LV sailor completes tour as Navy Seabee

Dick Benoit

Thursday, Jan. 15, 2004 | 9:07 a.m.

Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Brad Miller, the son of William Miller of Las Vegas, was recently commended following completion of a tour of duty as a Navy Seabee with Construction Battalion Unit 417 home based at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, Wash. Miller's tour included a deployment with the unit to Naval Station Rota, Spain, during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

"I'm a builder that performs many tasks," Miller said. "I'm able to work with masonry, carpentry, concrete and all finish work. As a crew leader with the Seabees I am also responsible for planning, estimating and supervising all of the work, materials, tools and equipment for the job."

Although CBU 417 is constantly working to maintain facilities at NAS Whidbey, the unit also maintains a ready state for future deployments and works closely with another Seabee unit assigned to a Navy submarine base at Bangor, Wash. During contingencies the two units combine to form a Fleet Hospital Public Works Support Unit.

Miller says he has enjoyed his tour with CBU 417 and takes pleasure in doing his job. "We were responsible for supporting and maintaining a fleet hospital. We saw a lot of wounded service members and it was good to know that we were contributing to their recovery," the eight-year Navy veteran said.

Miller is part of a Navy 60-year tradition of providing construction skills as part of the national defense. During times of war Seabees have built and also fought for freedom fulfilling their motto, "We build, we fight." During peacetime they often act as goodwill ambassadors for America providing humanitarian aid around the world.

Operation Hero Miles

Alice Rodgers, a single mother, paid more than $1,000 for round-trip tickets from Tipton, Iowa, so she and her daughter, Lindsey, could visit her son. He is recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center here from wounds he suffered in an ambush in Iraq. However, when Rodgers returns for her next visit, the trip will be far less expensive -- it will cost her nothing.

During a press briefing at the hospital Dec. 30, Maryland Rep. C.A. "Dutch" Ruppersberger handed 680 free airline tickets to David Coker, executive director and vice president of operations at the Fisher House Foundation. The foundation is a nonprofit organization that provides temporary living quarters to military families visiting loved ones at military hospitals.

The congressman said the free airline tickets are part of a new expansion of Operation Hero Miles, a program providing airline tickets to servicemembers on emergency or rest and recuperation leave and now to family members traveling to visit loved ones injured during operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom and recovering at military hospitals.

The tickets were compliments of Anheuser-Busch, whose employees donated their frequent-flier miles to the cause. So far more than 365 million frequent-flyer miles have been donated to Operation Hero Miles, enough for some 14,800 free round-trip tickets for troops, Ruppersberger said.

In brief