Posted: 4/2/03

Teresa Miller doing her part in U.S. war effort against Iraq

Cliff Buchan
News Editor

Ever since she was a young kid and a student at Forest Lake High School, Teresa Miller has always wanted to do her part as a team player.

It was that way in school and the Girl Scouts where she was active for many years and itís that way today as a sergeant in an Army Reserve unit now serving in Kuwait, said Millerís mother, Nancy Bromen of Forest Lake.

Staff Sgt. Teresa Miller, 24, is with the 353rd Army Reserve Transportation Company from Buffalo, MN, that was called to active duty on Feb. 10 and sent to Kuwait on Feb. 28, Bromen said.

ìThey had been on alert for almost five months,î Bromen said of her daughterís Army Reserve unit.

Moving diesel fuel

As a staff sergeant with a transportation company, Miller is a truck driver who is moving fuel inland from fuel depots and ports in Kuwait for the U.S. Army fighting machine now in Iraq and advancing on Baghdad.

She is part of a huge American logistic support network in support of soldiers in the field of action, Bromen says.

Military service is something Miller has always wanted to do, her mother said. After graduating from high school here in 1996, Miller enrolled at St. Maryís University in Winona.

She earned a degree in accounting there and five years ago joined an Army Reserve unit across the river from Winona in Wisconsin.

Miller transferred to the Buffalo unit a little over a year ago and was working in the Twin Cities as an accountant prior to getting the call up. The active duty could last for one to two years.

Bromen heard from her daughter on March 22 when a letter arrived containing several photos of Miller on the job and in her cramped barracks where cots for the men and women troops are two feet apart.

A welcome phone call from Kuwait came Saturday night. ìIt was such a relief to hear from her,î Bromen said.

Good support here

Bromen understands the danger that her daughter is in, but believes the training and support systems for the troops will stand out.

ìI am very worried, but Iíve found a lot of support from my friends and at my church (St. Peterís),î Bromen said.

As Bromen awaits more news from her daughter, she takes stock that Teresa is doing something she has long wanted to do.

ìSheís trained to do what the commander in chief wants her to do,î Bromen said. ìShe was extremely focused.î

During her call home Saturday, Miller had a brief message for her friends here. ìWe ride on the support from back home every day,î Miller told her mother.

Friends may write to: Staff Sgt. Miller Teresa M., 353rd Transportation Co., 1st Platoon, APO AE 09366.

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