http://www.theomahachannel.com/news/2631770/detail.htmlWhat Pfc. Patrick Miller (pictured, left) did on the day Jessica Lynch was wounded and captured may have saved her life as well as many others.
Miller, from Valley Center, Kan., drove a truck for the 507th Maintenance Company, which was headed for Baghdad when it was ambushed in the middle of a three-day drive. Miller said that his actions during that ambush weren't that big of a deal.
As a child, Miller remembers waving at people in parades. Now, he's the one being waved at. But the 23-year-old soldier didn't join the Army for glory. He did it to pay off school debts -- and was only eight months into his enlistment before he was sent to Iraq.
"I wasn't really worried about going, because I never thought that anything would happen," Miller said.
As a welder in a maintenance company, he was likely to be far behind the combat -- or so he thought.
But Miller's convoy got lost and then ambushed. His truck shot out from under him, Miller scrambled for cover before spotting an Iraqi lorry. He thought he'd swipe the dump truck and use it as a getaway vehicle for his comrades.
"If I got to the dump truck I was trying to steal, it might've been a whole different story," he said.
But as Miller approached the truck, he saw an Iraqi mortar team set up beside it. With a direct hit, Miller realized the shells could easily have killed all of his fellow soldiers. So the private hid behind a sand dune, even though during basic training he was, at best, an average shot. He aimed his rifle, killing the mortar team one-by-one, Augustine reported.
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Looks as if the Washington spin-meisters missed same of the real "Sergeant York" type heros in their rush for white bread American approval.