Justice—Military Style

Here is the JAG Office of the USAF at Los Angeles. The location where Miller is assigned varies. After law school at Fordham University, Miller was assigned to Barksdale Air Force Base, home of the "Mighty Eighth" Air Force of World War II fame and the Second Bomb Wing.  From there he was relocated to Los Angeles AFB, where a large contingent of military and civilian personnel are responsible for the Air Force's space and missile development. In between came a deployment to Saudi Arabia, where Miller rang in the year 2002.

When Miller applied for admission to Moravian, he had no plans to practice law or to join the military. "Honestly, I had gone to college more for a social experience than an educational one, and that was apparent in my grades the first two years," Miller admitted. Those first two years weren't totally without direction. Miller enrolled in what was the last graduating class of Lehigh University's Air Force ROTC.

Miller's introduction to ROTC was "really random." "My brother David was a senior at Lafayette," Miller explained. "It was easier for both us to drive from New York to the Lehigh Valley together."

Miller stayed with his brother until Moravian's move-in day and used any excuse to get out of the cramped apartment. He even tagged along to his brother's ROTC exercises at Lehigh. "I guess they assumed I wanted to be a cadet," Miller said. He was invited to go along on all of the incentive trips.  "I remember rappelling and watching A-10's do practice bombing runs," he said. "By the time I was allowed to move into my room at Moravian, I was hooked."

Miller learned that after his graduation from Moravian he would serve the Air Force as a missile officer. "Those are the guys manning our missile sites up in the remote areas of the country, like Wyoming and Nebraska," he said. "My brother was already on active duty as a missile officer, and he knew I wouldn't like sitting 50 feet underground in the middle of nowhere."  Miller opted for the Air Force's educational delay program that allows students to postpone their commissioning to pursue a professional degree. Unfortunately, by the time he made that decision, it was too late to become a doctor or an engineer.

At that time, Miller's sister Jeannine was in her first year of law school at the University of Virginia. Miller found himself interested in what she was learning. "I took the LSAT," he said. Following the advice of history professor Janet Loengard, Miller entered the law school of Fordham University. "Dr. Loengard knew that I would likely want to practice in New York," Miller said, adding that his three-year program at Fordham was a "significantly positive" experience.

After passing the New York and New Jersey bar exams, Miller ended up in Shreveport, Louisiana, as a JAG officer. "At first it seemed cruel and unusual that the Air Force would take a single New Yorker in his mid-twenties, who had just spent roughly four years living in New York City, and send him to Shreveport," Miller remarked. "But at some point I stopped and realized that Service before Self meant putting the Air Force's needs before my own."

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USAF Photos: SSgt. Denise Rayder