“It is simply a story of bravery, dedication, and selfless love that brands our history with distinction. It allows us to live in his solemn duty for a moment.”
Over many years now, I’ve tried to honor the sacrifice of the men and women who have paid the actual price for America’s freedom.
These include two high school buddies and my father, all lost in the Vietnam conflict, and many heroes I didn’t know but have been honored to write about.
In my adolescent years, Memorial Day was still a thing. It had an earnest dignity around it and called others to solemn duty. My father never spoke of it, and I now believe his somber mood on Memorial Day was his way of remembering fellow bomber crews who didn’t return from 57 missions he flew in the South Pacific.
Memorial Day was still a holiday back then, and I’m sure there were sales and specials and the commercialism that piggybacks any holiday. But I remember only the parade, ribbons, flags, hot dogs, and pride. It was a festive day then, in the sense that it celebrated the sacrifice of so many – that so many knew – but at the same time recognized that our privilege was to live in the comforts of their sacrifice.
I guess it’s normal, even expected, that since WWII, the cost of freedom has steadily lost its currency among the larger population. Fewer and fewer of us even know a military member, much less have a family member who serves or served. Fewer still have a loved one who paid that highest cost. But it still sticks in my mind that a moment of humble silence and gratitude is in order.
A soldier lost is the best of us lost.
Today, in the public mind, heroes are mostly athletes or politicians who tell us they’re heroes we should be glad for – absurdities encouraged by the culture and the media. There are plenty of real heroes in the local, county, and state law enforcement and firefighting, but the social climate tries to denude and vilify them at every chance.
And I know, regardless of how systematically our military’s top brass has been utterly corrupted and captured by the toxic political poison concocted in Washington, DC, especially since 2009, that the rank and file members of our military – our warrior class – remain as dedicated and resolute as ever – the ranks filled with genuine heroes.
Among them are real heroes like Staff Sergeant Robert Miller. His story isn’t long nor clouded by ambiguity or exaggerated puffery. It is simply a story of bravery, dedication, and selfless love that brands our history with distinction. It allows us to live in his solemn duty for a moment.
After a year at the University of Iowa, the 20-year-old enlisted in the Army as a special forces candidate and became a Green Beret in 2005. After completing Special Operations language training, where he learned French and Pashto, one of the primary languages used in Afghanistan, he was promoted to a Special Forces Weapons Sergeant and assigned to the 3rd Special Forces Group Airborne based in Fort Bragg, N.C.
Staff Sergeant Miller first deployed to Afghanistan in 2006. He earned two Army Commendation Awards for Valor for courage under fire on that tour. Returning to the US, Staff Sergeant Miller completed Ranger School and earned his Ranger Tab. In 2007, he left for his second tour of duty in Afghanistan, frequently leading missions as a point man because he could speak Pashto and talk with local Afghans.
On a bitterly cold morning on January 25, 2008, Staff Sergeant Miller’s unit was conducting reconnaissance and combat operations against known Taliban insurgents near a village called Barikowt in the Kunar Province near the Pakistan border in far eastern Afghanistan. The unit comprised eight US Army Special Forces personnel and 15 Afghan National Army (ANA) troops.
On a narrow, snow-covered trail in a strategically critical valley, a drone revealed up to 40 concealed insurgents. After securing the ANA troops in defensive positions, Staff Sergeant Miller led US airpower to strike grids and engaged the Taliban fighters with a vehicle-mounted MK19 40mm automatic grenade launcher. When his MK19 became inoperable, Staff Sergeant Miller moved to a mounted M240B machine gun on the vehicle’s rear and continued fighting.
In the US Army’s official description of the events, the team captain directed a dismounted patrol after the initial engagement to assess battle damage. As they entered the mouth of the valley, enemy fire from RPGs and heavy machine guns erupted from the high ground from up to 150 enemy insurgents. Staff Sgt. Miller called out the contact report to his team members behind him, simultaneously engaging enemy positions at close range. In the face of withering fire, ANA troops located directly behind Staff Sgt. Miller “broke the formation and bound away downhill and out of the kill zone, leaving Staff Sgt. Miller alone and with no support in the open terrain.”
With retreating ANA forces and the [Special Forces] patrol exposed to devastating fire, Staff Sergeant “boldly charged the enemy and accurately engaged the entire force with his squad automatic weapon, thus eliminating the threat.” With heavy fire from insurgent forces from all sides of his position engulfing him and already suffering a bullet wound to his upper torso, “Staff Sgt. Miller continued to engage at least four other insurgent positions, killing or wounding at least ten insurgents.”
With the team captain seriously wounded early in the battle, the Staff Sergeant’s actions allowed the team to escape to covered positions. As darkness came, his muzzle flash became the target for intense return fire from the Taliban – but his actions drew fire away from the pinned-down Americans and retreating ANA. “In complete disregard for his own personal safety, [Staff Sergeant Miller] continued to charge forward through the open area, engaging multiple elevated insurgent positions and purposely drawing fire away from his trapped [Special Forces] members.”
Staff Sergeant Robert J. Miller received another wound and continued to radio instructions to his team, which was able to relocate to secure positions. Finally, his radio went silent.
On September 11, 2011, then-President Barack Obama said, “Five members of his patrol had been wounded, but his team survived,” as he awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously to the Staff Sergeant’s family in the White House. “And one of his teammates surely spoke for all of them when he said of Rob, ‘I would not be alive today if not for his ultimate sacrifice.'”
[You can read the full account with battle information at the US Army’s Medal of Honor; Staff Sergeant Robert J. Miller site here.]
