DV grad: 'A true soldier, warrior and Infantryman'

During a security patrol in Afghanistan, Mykel Miller, a 2006 graduate of Desert Vista High School, brought an Etch-A-Sketch to a rural school to entertain students by drawing pictures.

“He was mobbed by Afghan children,” wrote Sgt. 1st Class Steven Bowers of Coolidge, Miller’s platoon sergeant in Afghanistan.

“It was like magic to them. They seemed more amazed by its ability to erase by shaking it than anything, and Miller relished showing it to Afghan children,” said Bowers, the younger brother of former Arizona State Sen. Rusty Bowers.

Miller, 19, a private first class, was killed instantly Sept. 6 in Zabul Province when his Humvee rolled over an improvised explosive device. Also wounded in the same attack was the Humvee gunner, PFC Joseph Gracia of Phoenix.

Both were in the Arizona National Guard’s 1st Battalion 158th Infantry, which has been in Afghanistan since March.

A nearby Romanian unit responded to the attack on the Arizona Guardsmen and Sergeant Major Aurel Marcu, 31, died when the armored personnel carrier he was riding also ran over an IED while rushing to help. Two other Romanian soldiers were also injured in that attack.

Miller is the second local high school graduate to die in the war on terrorism.

In 2005 Marine Lance Corporal Christopher Poston, 20, a 2003 graduate of Mountain Pointe High School, died in Hit, Iraq, in a vehicle accident.

At Desert Vista, the staff remembered Miller’s sense humor and big smile.

“That’s the thing I’ll never forget, the smile that had,” said Shawna Thue, now a Spanish Teacher at Desert Vista, who called Miller “full of life.”

Miller joined the Arizona National Guard after graduation and was called into active duty in January with the rest of the battalion. They trained at Ft. Benning, GA, before shipping out to Afghanistan.

Miller was the youngest solider in 2nd Lt. Brett Yeater’s platoon, but Yeater said he could see the Ahwatukee Foothills teenager growing into a man during the training and deployment in Afghanistan.

“He was admired and respected by all of the soldiers in the platoon. He was a true soldier, warrior, and Infantryman,” wrote Yeater from Afghanistan.

But he was also an active teenager.

“Mykel was a cocky, good-humored young man. Always quick with a comeback,” wrote his platoon sergeant, Bowers.

And, on occasion, he would entertain the rest of the platoon during the long stretches of boredom that are part of the life of an infantryman.

“Miller would frequently play music for the rest of us, and the entire platoon would chuckle when he would jump upon the hood of the Humvees and begin dancing,” said Yeater, who is from Tucson.

Bowers wrote that Miller would talk endlessly about motorcycles and tease his squad leader, Phoenix Police Officer Marcell Cox, that when he got back to Phoenix he would speed by Cox and see if he could catch him.

Bowers is a veteran of Iraq and volunteered to go to Afghanistan in January with the guardsmen. He admitted that he had initial concerns over the toughness of the new batch of younger soldiers, but that their service in Iraq and now Afghanistan has erased that.

“I find them worthy successors to the stormers of Normandy and the victors of Yorktown. I’m in awe of the nonchalance of them as they get in their Kevlar and mount their vehicles knowing this day could be their last - and for a few, everyday, it is.”

The 600 citizen-soldiers in the battalion are the largest overseas deployment of Arizona National Guardsmen since World War II. They come from Ahwatukee Foothills, Phoenix, the East Valley, Tucson and other parts of Arizona.

Also in Afghanistan is the Arizona National Guard’s 1st Battalion of the 258th Aviation Regiment, flying Apache helicopters. That unit is also made up of 500 men and women from Phoenix, Tucson and rural communities in Arizona.

A wake for Mykel Miller is scheduled on Monday from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at Corpus Christi Catholic Church, 3550 E. Knox Road.

The funeral mass is set for 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 18 at Corpus Christi.

A vehicle procession will leave Corpus Christi at 2 p.m. for the graveside services and internment at the National Cemetery, 23029 N. Cave Creek Road, in north Phoenix.

The family has asked that in lieu of flowers, mourners donate to the Pfc. Mykel Miller Memorial Fund at the Parish of Saint Benedict, 16223 S. 48th St., Phoenix, 85048.

Doug Murphy can be reached at (480) 898-7914 or dmurphy@aztrib.com.