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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WASHINGTON — Nearly 10 years ago, then Maj. Patrick Miller was lying in a hospital bed in Fort Cavazos, Texas, formerly Fort Hood, awaiting a second emergency surgery for a gunshot wound to the stomach.
His wife, Ashley, had been praying by his side the entire time. She was on one side of the bed while Miller’s brigade commander, then Col. Bertram Providence, and base commanding general, Lt. Gen. Mark Milley was on the other.
Miller was slightly out of it, but he saw the three of them talking and wanted to reassure them he was alright. He couldn’t speak because of the tube in his throat, so he motioned for a nurse to bring him a pen and paper.
He wrote, “Sir, let everyone know I’m doing OK and that we are going to get through this together as a family/team.”
“In that moment, that carried the day, and it carries it now,” he said thinking back on that morning. “We all get bloody noses in life, and we all stumble but it’s about what we do after, and how we can persevere through anything.”
The will to push through challenging times is a mentality Miller carried throughout his life.
He grew up in the rural western New York town of Allegany, the oldest son of a podiatrist and a pharmacist. He played sports throughout his childhood and was the captain of the football team in high school.
After graduating, he attended St. Bonaventure University on an Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps scholarship. His love of sports and teaching led him to pursue a bachelor’s degree in physical education.
During his junior year, he was student teaching at an elementary school when the terrorist attacks of 9/11 happened. He tried to put on a brave face to calm the children, but in the back of his mind, he knew things were about to be very different for him and the country.
“We knew we were going to war,” he said. “It was a wake-up call, and it made me realize that I wasn’t just going to do four years and get out. It was more than just a guaranteed job after college. It’s something that’s very serious, and I put my heart into it.”
He commissioned the following year as a medical service corps officer, staying in the family medical profession. His first job was as a medical platoon leader with the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Cavazos.
He showed up to the battalion as a self-described green, new, 22-year-old officer with much to learn and within a few months, the unit deployed to Iraq.
“It made you grow up in a hurry,” he said of the 13-month-long deployment. “That was my indoctrination into the Army.”
Being thrown into the fire early on made him learn quickly, he said. It was a lot of making decisions, team building and finding ways to save lives on the battlefield.
“We suffered shared hardships, but we were able to bring everyone in the platoon back alive,” he said. “Thinking back on [that time], it was pretty intense.”
Miller pushed through the challenges of that deployment and another 15-month Iraq deployment a few years later before deciding he was ready for a change of pace.
Between the five to six-year service mark, medical service corps officers can apply for long-term health education programs. In 2009, Miller used this program to attend the defense comptrollership program at Syracuse University. There, he earned a dual master’s degree in business administration and public administration while also meeting his wife.
“That was the most fun I’ve had [in the Army],” he said.
After completing the program and a one-year internship, he continued down his Army medicine journey as a health services comptroller, which ultimately led him back to Fort Cavazos in 2013. He was seven months into his assignment as the comptroller of the 1st Medical Brigade when the shooting took place.
It was a spring afternoon. Miller and the rest of the staff were winding down for the day when gunshots rang out from inside the building. Miller went through the office and told everyone to get down and hide. He checked the hallway to see if anyone needed help and saw a Soldier at the other end.
Miller called out, “Dude, what are you doing? Get out of the hallway!”
The Soldier ran in his direction. Miller thought he was looking for safety, but before he knew it the Soldier pulled out a gun, pointed it at his stomach, and pulled the trigger.
As the shooter tried to reload the gun, Miller pushed him away. He closed and locked the office door. His medical training kicked in as he put pressure on the wound with one hand while dialing 911 with the other.
He saw people hiding under their cubicles and brought them to his back office where he locked the door. Fear crept into his mind while assessing the damage.
I didn’t feel an exit wound, and I thought I was going to die from internal bleeding, he recalled.
After 45 minutes, he was still conscious and not coughing up blood. The fear was now replaced by hope. He thought to himself, “I’m going to live, but I need to get out of this office.”
He crawled out of a nearby window and found the military police. They rushed him to the Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center. There, he immediately went in for emergency surgery.
The bullet went through his colon, fractured a rib, and got lodged in his back. It missed his heart and spleen by two inches. Miller went through three major surgeries and spent two weeks in the intensive care unit. During that time, he dealt with infections and fever while having tubes and incisions all over his body.
“It became real in a hurry,” he said. “That was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life.”
He wasn’t alone in his fight. He was surrounded by family and friends and a hospital staff providing him with 24/7 care. After being bed ridden for the first week, the staff encouraged him to get up and get moving.
He could barely walk at first, but he slowly built up his strength until he was able to do laps around the ICU with the help of a wheelchair.
“I loved the care I got there,” he said thinking about his time at the hospital. “Army medicine saved my life.”
When he got home, Miller spent the next several weeks making incremental progress in his recovery. He started walking with his wife and built on that each day. After a month, he went back to the gym with a medical bag still attached to his side.
Throughout that difficult time, Miller’s determination and commitment to the Army never wavered.
“[Leaving the Army] never crossed my mind,” he said. “I love to serve. I love to lead and build teams. I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
The 2014 active shooter saw four Soldiers lose their lives including the shooter while 14 people were injured.
Miller moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas four months after the shooting for Command and General Staff College. He continued in his recovery and started training for marathons. He enjoyed running and wanted a milestone to strive for.
“I think it was a mental challenge more than anything, he said. It gave me clear goals to meet and an accomplishment that I could focus on.”
Two months later, he ran a half marathon. He continued running at his next command as he worked his way back to a full recovery. He finished two half marathons and two full marathons while he was stationed in Hawaii.
The time he spent running allowed him to think about where he was, how he got there and where he wanted to go. He’s spent the next nine years building a family, building a team of Soldiers at each assignment, and finding ways to help others.
"I don’t take one day, one breath for granted," he said "And to my core, I believe in positive energy. That's how I lead, that's how I try to be as a husband, a father, and a Soldier. I tell people this all the time, but I don’t have bad days anymore.”
Since 2017, Miller has put on a wounded warrior benefit concert in Buffalo, New York. He routinely speaks to commands about his active shooter experience to increase awareness and give a real-life perspective.
He promoted to colonel this fall and will assume brigade command in the summer of 2025. He plans on staying in the Army as long as he can.
“None of this would’ve been possible without Army medicine,” he said. “They’ve been there for me, not just the two weeks after the shooting, but for the last ten years of my career.”
| Date Taken: | 02.01.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 02.06.2024 09:05 |
| Story ID: | 463274 |
| Location: | DC, US |
| Hometown: | ALLEGANY, NY, US |
| Web Views: | 36 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Perseverance through pain: Army officer’s recovery from tragedy, by Christopher Hurd, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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