'I really hadn't planned to go back'

By Ms. Kari Hawkins ( Redstone)July 6, 2012

Charlie Miller
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

One deployment to a war zone as a civilian isn't enough for Charlie Miller.

After just a few months back at home with the Aviation and Missile Command, Miller is getting ready once again to pack for Afghanistan.

And this time, his deployment is by special invitation.

"I really hadn't planned to go back," he said. "But I got a couple of emails two months ago. Basically, the last two guys who were doing the job I did were fired. It's a hard job. It's not constantly a fast-pace job, but it comes in waves. I enjoyed the job the first time I was there and they asked me to come back."

Miller, who works for AMCOM G-3 (Operations), leaves in mid-August for Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, where he will spend a year supporting the 401st Army Field Support Brigade, which is part of the Army Sustainment Command/Army Materiel Command. The 401st AFSB at Bagram Airfield executes, directs and manages field and sustainment level logistics for U.S. and selected coalition forces in Afghanistan's regional command east and north.

"I will be in charge of the Support Operations Center during night-time hours," Miller said. "The 401st handles all equipment going in and out of the entire theater. We moved about 1,500 pieces of major equipment a month when I was there. Vehicles blown up in an ambush come in all times of day and night.

"There's not a lot going on at night there. But, on the other side of the coin, it's daytime in the U.S., so there's a lot of communications going on with higher headquarters at night. AMC and the Pentagon have to get reports on what's going on with the entire brigade."

Miller's job also involves "tracking all the brigade commander's movements. He's traveling between remote sites, and we have to keep up with the flights in case anything changes."

But the most important responsibility of his job is serving as the night-time battle captain, putting him in charge of battle drills during fire attacks. Those drills occur about once a week at Bagram Airfield.

"During those attacks, all civilians have to go to the bunkers, and all military have to report to the Support Operations Center and then are directed to positions on post that have to be manned," he said.

When Miller first reported for civilian duty, he was working as an operations specialist.

"I was supposed to be working operational orders and only working as the night battalion captain for about a week until military came in to take over," he said. "I made some changes to improve procedures during that week, and it ended up being a job that I just kept."

The 401st is different from any other brigade, Miller said, in terms of its ongoing mission and its size.

"The average brigade includes 3,000 to 3,500 Soldiers," Miller said. "The 401st is made up of more than 50,000 people, and the majority are civilians and contractors.

"The 401st never leaves theater. They change Reserve units and commanders, but the unit never stops being there."

Miller joined the Army in 1984 as a fire support specialist, and then as an artillery forward observer. He served at Fort Sill, Okla., and in Korea and Hawaii.

"I enlisted out of high school," he said. "I was from a military family and I just had to get away from a little town and go somewhere where I could do something with my life. And besides, I was newly married with a child on the way."

Miller didn't realize how much he would grow to love the Army. After about 10 years as an enlisted Soldier, he attended Officer's Candidate School. Miller retired as a major after 26 years of service and began his civilian career with AMCOM in September 2010.

With so many years in uniform, the idea of deploying wasn't new to Miller, and the extra money he made from the civilian deployment made it easier to support his family, which includes five grown children and his wife, along with his aging parents. And as an added bonus, those six months in Afghanistan helped him to overcome some of the "emotional baggage" he carried with him from his wartime deployment to Iraq.

"It helped me get some closure for some things," he said. "The firefights in Iraq were traumatic and I'm still dealing with things that happened over there. Also, the optempo of wartime just makes it harder to adjust back to a normal way of life."

As a captain, Miller volunteered to serve in Iraq in 2006-07.

"I was the team chief of a special police transition team," he said.

"There were 11 of us. We were a battalion that advised the Iraqi National Police's Wolf Brigade in Baghdad. We were responsible for the police training of these Iraqi police, who had all been linked to sectarian torture and killing at some point. But at the same time, they specialized in hostage rescue, breaking down doors and confiscating weapons. They got the job done, even if their actions were questionable. We had to go on every mission or firefight with them, and then have to critique them afterwards."

The size of Miller's team often worked to their detriment in the war zone.

"Most convoys consisted of 30 vehicles. Nobody will mess with a convoy that big because it's just too much firepower," he said.

"But our convoys were made up of three vehicles for 11 guys. What I enjoyed about it was we were on our own and, for the most part, could make our own rules. What I didn't like is that we were always out away from everything and very vulnerable to ambush."

Large convoys traveled at 15 mph with 20 to 50 yards between vehicles so as to better detect improvised explosive devices in the road.

"We traveled bumper-to-bumper at 60 miles an hour," Miller said. "The predominance of IEDS at that time were command detonated. We moved through so fast that when they would blow up their IED it would blow up behind us."

On Sept. 24, 2006, Miller's unit was ambushed, and his men only made it out of danger after a three-hour firefight.

"We had to self-recover. There was nobody to help us and our first vehicle got blown up," he said. "We had some injuries. I still blame myself for that because I was the battalion team chief."

The ambush actually began months before the firefight along a remote Iraqi road.

"In our training of Iraqi wolf brigade, we would monitor their actions mostly from our vehicles as they went into villages, searched homes and removed all but one gun from each of those homes," Miller said.

"About six months into the mission, we started hearing rumors that the Iraqi brigade commander would send out special teams at night to go back to these villages to kidnap and kill, and to burn down houses where they had confiscated weapons earlier in the day. They used us for legitimacy to go in and take weapons, and then they would go back later and attack these villages. We were living in a safe house with these Iraqis. We started watching them like a hawk at night to keep them from doing this. We also had to watch our own backs."

One night, after an 18-hour mission and a couple of hours of sleep, a report of a hostage situation came into the battalion. Normally, the U.S. Soldiers and the Iraqis would be briefed together before going out on a mission. But, this night, the Iraqi wolf brigade took off out the gate before the briefing could take place.

Miller's battalion was obligated to follow. And they did so, despite not having any information on the situation. The battalion continued with the Iraqis through a police checkpoint, which was unusually overwhelmed with Iraqis, and past the area where the hostage situation was supposed to have occurred. Miller's battalion was ordered to continue in the mission even though it seemed suspicious.

"We were traveling along a road bordered by the Tigress River with heavy woods on one side. Along the way, Iraqis bordered the road and they were waving at us. I thought they were being friendly. Now, I know they were waving goodbye to us," Miller said.

The convoy included two Iraqi pickups, the three U.S. vehicles and then 10 Iraqi vehicles bringing up the rear. They stopped at a house.

"Me and two captains got out of our vehicles," Miller said. "Thirty seconds later, an IED hit our first truck. Then there was small arms fire and mortar fire from across the river. One hundred Iraqi police laid down in the ditch and not a single one got shot. Nor did they fire a shot. Their excuse later was that they had bad bullets."

In the midst of the firefight, Miller's men were able to turn the two undamaged trucks around, hitch the damaged truck to the middle truck and then use the third truck to ram Iraqi vehicles off the road so they could escape from the area.

After that incident, Miller refused to send his unit with the Iraqi brigade unless they were fully involved in mission planning. Eventually, the Iraqi brigade was moved to another sector and its commander fired. Miller returned from the deployment, and was interviewed by Senate Armed Services Committee and on National Public Radio in regard to the challenges of training the Iraqi National Police.

Even to this day, those troubled times bother Miller. He has suffered from post traumatic stress disorder and the September 2006 ambush still weighs heavily on him.

"I had a lot of stress associated with that incident. I had a lot of issues with being emotionally dead," Miller said. "Everyone on my team got a Bronze Star and we had one Purple Heart."

Despite the challenges of working in a war zone, Miller is looking forward to his upcoming deployment.

"That first deployment was something I felt I had to do for myself. I am a civilian in the military who loves working with Soldiers," he said. "Most of the military I worked with that first time were Reservists. For many, it was a first deployment, so I was able to unofficially mentor and advise them. I also helped them accomplish a lot of professional development.

"A new group of Reservists will be coming in at the end of August. So, I will be able to mentor, advise and help them, too, as they need it. I miss being a Soldier. I love the civilian life. It's been very good to me. But I miss all the interaction with the Soldiers. I can get that in Afghanistan, and deploying to theater can't help but make you a better person and a better employee."