USA — Soldier to Receive Posthumous Medal of Honor

WASHINGTON, Sept. 9, 2010 — In an Oct. 6 cer­e­mo­ny at the White House, Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma will present the Medal of Hon­or to the par­ents of a sol­dier who died while sav­ing mem­bers of his team and 15 Afghan sol­diers.

Army Staff Sgt. Robert J. Miller will receive the Medal of Hon­or posthu­mous­ly when Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma presents the award to his par­ents at the White House in an Oct. 6, 2010, cer­e­mo­ny at the White House. Miller saved mem­bers of his team and 15 Afghan sol­diers dur­ing a Jan. 25, 2008, bat­tle in Afghanistan. U.S. Army pho­to Click to enlarge

Army Staff Sgt. Robert J. Miller, who was 24 years old when he died, will receive the Medal of Hon­or posthu­mous­ly for hero­ic actions in Barikowt, Afghanistan, on Jan. 25, 2008. 

“He dis­played immea­sur­able courage and uncom­mon val­or –even­tu­al­ly sac­ri­fic­ing his own life to save the lives of his team­mates and 15 Afghanistan Nation­al Army sol­diers,” White House offi­cials said in a writ­ten state­ment issued today announc­ing the honor. 

Miller’s par­ents, Phil and Mau­reen Miller, will join the pres­i­dent at the cer­e­mo­ny, the state­ment said. 

Miller was born on Oct. 14, 1983, in Har­ris­burg, Pa., and grad­u­at­ed from Wheaton North High School in Wheaton, Ill. Short­ly after his fam­i­ly moved to Oviedo, Fla., he enlist­ed in the Army in August 2003 as a Spe­cial Forces can­di­date. He attend­ed basic train­ing and advanced indi­vid­ual train­ing at Fort Ben­ning, Ga., and received his Green Beret in 2005.

He served as a weapons sergeant in Alpha Com­pa­ny, 3rd Bat­tal­ion, 3rd Spe­cial Forces Group, based at Fort Bragg, N.C.

His mil­i­tary dec­o­ra­tions include the Mer­i­to­ri­ous Ser­vice Medal, the Army Com­men­da­tion Medal with “V” device, the Army Good Con­duct Medal, the Glob­al War on Ter­ror­ism Ser­vice Medal, the NATO Medal, the Spe­cial Forces tab, the Ranger tab and the para­chute badge. 

In addi­tion to his par­ents, he is sur­vived by broth­ers Thomas, Mar­tin and Edward and sis­ters Joan­na, Mary, Therese and Patricia. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

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