thedrifter
05-09-03, 06:18 AM
PORTRAITS OF WAR: Convoy awaits smiles or shots
May 7, 2003
NAME: Rusty Miller
RANK: Marine master gunnery sergeant
AGE: 43
HOMETOWN: Ida, Mich.
JOB: Runs the Combat Operations Center for the 6th Engineer Support Battalion.
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BY JEFF SEIDEL
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
NUMANIYAH, Iraq -- Master Gunnery Sergeant Rusty Miller sits in a Humvee, riding through a small town in central Iraq, wearing a flak jacket and a Kevlar helmet. He has no idea what's going to happen. Will the Iraqis shoot weapons or smiles?
The war has entered a strange stage: Most of the fighting is done, but it's still dangerous.
The six-vehicle convoy is heavily protected by a security force armed with machine guns. It moves quickly through the outskirts of Numaniyah, a town on the banks of the Tigris River. The convoy comes to a stop, along the banks of the Tigris.
After getting out of the vehicles, the Marines are swarmed by about 75 Iraqis, all males, including many children.
Miller picks up a child and poses for a picture.
"It's like when you go to a carnival and you see something special, like the lion tamer," he says. "That's what it felt like."
Most of the children don't speak English, but they are able to communicate. Miller shows a group of children a trick with his fingers, tapping them up and down, making one seem to disappear, and they laugh.
"They wanted money," Miller says. "They don't know what money is. I had candy. And I wanted to give them candy, but there were so many of them, that if you would have given them some, they would have been all over you, so you couldn't do that."
Miller was raised on a farm in Ida, Mich. He joined the Marine Corps the day after Thanksgiving in 1977.
"I joined because my friend did," he says. "I didn't want to work on a farm or in a factory. Everybody wanted to go to Chevy or Chrysler. I didn't want to work in a factory the rest of my life. It's good money, but they were all dirty or nasty when you first got in, until you got your seniority and stuff. I just couldn't see myself doing that."
His career, which has taken him from Okinawa, Japan, to Cuba, is winding down. He was supposed to go on leave March 28 and retire June 30. "I kind of had my choice, but if I would have wanted out, I would have needed real good justification," Miller says.
"I'm the only one in my job within the battalion with no replacement. So I said I would stay."
Sempers,
Roger
May 7, 2003
NAME: Rusty Miller
RANK: Marine master gunnery sergeant
AGE: 43
HOMETOWN: Ida, Mich.
JOB: Runs the Combat Operations Center for the 6th Engineer Support Battalion.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BY JEFF SEIDEL
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
NUMANIYAH, Iraq -- Master Gunnery Sergeant Rusty Miller sits in a Humvee, riding through a small town in central Iraq, wearing a flak jacket and a Kevlar helmet. He has no idea what's going to happen. Will the Iraqis shoot weapons or smiles?
The war has entered a strange stage: Most of the fighting is done, but it's still dangerous.
The six-vehicle convoy is heavily protected by a security force armed with machine guns. It moves quickly through the outskirts of Numaniyah, a town on the banks of the Tigris River. The convoy comes to a stop, along the banks of the Tigris.
After getting out of the vehicles, the Marines are swarmed by about 75 Iraqis, all males, including many children.
Miller picks up a child and poses for a picture.
"It's like when you go to a carnival and you see something special, like the lion tamer," he says. "That's what it felt like."
Most of the children don't speak English, but they are able to communicate. Miller shows a group of children a trick with his fingers, tapping them up and down, making one seem to disappear, and they laugh.
"They wanted money," Miller says. "They don't know what money is. I had candy. And I wanted to give them candy, but there were so many of them, that if you would have given them some, they would have been all over you, so you couldn't do that."
Miller was raised on a farm in Ida, Mich. He joined the Marine Corps the day after Thanksgiving in 1977.
"I joined because my friend did," he says. "I didn't want to work on a farm or in a factory. Everybody wanted to go to Chevy or Chrysler. I didn't want to work in a factory the rest of my life. It's good money, but they were all dirty or nasty when you first got in, until you got your seniority and stuff. I just couldn't see myself doing that."
His career, which has taken him from Okinawa, Japan, to Cuba, is winding down. He was supposed to go on leave March 28 and retire June 30. "I kind of had my choice, but if I would have wanted out, I would have needed real good justification," Miller says.
"I'm the only one in my job within the battalion with no replacement. So I said I would stay."
Sempers,
Roger