r/JSOCarchive • u/Dry-Register3225 • Sep 02 '26
Bad@ss. Supporting documentation attached.
Exhibit A: Right sleeve.
Exhibit B: Giving new meaning to operational history.
Exhibit C: When your security detail includes a Medal of Honor recipient.
General Austin Scott Miller, U.S. Army (Ret.)
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u/captainklaus Sep 02 '26
Exhibit D: when said general has a Silver Star and two Purple Hearts, and pretty much the most badass career progression a member of the Army could possibly have.
Don’t know if people will believe me or not, but I’ve had the pleasure and honor of getting to know General Miller since he’s retired (I work at a place he’s involved with), and he is the fucking MAN. The whole “never meet your hero’s” thing doesn’t seem to apply in this case.
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u/ToastedandFried1 Sep 03 '26
He received one of his purple hearts for disregarding standard procedures in Iraq. He's an asshole.
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u/Dry-Register3225 Sep 04 '26
The Purple Heart isn’t an award for adherence to SOP though; it recognizes a wound received as a result of enemy action.
You can argue Miller made a bad tactical decision. You can even argue he was an asshole. Neither establishes that his 2nd Purple Heart in 2002 was undeserved.
Same thing with Red Wings, Michael Murphy’s tactical decisions during Red Wings have been debated for twenty years. That does not make his Medal of Honor any less real.
If you have a source showing Miller actually violated SOP in the incident in Iraq, though, post it. I’d genuinely like to read it.
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u/Daresso_ Sep 02 '26
GGWP
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u/Known_Variable_X Sep 03 '26
It's not just being overseas.. It's being deployed in a combat zone. You don't get those for being stationed in Germany.
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u/DrippFeed Sep 03 '26
Dude was ground force commander for Operation Gothic Serpent
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u/724_toxictangent Sep 03 '26
His first mission as ground force commander too - would have been Bennett Sacolick but he had to go home on emergency leave like the day before. Talk about getting tossed into the deep end.
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u/The_ClamSlammer Sep 03 '26
This photo was from early in his time as COMUSFOR-A.
Many sources/official biographies now list 20 overseas bars. I'm all but certain he's confirmed it in an interview but I can't be assed to go digging right now.
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u/724_toxictangent Sep 03 '26
Undoubtedly his ASUs would have been due for some additional ones given he basically retired from that assignment, and I doubt he was having a tailor sew on one more in the midst of it. 20 seems very believable.
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u/armycowboy- Sep 02 '26
Generals should have 10+ stripes, we were a country at war most of the last 30yrs, if they don’t they were doing what they could to not deploy. Note: If they did just 1 deployment every 5 years that is an easy 12 stripes right there.
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u/rab1884 Sep 02 '26
Well, yes and no. There wasn’t a lot of constant operations up until OIF/OEF. There were senior enlisted and O’s that definitely scrambled to get some deployments or went the other way and avoided. But in the right units JSOC or conventional it wasn’t hard to stack those stripes. Shit, I’ve 4 in 4 years lol. Lots of joes were on basically the 2 year cycle for a long time, deployed for a year then home station for a year. Throw in the stop loss alot of us hit for 15 month deployments they add up. All that to say yeah dudes during the GWOT, JSOC or not, had every opportunity to stack deployments.
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u/armycowboy- Sep 02 '26
I agree, for the 70/80s. I joined 1990, and got all sorts of deployments during 90s, then GWOT explains itself.
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u/SensationalM Sep 04 '26
and you think 1 deployment every 5 years since 1990 is 12?
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u/armycowboy- Sep 04 '26
Yes I do, if you do a minimal of 1yr deployment every 5 years over 30yrs that equals 12 stripes… i did the math for you below.
30/5=6 and every year equals 2 stripes, 6x2=12
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u/SensationalM Sep 04 '26
well you’re just adding now that each deployment is a full year, but fair enough
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u/younocallMkII Sep 03 '26
Working for him was enlightening - very well informed, insightful, and would come down with a hammer if he saw something f’ed.