Staff Sergeant Robert Miller, or “Robbie” as he is called by his family and friends, was a weapons sergeant for a USA Special Forces unit called Operational Detachment Alpha, or ODA. He also won the Medal of Honor for heroic actions above and beyond the call of duty during the Afghanistan War. The story of how he won the Medal of Honor is very interesting and inspiring. Here is what happened.
On January 25, 2008, Robbie Miller, along with members the ODA and Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers went on a special reconnaissance mission to confirm or deny enemy activity in the Chen Khar area and clear insurgent stations. In the beginning of the mission, the ODA spotted 15-20 insurgents armed and ready to fight. Miller immediately engaged the insurgents with an automatic grenade launcher. Miller called for airstrikes and then started to use his machine gun when his grenade launcher malfunctioned. The ODA and ANA forces succeeded in killing many of the insurgents but because they were not sure how many were left, the ODA Commander had Staff Sergeant Miller lead a dismounted scouting party.
As the scouting party was traveling uphill, they saw over 100 insurgents ready to attack. As the scouting party retreated back to cover, Miller engaged the insurgents with his Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW) and hand grenades. The main part of Miller’s plan was to draw fire to himself and not to the rest of his scouting party so that they could get to cover. About 45 minutes later, Miller shot his last SAW bullet and threw his last hand grenade. Then, seeing that his scouting party was protected by cover, he attempted to go for cover. At some point, while he was going for cover, Staff Sergeant Miller was mortally wounded. He was so badly wounded that he died right where he was shot. Before he died, two of the men from the ODA attempted to put a compress to his wounds. Before the compress could be put on his injuries, Staff Sergeant Miller died. The men attempted to recover his body but were forced to move for cover due to enemy reinforcements. They were finally able to recover Miller’s body when air strike reinforcements came in and scattered the insurgents.
Sergeant Miller is credited with saving the lives of 22 ADA and ODA soldiers. He is also credited with killing 16 insurgents and wounding over 30. On October 6, 2010, President Barack Obama awarded Staff Sergeant Robbie Miller the highest award our country can give—the Metal of Honor.
My next blog is going to be on Chaplain Emil J. Kapaun, who also won the Medal of Honor and died as a prisoner of war. To me, he is quite interesting and you can learn more about him in my blog post number 5.
