Patrick Miller

After returning to Fort Bliss, Texas, Miller stayed on active duty with the U.S. Army and was transferred to Fort Carson, Colorado at the rank of staff sergeant. He remains on active duty as a sergeant first class as of 2018.

On 20 July 2005, while serving with the 183rd Maintenance Company, Fort Carson, Miller was awarded the Combat Action Badge by retired Command Sergeant Major Tyler Walker.

The U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC) at Fort Belvoir, Virginia named its operations center and dedicated a wall in Miller's honor in January 2004. Miller attended the ceremony with his mother and his wife and their two small children.

On March 23, 2003, Iraqi forces ambushed the trail convoy element of the 507th Maintenance Company that had taken a wrong turn near An Nasiriyah. There had been bitter fighting around Nasiriyah, a vital crossing point of the River Euphrates. Miller was driving the last truck in the convoy with Private First Class Brandon Sloan and Sergeant James Riley as passengers. During the attack, he floored the accelerator, trying to steer and duck bullets at the same time. Enemy fire killed Sloan and damaged his truck's transmission, disabling the vehicle.

For these actions he was awarded the Silver Star the third-highest military award for heroism in combat. Along with the Silver Star, Patrick Miller also received a Purple Heart and Prisoner of War Medal on July 2, 2003, during an Independence Day celebration at Fort Bliss, Texas.

"The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star Medal to Patrick Miller, Private First Class, U.S. Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action while serving as a Mechanic with the 507th Maintenance Company, 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, during combat operations in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, near An Nasiriya, Iraq, on 23 March 2003. On that date a huge American convoy headed from Kuwait to Baghdad. A dozen heavy trucks and other maintenance vehicles fell behind the rest and got lost. At sunrise, Iraqi troops ambushed the lost soldiers, firing from both sides of the highway. The Americans sped up to escape the attack, but one Humvee smashed into the back of a jack-knifed American tractor-trailer. Less than a mile behind that accident, Private Miller was driving the last truck in the convoy. During the attack, he floored the accelerator, trying to steer and duck bullets at the same time. During the ensuing battle he single-handedly stopped a mortar attack aimed at trapped soldiers."

Miller is a 1998 graduate of Valley Center High School in Valley Center, Kansas a town of 5,000 people outside Wichita, Kansas. Employed in civilian life as a welder, he joined the U.S. Army in the summer of 2002, to help pay for his student loans.

Patrick Wayne Miller (born January 15, 1980) is a United States Army soldier. He was a private first class during the 2003 invasion of Iraq with the U.S. Army's 507th Maintenance Company, serving as a mechanic, becoming a POW. For his actions leading up to his capture, he was awarded the Silver Star for valor. He continues to serve in the U.S. Army.