|
Former POW from Kansas talks about capture in Iraq
Associated Press. Edited slightly for length.A Kansas soldier who was captured in Iraq with Jessica Lynch says he shot and killed members of an Iraqi mortar team as they were getting ready to launch an attack on his American colleagues. "They were going to shoot and kill me, or I was going to shoot and kill them," Pfc. Patrick Miller said in an interview broadcast Tuesday night on Kansas City television station KMBC-TV. "It was no in between, what if this, what if that. It was either me or them. And in my mind, it wasnât going to be me." Miller, 23, of Valley Center, Kan., was with the Armyâs 507th Maintenance Company, which had 11 soldiers killed and six captured during an ambush in March. . . . [Miller] was driving a truck bound for Bagdhdad on March 23 when members of his his unit made a wrong turn and ended up under attack from Iraqi soldiers. His truck shot out, Miller scrambled for cover when he noticed an Iraqi truck that he thought he could take and use to get some of his comrades to safety. "If I got to the dump truck I was trying to steal, it mightâve been a whole different story," he said. But as he approached the truck, he saw the Iraqi mortar team set up beside it. Miller, who said he was at best an average shot during basic training, told KMBCâs Martin Augustine he hid behind a sand dune and started killing the Iraqi mortarmen one-by-one. Remember, this guy was not a combat infantrymanâjust a welder with basic weapons trainingâbut he was shooting like Sgt. York. Miller, eventually captured and later released, subsequently was awarded the Silver Star for his actions, but said he was no hero, just a private first class. "I was doing what I volunteered to do," he said. After he and his fellow soldiers were set free, there were stories of Miller pestering the Iraqi guards by constantly singing a pro-American song, and by giving them chewing tobacco that he said was candy in hopes of making them sick. I like the attitude. "Itâs small victories that keep your hope up," Miller said. "You got to have small victories when youâre in a situation like that." Posted by: Mike 2003-11-13 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=21209 |