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| More than 8.3 million people have signed Defend America's online Thank You Note to the men and women of the U.S. military. |
Posted on 03/25/2003 7:34:22 AM PST by SavageRepublican
VALLEY CENTER, Kan. - Patrick Miller donned Army green for his country, his family and himself.
"Most people when they go into the Army, when they come out they're really pretty stable," said Jason Brommer, a former co-worker. "He was looking to do the country a good deal and gain from it himself."
But war changed things, and it turned Miller's pursuit of stability into instability and uncertainty -- for him, his young family and his friends in this Wichita suburb of 5,000 persons.
Miller, 23, was among a handful of soldiers captured after their Army supply convoy ran into Iraqi troops Sunday. A 1998 graduate of Valley Center High School, Pfc. Miller was stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas.
His wife's family learned of his capture when his face flashed on their TV Sunday, said Ronald Pracht of Olivet Baptist Church, the pastor who married the Millers last spring. The military later confirmed his capture. Iraq has issued no additional public statement since the TV appearance.
Miller's wife, Jessa, declined to comment because she is "still kind of stunned, but she's fine," Pracht said. "She's got a lot of family nearby and is trying to pull her thoughts together."
Patrick Miller, a welder by trade, was described as an avid outdoorsman who strove to improve life for himself, his wife and two children.
Miller shipped out to the Middle East about three weeks ago. He serves in the 507th Maintenance Company, part of the 111th Air Defense Artillery Brigade. His wife and children, ages 4 and 7 months, returned to Wichita from the Fort Bliss area when he shipped out.
As news of his capture spread, friends and neighbors began to congregate to show support.
Monday afternoon about half a dozen persons gathered in the First United Methodist Church parking lot and began tying yellow ribbon around trees along eight blocks of Valley Center's main drag.
Later Monday at the church, a prayer service opened with the hymn "A Mighty Fortress is Our God," and those gathered prayed for Miller and his family, fallen soldiers and their families, our troops and leaders, the people of Iraq and for peace.
Miller's family was not at the service.
On Sunday, Miller's family viewed a videotape of him being quizzed by his Iraqi captors. Miller's half brother, Thomas Hershberger, 27, cringed while watching.
"He's always such a tough guy," Hershberger said. "It was hard to see him looking so scared."
Miller's sister, Kimberly, saw something different.
"Anytime you look at him on the television he's holding his head up high," she said.
"He's going to stand strong through anything," she said, "and his family is on his side. He's a fighter, and he's going to make it.
"He's a good man," she said. "That's what everybody needs to know. That's all everybody needs to know."
Friends and family described Miller as a hard worker who threw his all into whatever he took on -- be it wrestling, where he advanced to the high school state championships, to tinkering with car stereos or enlisting in the Army.
"He didn't seem to have a slow button on him," Pracht said. "If he was going to do it, he was going to do it."
Co-workers at Autolifters of America, a manufacturing plant, praised Miller's work ethic and the enthusiasm he brought to the job. They talked about how his gentle teasing helped make the job fun.
He had kept in touch with other workers even after leaving the company, calling back to tell them about his new baby and to let them know he was being deployed in the Middle East.
"Everybody loved him," said Pam Thomas, the office manager at the company's plant in Newton, Kan. "He jokes around with everybody. He's kind of ornery."
As a teen-ager, Miller had a penchant for speeding through his neighborhood and cranking up the volume on his car stereo. Not all his neighbors appreciated that.
But Miller was growing as a responsible adult, said Pracht, who noted his readiness to marry his longtime girlfriend and the mother of his child.
"He was finally ready to say, `OK, I'm going to do what's necessary to take care of my family,' " Pracht said.
"...He was really looking forward to going into the service and getting some stability there."
Always seeking to improve, it was not unusual for Miller to switch jobs in pursuit of better positions and sometimes work more than one job, said his cousin, Tyson.
"He was real determined in what he did. He worked. When everyone else was hanging out, he was working. That's just how he was."
Brian Shelton, Miller's high school wrestling coach, said he got a dozen e-mails Monday from former wrestlers. Some were scared, others worried and all were seeking information about their former teammate.
"Patrick is one of the most loyal people I know," Shelton said. "He'd come by and help with the wrestling team after graduation. He supported people, and people are going to support him."
Debbie Seivley-Childers of Valley Center was tying yellow ribbons. "There's a lot of kids from Valley over there" in the Middle East, she said, and noted that her son recently got out of the Marines.
"It could be him over there," she said.
The Wichita Eagle and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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| More than 8.3 million people have signed Defend America's online Thank You Note to the men and women of the U.S. military. |
You just don't get it. This a Hollywood set, where you bestow honors on a convicted pedophile like Roman Polanski; where you place your men in a hold position so that rag heads can take a shot at them at will; where a time bomb muslim as allowed to roam a camp - only to be detained after he has mutilated fourteen Christians and killed an officer; where the enemy is given a pass to drive his car out of ragdad, and out of that shithole country so he can do a media blitz in Egypt.
You just don't get it. This wimp exercise is costing you 70,000,000,000 DOLLARS - squeezed from your wallet - to pay for a war earmarked to loose, because we don't want to make it appear that their unconditional defeat is our purpose.
You are on the loosing side pal. You just don't get it.
pretend to you - most everyone else will treat it seriously
Soldiers Frustrated At Being "Nice Guy" (MUST READ!!)
The guys taking this war serious are not in the State Department; they're in the trenches.
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