Asoldier’s tale of Iraq

other dreams that I’m chasing. The army would have been the most secure was for me to go through my life but I want to take those risks and find my own way in the civilian world. With all the tools that my family has given me in life and the army, I should not have a problem,” Miller said.

It is clear how the time Robert Miller spent in the service really effected him. As I spoke with him, I could hear it in somber tone of his voice and the seriousness in his bright blue eyes. What really struck me was the following statement, “I come back here and I don’t know what my problem is. I mean, I guess I felt like I had such a purpose in the army and I know that I’ll fall right back in here in a couple more months, fine, back in the civilian world. But I’m going to miss feeling that important probably for the rest of my life. Because I know how important I was.”

Looking back on his military career, Miller said, “I’m very very proud of what I did. I had a very successful first term as a United States soldier. I was promoted ahead of my peers. I received [a] fantastic non-commissioned officer evaluation report (NCOER). I did everything that I was supposed to do and still had fun doing it. I mean, I was a smart-aleck. I was always sarcastic. But my superiors, they knew that I would get the job done. So, that pride that they had in me was the same pride that I had in myself.”

“The army made me grow up about 10 years faster than I would have. Because you realize how silly little things are in life once you’ve seen the things I have. The level of responsibility that the army gives you at such a young age, it, I mean, you’re taking life and death in your hands of your subordinates and the men around you. So, there’s a huge…there’s a lot of things the army gives you that you can’t receive at 20, 25 years old. It’s incredible.”

One of the most poignant things he said during our interview was in response to a question about America’s reaction to the war. Miller said, “The soldiers today are very smart kids, they’re very smart men and they know that...they know what’s going on as much as you do. We’re all the same; we just do a different job as soldiers. So, you have all of these minds that know what’s going on and they’re like, “why are we here?” Some of them. Some soldiers say, “why are we here?” But at the same time they understand that “hey, this is my job. No matter what they send me to do.”

You’re just taking orders from the next guy up, ya know, that’s it, that’s your whole job and that’s what you signed up to do and you realize that you could lose your life and these guys they fight till the death whether they believe in the cause or not. I believe in everything I ever did. Whether it was a difficult for the country to make and stand behind. Everything I did, I believed in and I would not have changed it one bit. And the soldiers do want to fight, soldiers want to fight and they’re very willing and motivated people. Probably the rarest kind of man in the world is the United States soldier.