Photo By 94th Airlift Wing | A picture of Maj. Patrick Miller, a 2014 Fort Hood shooting survivor, during his...... read more read more
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TRIPLER ARMY MEDICAL CENTER, Hawaii – U.S. Army Maj. Patrick Miller began working at Tripler Army Medical Center in 2016 as the hospital’s resource manager but not a day goes by when he doesn’t remember one day at a past assignment that changed his life forever.
For Maj. Patrick Miller April 2, 2014 was like any other Wednesday, any other work day … until it wasn’t.
“I was thinking to myself I can’t believe this is how it ends… this is how I’m going to go,” Miller said. “I said ‘I’m not spitting up blood, choking up blood, I can control my breathing, and I’m cognoscente of the situation… I’m going to live.’”
Miller is one of 16 survivors of the 2014 Fort Hood tragedy, one who faced life and death at less than an arm length away from a Soldier focused on ending lives.
“I vividly remember thinking this Soldier sees Major Miller standing there and he’ll come in our office for protection,” Miller said. “At that time he ran up to me and shot me in the stomach, point blank, with a .45.”
After being severely injured and despite his life hanging in the balance, Miller fought back, applying pressure to his wound with one hand and calling 911 with the other.
“I just pushed him out of the doorway, shut and locked the door, ran through the office so I could lock the other side of the door, and grabbed the folks that were under their desks, under their cubicles and brought them into my office,” Miller said.
Once the area was secure medics were able to arrive on scene to help Miller and transport him to the nearest hospital.
“I still communicate and talk with, to this day, the surgeons, the doctors, the nurses, the medics, and the staff at Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center,” Miller said. “I’m eternally grateful for them saving my life.”
His period of physical recovery would prove challenging, but thanks to his wife being there with him every step of the way he was able to overcome obstacles.
“Physically and mentally it was tough, especially those first few months,” Miller said. “It was an adjustment for my wife and my family. My wife is a nurse so that care, that home care, was a godsend in itself. What drove me then and what drives me today is not sitting around feeling sorry for myself, but to really be greatly that I’m still here and I am still alive.”
Aside from his duties as the hospital’s resource manager Miller shares his story with Soldiers and civilians to bolster readiness so that others can be more prepared if they have to react to a real world active shooter scenario.
“I volunteer to augment the antiterrorism, active shooter training here to take a real life, real world example to kind of show people how real it is so it can hit home a little more,” Miller said. “It’s so important to pay attention to those active shooter trainings… the resiliency stuff that we do because run, hide, fight, it’s not a joke and you need to know what to do, the steps to take, where to go because the worst thing you can do is do nothing.”
U.S. Army Col. Soo Lee Davis, TAMC Deputy Commander of Administration, said that the efforts Miller volunteers to fulfill in order to heighten awareness is important.
“Having someone who can speak on why it’s important to train on what we call an active shooter incident makes it more real and makes it come alive,” Davis said. “It heightens the reality of the risk and it really puts you in a position where you think ‘what would I do in that situation?’ and it’s not something you just read in the news or you read in the paper… it’s a living person that’s here and talking to you about it.”
Davis said that Miller is an example that Soldiers should strive to emulate.
“When I think of duty, honor, and country, and when I think of all the Army values Patrick Miller comes to mind,” Davis said. “I think he really represents the kind of leader and tone that we want to see in our future Army leaders.”
Miller continues to serve and find new opportunities to raise awareness and increase readiness to better arm service members and civilians if an incident should happen again, all while remembering and honoring those who lost their lives on that tragic day.
“Not a day goes by where I don’t think of Sgt. 1st Class Danny Ferguson, or Sgt. Timothy Owens, or Staff Sgt. Lazaney-Rodriguez,” Miller said. “Regardless of what happened, you still have another chance, not everyone gets that chance. Take the tragedies in life… and turn them into triumphs.”
| Date Taken: | 12.08.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 12.08.2016 18:40 |
| Story ID: | 216951 |
| Location: | TRIPLER ARMY MEDICAL CENTER, HI, US |
| Web Views: | 124 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Soldier turns Tragedy to Triumph, by TSgt Christopher Hubenthal, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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