Students honor veterans at Veterans Day program
During the celebration of Veterans Day at Giltner Public Schools, students and staff honored four veterans who were each presented a Quilt of Valor Monday afternoon.
The quilts of valor ceremony was presented by the Nimble Thimble Quilt Guild, the Grand Island Quilt of Valor group and the Hamilton Community Foundation. The quilts were made by Mary Jane Robertshaw.
The veterans who were honored at the ceremony were brothers Allen, Brain and Kevin Miller, and Kenneth Paul Colburn.
Allen Miller
Allen was drafted into the army in May, 1970, later going on duty on Aug. 18 that year.
He received basic and Advanced Individual Training (AIT), at Fort Lewis, Wash. Graduating from AIT in January 1971.
After graduating, Allen received orders to go to Vietnam and arrived to Oakland Army Depot in February.
While not feeling great after an E-7 officer told him he was lucky, it was proven true as he was then sent to Hawaii where he later was reenlisted.
Allen instead went into Air Defense, where he served in several locations. He went to Fort Bliss for training followed by working at a missile site in Malibu, Calif.,
Allen later went on a tour of recruiting in Illinois for three years. Afterwards, he went back to an Air Defense unit in Germany for three years.
He went back to the U.S. to serve at Fort Carson for three years followed by another two years in Germany.
Allen returned to Fort Bliss to work as an instructor until he retired as a First Sergeant E-8 of the instructor battalion.
Brian Miller
Brian Miller’s military career began when his brother Allen recruited and placed him in the Army’s Delayed Entry Program in November of 1974.
In August 1975, Brian started his basic training and AIT at Fort Jackson, S.C. to become a clerk typist.
His first permanent duty station was with the 9th Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash., at the recommendation of his brother, starting his service there in November 1975.
Having been reported to go to Germany by January 1977, Brian requested to be placed at the 21st Replacement Depot in Frankfurt saying he wanted to be assigned to the Herzo Base near Nuremberg.
Despite his brother being at Herzo, Brian was sent to Heidelberg, where he was assigned to work with the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence Directorate at the Headquarters United States Army Europe.
Brian returned to the United States in June 1978, where he was placed in the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colo., where he worked as a clerk in the G-2 Directorate. It was around this time that both he and Allen served on the same base for a short period of time.
In January 1981, he was assigned to the Special Security Office at Camp Zama, Japan. Two years later in May, he had orders to go to Fort Leavenworth, Kan. While tenure, he was stationed with his younger brother Kevin.
Five years later he was assigned to the U.S. Army Special Security Group in the District of Columbia where he had been detailed to the Defense Intelligence Agency as a security course instructor before he was ordered to return to Germany two years later.
In October 1989, he was assigned to the Special Security Office as a non-commissioned officer in charge in the J-2 Directorate Headquarters U.S. European Command.
Nearly two years later, he returned to the United States and was assigned to the 902nd Military Intelligence Group and later on returned to work as a security course instructor until he retired as a Master Sergeant in September 1995. During this year, he attended and graduated from the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy.
Brian has been happily married for 35 years to his wife, Shirley who had served in the Army for over 20 years. He also shared that two of his son-in-laws have been serving for over 20 years each.