Army Pfc. Anthony S. Miller

Died April 7, 2003 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

---

19, of San Antonio; assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Infantry Division, 2nd Brigade, Fort Stewart, Ga.; killed in action in Iraq.

---

Anthony Miller of San Antonio preferred to be “a behind-the-scenes kind of guy,” said the high school cross-country coach who let him be a volunteer team manager.

But in a letter several weeks ago, “he told me, ‘It looks like I’m going to be closer to the front lines than I ever thought,’ “ said coach Kamara Adams of John Jay High School.

Miller, 19, was killed April 7 in Iraq. Army officials told the family he was a victim of “enemy indirect fire” but gave no details.

“We were always worried. We never knew exactly where he was — in the front lines or in the back,” his brother Patrick Miller said.

Adams met Miller by accident, just three months before his early graduation in December 2001 from John Jay. He always showed up at school early, when her cross-country runners had 6 a.m. practice.

Unsure of what to do with his life after high school, Miller enlisted in the Army in March 2002. “He saw an opportunity to better himself and to apply the skills he learned in the Army at a future point,” Patrick Miller said. “He had a bunch of ideas in his head.”

Last fall, he visited his old school. “He was so sharp, he just looked so grown up. He had definitely found his niche,” Adams said.

Every day at John Jay, students say the Pledge of Allegiance and observe a moment of silence. Adams says her students usually fidget and are distracted. On April 9, the moment was dedicated to Miller’s memory: “You could have heard a pin drop.”

— USA Today and The Associated Press