Master Sergeant Shawn Miller, U.S. Air Force (Retired) – Serving in the Iraq War and Across the Globe

When we make choices in life, we have no way of knowing how they will play out. A door that opens to paths in one direction may foreclose others and lead us to places we could not possibly have foreseen. When Master Sergeant Shawn Miller joined the Air Force, he had never even flown in an airplane before. Twenty-three years later, he’d served in far-off places around the world doing everything from refueling aircraft in the Honduran jungle to collecting intelligence in war-torn Iraq. Few can match the breadth and variety of his experience, which included investigating murder cases and augmenting presidential security teams. All this stemmed from his single decision to join the Air Force in 1991.

Shawn was born in 1973 and raised in Pontiac, Michigan. He attended Pontiac Northern High School but did not like school. Feeling added pressure from a chaotic family situation, he set his sights on graduating as soon as possible and getting out of Pontiac. He did two things to make that happen. First, he took extra classes to enable him to graduate early. Second, in November 1990, he decided the military would be his ticket out, so he visited a recruiting station.

With Operation Desert Shield underway since August 1990 and U.S. forces pouring into the Middle East in preparation for evicting Iraq’s invading army from Kuwait, military recruiters were eager to snag new recruits. However, when Shawn visited the recruiting station, only the Air Force recruiter was in the office. Shawn didn’t wait for the others to return. With his father’s written permission because he was only seventeen, Shawn enlisted in the Air Force for four years.

Once Shawn signed the enlistment papers, life began to move at lightning speed. He graduated from high school in January 1991 and reported for active duty at the Detroit Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS) on February 5. After passing his final physical and taking the oath of enlistment, Shawn and other Air Force recruits like him flew to San Antonio, Texas, for basic training at Lackland Air Force Base (AFB). They arrived at night after a rough flight from Detroit. As they waited for instructions on what was to come next, they heard the clicking steps of someone with metal taps on their shoes approaching in the dark. By the time the hulking drill instructor finally arrived, Shawn and the other recruits were already intimidated. The drill instructor screamed at the group for the next thirty minutes, making sure they fully understood what they were in for.

Still just seventeen, Shawn felt unprepared for the coming ordeal. Shawn’s recruiter had told him nothing about what to expect at basic training or how to prepare, likely because ongoing Desert Storm operations had distracted him. Shawn also found himself on the bottom rung of every ladder because he was the youngest person in his training flight. That soon translated into him being assigned to do the laundry of his fellow recruits. Every few days, he had to collect mesh laundry bags from every recruit in his training flight. Each bag had a recruit’s name on it and was filled with underwear, t-shirts, and socks. Shawn took the bags to the laundry and threw them into the washers and driers, returning them to their owners at the end of the day. He was, at least, able to socialize at the laundry with the other recruits stuck with the same duty, which made the drudgery pass a little more quickly.

Although Shawn became an expert at doing everyone else’s laundry, he could not master folding his own t-shirts into the required twelve-inch by twelve-inch squares. He could, however, polish boots to perfection. Accordingly, he soon learned to swap shirt folding duties with other recruits in return for polishing their boots. With this arrangement in place, he sailed through to graduation on April 1, 1991.

Now officially an airman basic (E-1), Shawn reported to Fuels Journeyman Technical School at Chanute AFB in east central Illinois. There he learned the basics of fuels management, including fuel handling, delivery, storage, quality control, and safety. He trained with aviation fuels, as well as the liquid oxygen used by flight crews and the liquid nitrogen required by various aircraft systems. He learned how to deliver fuel to aircraft, vehicles, and generators, covering everything except in-flight refueling. He also practiced basic maintenance on fuel-related equipment, so he could keep fuel operations up and running.

As one of the youngest members of his technical school class, Shawn again found himself at the bottom of the food chain. Not wanting to stay in that position forever, he applied for and was selected to attend “rope school,” where he learned about becoming an effective leader. Upon completion, he wore a red braided cord loop around the left shoulder of his uniform, signifying he had assumed additional leadership duties and responsibilities for the remainder of his time at the school. His leadership initiative would define him for the rest of his career.

Shawn graduated from Fuels Journeyman Technical School in late May 1991. Afterwards, he reported to his first operational command, the 375th Supply Squadron, at Scott AFB just east of St. Louis. The squadron put him to work delivering aviation fuel to the base’s C-9 medevac jets, C-21VIP Learjets, and C-12 turboprop passenger aircraft. Once he acquired the on-the-job fueling experience he needed, his responsibilities shifted to fuel storage. In addition to handling aviation-specific requirements like jet fuel and liquid oxygen and nitrogen, he also managed fuels for the base’s official government vehicle gas station. He enjoyed the work and did well, promoting to airman (E-2) in late 1991.

In July 1992, an opportunity arose Shawn could not pass up. Joint Task Force-Bravo (JTF-B), which conducted counterdrug and other missions from Soto Cano Air Base in central Honduras, needed someone with Shawn’s qualifications, and he raised his hand. He reported to JTF-B in July and, together with one other fuels management specialist, assumed responsibility for fueling all U.S. aircraft operating from the base. As missions took place around the clock, he was on call to refuel aircraft twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. His duties took him all over Honduras, delivering fuel by truck to wherever it was needed. He spent most of his limited free time on base because of ongoing civil unrest, but he did manage to visit the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa. He also promoted to airman first class (E-3) during his time at JTF-B.

Shawn returned to the 375th Supply Squadron at Scott AFB in November 1992. He resumed his fuels storage duties until another temporary duty opportunity arose in August 1993. This time it involved refueling operations for U.S. aircraft making stops at an air base in Egypt as part of an operation known as Coronet Aspen. Shawn was one of two fuels management specialists, together with a contingent of approximately 120 other personnel, who helped process, repair, and ship military equipment after the end of the Gulf War. Although aircraft arrived at the base infrequently, Shawn had plenty to do helping prepare the military equipment for transport. As with JTF-B, he was always on call and incredibly busy, but he loved the people he worked with and the esprit de corps. He was also selected as Airman of the Month in December 1993 and promoted to senior airman (E-4), helping make the Coronet Aspen assignment in Egypt one of the best of his career.

In January 1994, Shawn again returned to the 375th Supply Squadron. However, given his previous experience at the squadron and the knowledge he gained during his temporary assignments, he shifted jobs to learn the accounting side of fuels management. This included documenting fuel orders and deliveries, processing fuel billing, and determining daily fuel gains and losses. The assignment made clear squadron leadership had confidence in his abilities and saw him as a career candidate for the Air Force’s fuel management program. During this time, Shawn also met and married his first wife. She brought a daughter from a previous relationship into the marriage, and they had a daughter of their own in 1994.

In December 1995, yet another temporary duty opportunity arose, this time in Kosovo. En route to the assignment, Shawn stopped at Rhein-Main Air Base near Frankfurt, Germany. When base personnel learned Shawn had experience in fuels accounting, they made the necessary arrangements to retain him at Rhein-Main where his expertise would help account for fuel consumption in the NATO-led Kosovo peacekeeping effort. He remained at Rhein-Main supporting Kosovo operations until March 1996, when he again returned to his permanent command at Scott AFB.

Shawn detached from the 375th Supply Squadron in August 1996 and reported to the 36th Supply Squadron at Andersen AFB on Guam. The fuels operations at Andersen were much larger than those at Scott, so Shawn had a broader range of responsibilities. However, his principal duties still involved fuels accounting. He did this until April 1999, when he was again given temporary additional duty orders, this time to Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. There he provided fuels management support to Operation Southern Watch, which involved U.S. and coalition aircraft enforcing a no-fly zone over southern Iraq. Although his work at the air base, colloquially known as “Al’s Garage,” was challenging and he promoted to staff sergeant (E-5) while there, he was happy when his four-month rotation came to an end in August, and he returned to his family and command in Guam.

Shawn’s career took a dramatic turn in a new direction once he was back in Guam. While in Saudi Arabia, he had spoken to a special agent working for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI), which was responsible for investigating criminal allegations involving Air Force personnel and conducting counterintelligence operations. This sounded more interesting than a career in fuels management, so Shawn applied to become a special agent. He was accepted after undergoing a battery of tests, background checks, and personal interviews. Before he could begin his new duties, however, he had to complete federal law enforcement training at Andrews AFB just outside of Washington, D.C. Accordingly, he detached from the 36th Supply Squadron on September 9, 2001, and arrived with his family—which now included a son born in 1999—back in Illinois on September 10. The next day, terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, forever changing the lives of all U.S. citizens and the job responsibilities Shawn was about to assume.

Unable to fly to Washington immediately after the attack, Shawn drove to Andrews AFB to begin his special agent training, as did the majority of the other fifty people in his class. The training was the toughest he encountered during his Air Force career, both mentally and physically. He also had to learn many new skills, including becoming proficient with a pistol—something he had never fired before. He completed the training in December 2001, earning the title of special agent, although he also retained his staff sergeant rank.

With the law enforcement training under his belt, Shawn drove to Illinois to pick up his family. From there, they traveled to McConnell AFB in Wichita, Kansas, where Shawn was assigned as the criminal division chief for AFOSI Detachment 321 beginning in January 2002. He gained significant experience during this assignment, conducting some of the largest drug busts in base history and working on felony cases involving allegations that included murder, kidnapping, sexual assault, and child pornography. His investigations proved so thorough that most often the alleged perpetrators pled guilty at trial, while those who did not were convicted. Shawn worked for Detachment 321 until January 2003, when he transferred back to Scott AFB in Illinois to be closer to his wife’s family.

At Scott, Shawn was assigned to AFOSI Detachment 301. However, instead of investigating criminal cases as he had at McConnell, he did counterintelligence work. This AFOSI responsibility had received additional emphasis and resources since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as part of an effort to keep Air Force assets safe from would-be attackers anywhere in the world. Accordingly, Shawn’s primary responsibility was to collect intelligence from around the base and other available sources and make threat assessments so the base and local authorities could take any necessary protective actions. When the Iraq War started in March 2003, his job became even more critical.

A few months into the war, Shawn received orders to do his part in Iraq. He reported to the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA)-North in Erbil. The CPA governed Iraq after coalition forces defeated the Iraqi military and remained in place until an interim Iraqi government took over in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. To govern more effectively at the local level, the CPA established four regions, with CPA-North having responsibility for the primarily Kurdish region in northern Iraq.

Beginning in September 2003, Shawn worked as one of seven special agents collecting intelligence from across the region. They did this by driving to the region’s cities, towns, and villages and meeting with people who could provide them with relevant information. They then wrote reports describing what they had learned and provided the reports to military planners so their findings could be used to minimize the risk to coalition forces conducting missions in the area. They also met with military and other officials to brief them on and have them acknowledge potential threats to ensure the leaders made appropriate arrangements to protect themselves as they executed their responsibilities.

During the six months Shawn served in Iraq, he drove over 15,000 miles, covering not only Erbil, but also hotspots like Tikrit, Kirkuk, and Mosul. Instead of driving military vehicles, he and his team used rental cars and Chevy Suburbans, although one of the Suburbans was armored to provide at least some protection from any Improvised Explosive Devises (IEDs) hidden along the roads and from small arms fire from Iraqi insurgents. More than once, Shawn and his group came under fire, and on one occasion an armored vehicle was disabled by a bullet that severed its fuel line. Because they were repeatedly exposed to enemy fire, Shawn and the other members of his team received the combat action ribbon at the end of their tours. As Shawn left Iraq, he felt confident he had made a difference there by helping protect U.S. and coalition lives.

Shawn returned to Scott AFB in February 2004 and reported to AFOSI Region 3. This command—one echelon above the two AFOSI detachments he had previously worked with—was responsible for providing counterintelligence support to the Air Mobility Command (AMC) headquarters located on Scott AFB and its vast array of squadrons and transport aircraft operating around the world. As Shawn was one of the first special agents to bring warfighter experience to Region 3, he was able to help drive its efforts to provide more robust counterintelligence support to the commands he advised. As a result, he promoted to staff sergeant (E-6) while at Region 3. Unfortunately, while Shawn’s military career thrived, his marriage did not, and he divorced in July 2004.

In October 2005, Shawn transferred to AFOSI Detachment 623 on Misawa Air Base near the northern tip of Japan’s Honshu Island. He spent three years there as the Criminal Division chief, investigating criminal allegations against U.S. military members, their dependents, and other U.S. personnel assigned to the base. He worked alongside his Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) and Japanese counterparts, investigating two major crimes against children and numerous drug-related offenses.

After his tour in Misawa, Shawn transferred to AFOSI Detachment 614 at Yongsan Air Base in Seoul, South Korea. He was one of three special agents liaising directly with Korean law enforcement officials in furtherance of counterterrorism, counterintelligence, anti-fraud, and force protection efforts. When U.S. government VIPs needed protection, Shawn served on their protection details. In fact, given his close relationship with South Korean law enforcement officials, he augmented the teams planning and providing protection for President Barrack Obama during two of his visits to South Korea. He also met a Korean woman, Eun-Kyung, and they married in 2010, making Shawn’s time in Korea particularly special. To top it off, Shawn promoted to master sergeant (E-7) while there.

Shawn and Eun transferred back to AFOSI Region 3 at Scott AFB in 2011, where Shawn became the counterintelligence lead. In this capacity, he served as the supervisor for all the AFOSI detachments covering the AMC and provided detailed counterintelligence reports to its senior leadership. Two years after his and Eun’s daughter was born in 2012, Shawn retired from the Air Force effective April 1, 2014.

Once a civilian, Shawn moved with his family to nearby Springfield, Illinois, where he worked for one year with the Illinois Office of the Executive Inspector General. He then transitioned to managing Walgreens stores for four years before finally becoming an independent insurance broker. Outside of work, he serves veterans as the commander for American Veterans (AMVETS) Post 94, a trustee for Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 11463, and a member of the American Legion. In January 2024, he began serving as chairman of the independent board overseeing the Veterans Assistance Commission of Sangamon County. The commission is the unit of county government responsible for assisting veterans and their families as mandated by the Illinois Military Veterans Assistance Act. Shawn’s job as a board member is to require the commission and the county to fulfill the statutory mandate.

Voices to Veterans is proud to salute Master Sergeant Shawn Miller, U.S. Air Force (Retired), for his twenty-three years of distinguished service to our country. Whether assuming extreme personal risk during the Iraq War to ensure other U.S. and coalition servicemembers remained safe, or seeking justice for victims of the most serious felony crimes, Shawn dedicated his life to serving others. Even after his military career, he continues to serve veterans in his community by helping them get the benefits and assistance they need. We thank him for all he has done and wish him fair winds and following seas.

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