Private First Class Patrick Miller received the Silver Star and Purple Heart last spring. Now the military is recognizing the bravery of the soldier from Valley Center.

When most of Kansas first heard about Patrick Miller, it was through the lens of an Iraqi TV camera, just one day after being taken as a prisoner of war. Minutes before his capture the 23-year-old father of two had just performed what some are calling the bravest act of the war.

"The way the unit was designed and set up, we were supposed to be toward the back and be a repair (unit) and then everything else happened."

Everything else was a wrong turn and an Iraqi ambush, several Iraqis from different directions firing on Patrick and his fellow soldiers.

I asked him what went through his mind?

"Why are we getting shot at? What's going on here? You can't go anywhere, you're getting shot at. I really wasn't thinking about nothing but getting me and whoever else I could out of there."

Miller decided to steal an Iraqi dump truck.

"And that's when I see the mortar pit behind the truck. Then they started to load and I just tried to shoot whoever had the round for the mortar. I shot eight and I ran over one. In my mind it was either me or them and in my mind it wasn't going to be me."

That's where the hero part comes in. I showed him one of several articles just printed in the last two weeks. It quotes one of his fellow soldiers, during the ambush, telling Miller to get down. Miller resisted. "No I gotta go out and see if I can shoot these soldiers."

"I don't consider myself a hero for what I volunteered to do."

Because of Miller, most of his unit stayed alive, but were taken as prisoners.

During captivity Miller remained brave and kept a sense of humor. He tormented his captors, giving them chewing tobacco and convincing them it was candy.

"It's not my fault they don't have chewing tobacco over there. They ate it and then they saw their breakfast."

During a time when hope was hard to find, Patrick Miller found inspiration by singing. Over and over again he sang Toby Keith's "Red, White and Blue."

"They started realizing what I was saying and then they'd get mad and tell me to sit down and shut up."

Three weeks later U.S. Marines came, breaking down the doors. They had come for a rescue.

"It was the feeling that, okay, this is almost over. We are going to get to go home."

The P-O-W's returned home to parades and praise.

After his captivity and return home Miller had a choice - leave the Army or stay enlisted.

"If I had just got out after it happened, people would look at me like I was a quitter."

Patrick Miller is now stationed at Ft. Carson with his wife and two young children.

I asked him if he had a message for Kansans.

"Just don't forget the people still fighting in Iraq and those who lost their lives there. Those people, he says, are the true heroes."