Veteran speaks to Sisters youth

"How many people want to do something bigger than yourself?" Brett Miller asked an assemblage of Sisters Middle School (SMS) students last week. Hands shot up across the SMS cafetorium.

"There's a lot of volunteers in here," Miller said.

Miller, a wounded U.S. Army veteran and founder of the Sisters-based nonprofit Warfighter Outfitters made a strong connection with the young students as the featured speaker at the school's Veterans Day observances on Thursday, November 9.

Miller described his injuries from an IED blast that put him in the hospital for three years.

"It's a long time to sit in a hospital and think, 'What am I going to do?'" he recalled.

He described getting a bike and riding it around the hospital with doctors chasing him, which drew a big laugh from the students. He described being angry when he got to ride outside and was passed by a little girl.

"I was very angry because my life wasn't going the way I planned it," he said.

But, he said, he decided to use his anger positively, to motivate him to recover.

"I used it," he said. "I wanted to get better. I wanted to do things."

One of those things was to participate with a record-setting team of disabled veterans in the bicycle race Ride Across America. He described falling asleep on the bike in the middle of the endurance race and crashing into the bushes.

It was that kind of storytelling that connected Miller with his audience, who asked a lot of questions about the cycle race.

Miller gently drove home a message, saying that he learned that the best way to help himself was to help others. In that way, the sense of mission, of doing something bigger than yourself, lasts well beyond service in the military - and applies in any walk of life.

The observances also featured the local veterans color guard presentation of the winner of the local Patriot's Pen essay contest, Ashlynn Moffat.

The Sisters Middle School Concert Band, directed by Tyler Cranor, provided a stirring musical interlude, and Max Springer put a coda on the observances by playing "Taps."

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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