December 17, 2010: Green Berets from 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group were taking small-arms fire. Captain David Fox led a half-dozen members while Sergeant First Class McKenna "Frank" Miller and others provided security. The shooting from an estimated 10 enemy fighters, "It wasn't a big deal," Miller said. "We could control the situation."
Soon rocket-propelled grenades began to fly, and the small-arms fire intensified. Miller radioed to Fox that they'd better hurry up.
"I was sensing things were deteriorating," Fox later told an Army journalist, so he moved his group to the top of a steep mountain to help return fire.
That's when an improvised bomb exploded, killing one of the French engineers and leaving one of the Afghans, a local commander, badly wounded. Fox and the others who were with him were knocked unconscious.
Far below, Miller heard the blast and saw the smoke. CPT Fox came to and transmitted via radio. Miller could make out only two words of the broken transmission: "Urgent . . . surgical."
He and teammate Staff Sergeant Matthew Gassman started up the side of the mountain. It was a near-vertical ascent done "continuously under enemy fire," according to the Army's official narrative.
Upon arrival, Miller briefly tried to treat the engineer. Realizing he'd been killed, he did the only thing he could; he lifted the 200-pound man over his shoulder and, despite his exhaustion, carried him down the mountain, stumbling and falling several times along the way. Gassman helped the wounded Afghan commander while Fox provided cover.
By then, the number of enemy fighters had grown to about 70.
When the soldiers reached the bottom of the mountain, Miller collapsed while trying to dodge the enemy rounds, which were hitting the slain man on his back. Despite two strained hamstrings, he picked the man up again and continued forward.
Describing the pain of ripped hamstrings, Miller said, "It took the breath away from me."
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Thank God that we still breed men like him!
ReplyDeleteAny chance he's related to Sergeant Major Frank Miller, Vietnam SF recon man and MOH recipient?
ReplyDeleteI'm aware of SGM Frank Miller, and I know this Frank Miller - don't know if they're related.
ReplyDeleteS.L.