The Medal of Honor will be awarded posthumously to Wheaton North High School graduate Rob Miller who is credited with saving the lives of 8 American servicemen and 12 Afghan soldiers during a fierce firefight in January of 2008.Here is an excerpt from the Chicago Tribune story:
...The damage assessment patrol walked north about 800 meters to a bridge impassable by vehicle. Led by Miller, the team turned east, crossed the estimated 100-foot bridge and turned south into a narrow, steep valley. They had trekked for about 45 minutes.
"That's when we walked into the hornet's nest," McGarry said.
About 40 insurgents had dug under rock formations in the narrow pass east of the Kunar River. Nearly 200 more were higher on a ridge, Lodyga said.
Miller's teammates recalled that an Afghan National Army soldier spotted an insurgent obstructed by a boulder and ordered him to surrender. The man refused.
"You heard somebody yell 'Allah Akbar,'" the Muslim phrase loosely translated as "God is great," Lodyga said, "and then an overwhelming amount of firepower came down on us."
Miller's first move was to shoot and kill the insurgent who had stepped from the boulder about 20 feet away, said McGarry. Other insurgents were nearly as close, Lodyga said. He, McGarry and Cusick said it was the worst firefight they'd experienced.
"It was almost like standing in the middle of all the fireworks on the Fourth of July," Cusick recalled. "It was very loud."
Added McGarry, "There were so many people shooting at us, the bullets were kicking up everything around us. I kept looking over and saw Rob shooting."
Then McGarry and the others saw something else: Miller charged the enemy, firing his lightweight machine gun at several insurgent positions. At the same time, he was calling out the directions of and distances to enemy positions.
"Robbie was shouting at everybody to bound back, bound back," McGarry recalled, "and he was taking on the entire south area of the kill zone by himself. I couldn't look over for too long, but it took me a second or two to take it all in."
Miller's approach, while bold, was tactically astute. He was engaging at least four enemy positions and drawing their fire, allowing his teammates to get to safer ground. His aim was deadly accurate. Military records credit him with killing more than 16 insurgents and wounding 30.
In the first few moments, Cusick, the commander, was severely wounded when a bullet struck near his left collarbone and tore an exit hole in his left shoulder blade. His lung was punctured. One of the team members ran to his side and thrust a needle in his chest, allowing him to breathe.
While firing at the enemy, the rest of the team also was seeking cover, McGarry said.
Miller kept charging and firing, and when he had stopped firing, he threw at least two grenades "into enemy machine gun fire that basically had the patrol locked down," Lodyga said. "He took them out"...
BREAK
...So much chaos was roiling that patch of the narrow pass where the Special Forces were ambushed that it's unclear how long Miller charged and engaged the insurgents. Those on the patrol said it could have been five to 15 minutes before he was shot inches below his right armpit, a spot unprotected by body armor.
"I don't know if he stayed on his feet or not after he was shot," Lodyga said, "but I do know he turned toward the enemy position and kept firing. He killed two or three right there."
Two to five minutes later, Miller was struck again under his left armpit and died immediately. The entry points of the wounds indicate his arms were raised to fire his weapon, a young man facing death courageously.
"At the end of the day," Lodyga said, "if Robbie hadn't been courageous and did what came as second nature to him, you'd be looking at eight dead Special Forces. That's what Robbie gave his life for."
The military goes even further, contending that Miller's actions also saved the lives of an estimated 12 Afghan National Army soldiers.
Although tens of millions of men and women have worn the uniform of the armed forces for the U.S., fewer than 3,500 have earned a Medal of Honor...
FULL STORY
PHOTO CREDIT: Family photo via Chicago Tribune
UPDATE: Video of the Ceremony - with the story vividly retold by President Obama:
