The Power of Shear Human Will

This is not a technical post.  This is a post about someone that the word “hero” just doesn’t begin to encompass the full story.  This is a story about someone I know that risked all that he had for a cause he believed in, and would do so again. 

I knew Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Elliott Miller (US Navy Seal) when we were in Boy Scouts together.  We didn’t go the same school, so I only got to know Elliott through our scouting trips and when we both worked on the local Boy Scout camp staff together.  Elliott was a funny, easy going guy.  He like to give people a hard time, all in good fun (so he fit right in with the rest of us).  I think the last time I saw Elliott was at a scouting function at the Boy Scout camp years ago.

Elliott went on to Join the Marines and served four years before coming out to get a college education.  Less than a year after that New York was attacked on September 11th.  Elliott immediately signed up for the Navy and was a SEAL about two years later serving as a combat medic and sniper.  In 2006 Elliott was wounded in Iraq by a grenade.  While he was being evacuated the vehicle he was in was blasted by an explosive device, further injuring him.  The extent of his injuries were almost unfathomable: burns over 60% of his body, brain injury, massive loss of blood and severe fractures.  The next time he woke up he was in Texas.  Over the following two years Elliott went through 60 surgeries. 

Here is the part I wanted to share.  Elliott is STILL a Navy SEAL.  He helps manage a gym used to train Navy Seals.  He trains most days harder than I do in a week (likely a month).  He came back from injuries that would likely cause most of us to curl up in a little ball and check out.  His story is just inspiring.  Elliott was featured in Ethos, a Navy magazine.  You can download the issue here as a PDF.  The picture on the front page is of Elliott.  His story starts on page 20, “Journey of Wounded Warrior”, written by Mandy McCammon.  If you have time, please read it.

I’ve not spoken to Elliott since that day long ago when I last saw him at Boy Scout camp.  I sent him a birthday email a while back thanking him for all that he has given.  I felt that no words could ever come close to actually meaning much compared to what he went through.  How do you say, “Thank you” to someone who has gone through that?  How do you use the same two words you use when someone passes you the salt and have it mean more?

Elliott is where he is today because of who he is and the sheer human will to survive and move forward.  Whether you agree with the mission in Iraq or not, stories like Elliott’s (and there are many) show us that there are people who will give anything for our country.  These people are heroes in my book.

NOTE: Elliott is actually mentioned twice in that issue.  In the article on Michael Kobold reaching the top of Mount Everest to raise money for wounded warriors Elliott is mentioned as the inspiration for Kobolds’ ascent.