Medal of Honor Awarded to Green Beret Killed in Afghanistan

(Oct. 6) -- President Barack Obama awarded the Medal of Honor today to a Green Beret who died two years ago defending his patrol from an ambush in Afghanistan.

Staff Sgt. Robert Miller of Wheaton, Ill., fought off enemy fire and gave other U.S. and Afghan soldiers a chance to escape, the president said in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House. "Rob was born to lead," Obama said.

As Miller ordered his patrol to retreat, the president said, "Rob moved in the other direction, toward the enemy, drawing their guns away from his team and bringing their fire upon himself." He fended off more than 100 insurgents before he was fatally shot.

Miller was leading a patrol near a village on the Pakistani border Jan. 25, 2008, when Taliban fighters attacked. "Realizing that his team was pinned down and unable to actively engage the enemy, Staff Sgt. Miller, with complete disregard for his own personal safety, continued to charge forward through the open area engaging multiple elevated insurgent positions and purposely drawing fire away from his [comrades]," the Army said on its website.

Survivors of the ambush say the 24-year-old was shot two times but continued to throw grenades and fire his weapon to help save the lives of those he fought with, according to The Associated Press. The situation was tense. "We were fish in a barrel," Sgt. James Lodyga, Miller's commander, told CNN. "Enemy on right, on the left. Robby immediately started firing."

Obama noted that Miller's fellow soldiers also risked their lives when they tried to rescue him, and spent hours trying to recover his body under heavy enemy fire. "This is the story of what one American soldier did for his team, but it's also the story of what they did for him," the president said.

Phil and Maureen Miller accepted the award, the nation's highest military honor, on their son's behalf. "You gave your oldest son to America, and America is forever in your debt," Obama said. The president said Miller was his patrol's only Pashto speaker and a high school gymnast.

Miller is only the third person to receive the Medal of Honor for service in Afghanistan. Before he went on the mission, Miller had a request for his friend, Staff Sgt. Nick McGarry. "If I get killed on this mission, I don't want to be remembered for dying," he said, according to an interview with McGarry in the Chicago Tribune. "I want to be remembered for who I was."