Army's early hours, but doesn't drink coffee to help him awake, preferring caffeine-free soda. He thinks about heading an Army motor pool. He fiddles occasionally with the wedding band the Army replaced for him....

...Miller doesn't talk much about what happened, what it felt like to raise his hands in surrender and expect to be shot, about how he was treated by his captors, about killing people and watching his friends be killed. His wife has a hard time hearing the stories, and he has a hard time telling them anyway....

..."It doesn't bother me if I don't think about it," Miller said. "So I don't think about it much."...

[William Terrell]

There were men in that Humvee that were killed. Were they out of their element also?

No, they were men and therefore biologically designed, with a firmware operating system, to deal and defend against brute force.

Nor on the part of the men that were killed in the Humvee then.

They were dead and thus incapable of action. The men that were not out of it, fought. Miss Lynch did not fight. Her weapon "jammed".

She was there because she went when called. If you have issues with Clinton, Lynch isn't a good poster-child for your cause.

She was there, by her own statement, for employment opportunities. I have issues with Bubba, and Miss Lynch has certainly been made a poster child for his policies.

No, she was rescued in the first successful POW rescue mission since WW2. We remember the ones that happen to be unique, fact of life.

She had no business there in the first place. She must weigh 125 soaking wet, with fragile physique and no upper body strength capable of throwing a grenade farther than its own killing radius.

We put real war assets in danger to get her out, when rescue attempts historically is to get captured fighters out to return to the front. With the rest of what happened, it is obvious that this was a political mission, which are rare, but do exist in time of war.

Because they namecall and focus on the negative. They nitpick.

They are frustrated with lies and fraud to turn a stabile society on its head, ignoring the unalterable characteristics of Nature, with the resulting chaos and instability for all.

I applaude them for pointing out the cracks (nitpicking) in the media structure built around Miss Lynch and the negative implications of that deceitful structure are legion. Were you not in a victim of liberal conditioning, you would be, too.

What propaganda?

You're telling me that you actually are unaware of the artificial hype around Miss Lynch? I'm afraid I can't buy the "just wanting to honor those that had a hard time". I read what you have to say on other Lynch threads and don't get that impression. I don't think you can deny that Miss Lynch is getting away and gone more attention than others have gotten who really did something.

Why do you think that is? And what purpose do you think that such hype is designed to serve?

[concentric circles]

DC Military.com

Former POW learns value of military training

by Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

Just 10 months after he went off to basic training at Fort Sill, Okla., in May 2002, Pfc. Patrick Miller got a first-hand lesson in the true value of military training.

Like many of his fellow soldiers, Miller acknowledges he never thought he'd have much use for the classes he received about being captured by the enemy.

As a combat support soldier assigned to the 507th Maintenance Company at Fort Bliss, Texas, he assumed that if ever had any experience with prisoners of war, it would be as the captor -- not as the captured.

That all changed after Miller's unit deployed to Southwest Asia in February. He was part of a convoy navigating through southern Iraq in late March that took a wrong turn and got ambushed by Iraqi troops.

During the firefight that followed, Miller said he had too much adrenaline pumping through his bloodstream to be afraid. "I wasn't worried about anything but getting everyone out to safety," he said.

Nine U.S. soldiers died in the skirmish, and Miller and four of his fellow soldiers were captured, taken by a truckload of Iraqis to an outpost in Nasiriyah. They were held there for 21 days before their rescue by the Marines.

Miller, now assigned to the 2nd Transportation Company, 68th Corps Support Battalion, 43rd Area Support Group, said the events of his capture and POW experience "really didn't sink in" for several days.

He said he can't talk about his treatment by the Iraqis because the case remains under investigation, but acknowledges it "wasn't pleasant." He and his fellow POWs lived on small rations of boiled chicken and rice -- "not a lot," he said, "but enough to survive."

He recalls that it felt "degrading" when the lights of an Iraqi television camera glared into his face, but said he felt a tinge of relief as well. "They were putting us on TV, so I knew they wouldn't do anything to us," he said.

His biggest source of comfort, he said, was being able to hear coalition forces moving closer and "just hoping that they'll find you and that they won't (mistakenly) drop a bomb on you."

Three weeks after his capture, Miller and six other American POWs got their wish. The Marine Corps' 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion was moving north for an attack on Tikrit when Iraqis tipped them off about the POWs.

Following a heroic rescue mission, the Marines flew the newly freed POWs to an airfield in southern Iraq, then transferred them to a C-130 transport plane that flew them to Kuwait.

Miller said he received medical care at a U.S. military hospital in Kuwait before being flown to Landstuhl Army Medical Center in Germany. Finally, on April 19, he and six other former POWs returned to Fort Bliss for a rousing welcoming ceremony at Biggs Army Airfield.

Despite his harrowing experience, Miller said he tries not to think about it, although he admits that "later down the road, I might."

Not surprisingly, he's become a big advocate of more training in how to handle yourself if you're captured. "Everybody needs it," he said.

His advice to fellow soldiers? "Don't joke around when it comes to training. You never know. Even if you're combat support, you just might have to use it."

[concentric circles]

Pfc. Patrick Miller, from Valley Center, Kansas.

[Thebaddog]

You're probably right. Maybe Karma will kick in and good things will be coming his way.

[VOA]

Maybe Karma will kick in and good things will be coming his way.

The short news update I saw on him (couple months ago?) showed him at work
fixing big Army vehicles, cleaning up his Army shop/garage...
then at his humble home with the wife and kids...and a double-plus non-fancy car
in need of repair.

I suspect Miller and his family have tapped into a source of riches that too many
fellow Americans just don't get.

Sort of reminded me of the happiest married couple I've ever met. As a teenager,
I used to take Sunday communion to this home-bound couple in their decrepit home.
I can't put it into words, but I realized this pair were more blessed
than probably most married jet-setters lounging in the luxury of their penthouse suites.

[VOA]

A few brief excerpts from another story.

Could you give a URL to the full story (if available?)
--thanks in advance

[Thebaddog]

Gotcha there. I saw the same video of Patrick and his family. He'll do fine, and you will too.