Wes Miller served 5.25 years on active duty in the U.S. Army — with a combat deployment to Northern Iraq — followed by time in the Reserves. This is where his discipline, his leadership, and his zero-excuse work ethic were forged.
Wes enlisted in February 2007 and was sworn in the following March, though he'd actually enrolled before the graduation date and couldn't ship out until after. He tested well on the ASVAB and GT score and picked the most technical-sounding job they had: 14J — Air Defense C4I (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence). It was also, as he'll tell you with a grin, the only recruitment video that didn't show foot patrols like they were a glorious thing to do.
He sprained his knee playing basketball at Wyndotte the week before basic training — failed the duck walk during the Underwear Olympics — and the recruiters took him to a clinic on Broadway and got him sorted out. They were great.
Wes did basic at Fort Sill, Oklahoma — June through August, which meant extreme heat and bad weather. It was mostly college kids. Of the roughly 600 soldiers in his cohort, not a single one had his MOS. He did it, and he did it well.
Advanced Individual Training for the 14J MOS ran 10 months at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. Wes graduated as an Honor Graduate — a certification he still has. He also earned the Army Achievement Medal (AAM) for Drill & Ceremony during this period. Fort Bliss is where he started taking every college course he could find, a habit he'd carry into his deployment.
Wes was stationed at Fort Hood for the majority of his active duty career. He joined the Short Range Air Defense Sentinel Radar Team, and his unit received a CRAM (Counter Rocket, Artillery, and Mortar) mission with orders to Iraq. They trained for about a year before deploying. He attended Air Assault School — a 4-spot, 60-person course — and later served as Squad Leader over 9–10 soldiers, and as part of the Sentinel Platoon.
He attended NCO Academy and barely missed Honor Graduate. He was also selected for the US Border Patrol Mission in Arizona — and was the only non-Platoon Leader or Platoon Sergeant to earn an ARCOM for that mission. He went to JRTC with the Fourth Cavalry and set up an ADAM shelter. He served regularly in the Honor Guard (Rifle) and as Flag Bearer, including at a Fort Hood Change of Command.
Wes deployed to Northern Iraq — primarily in the Kirkuk area — as part of a small CRAM (Counter Rocket, Artillery, and Mortar) team. Four sites, approximately 60 people total. They were all over — small teams operating across the region. It was not a cushy deployment. He was in the stick-and-mud huts, and it was genuinely dangerous. He earned an Army Commendation Medal for his service in Iraq.
During the deployment, Wes went hard on college coursework — taking every class he could access. When he came back stateside, he was immediately promoted: he got his stripes. The deployment changed him. He came back sharper, hungrier, and more focused.
After his border patrol mission, Wes transitioned out. His best job offer was a government contractor position — doing similar CRAM work through Northrop Grumman, spending four months certifying on all systems in Huntsville, Alabama. He went to Afghanistan with that position, but it lasted only four months; civilian contractors don't carry weapons, and the conditions were genuinely dangerous.
He came back and joined the Army Reserves — an all-cadre (E-5 and above) unit that assisted the Army Cadet Command during summer influx from college programs. They also conducted air assault coursework. He completed three total certifications with Northrop Grumman (CRAM x2, ADAM Cell x1). He separated from the Reserves as an E-5 — there was no available E-6 position to return to at the time.
Wes talks about the Army the way some people talk about a great coach or mentor. He loved it — genuinely. He'll tell you the leaders he had were the best he's ever encountered, and there were too many to name. What they valued was education, structure, and a clear path to growth. Those are the things that stuck.
The discipline of showing up every day, the accountability of being responsible for the people under you, the mission-focus of doing what it takes no matter the conditions — those aren't just military traits. They're the traits of a world-class contractor. Wes didn't just bring those traits with him when he left the Army. He built a company around them.
The 14J MOS no longer exists — it was split into three separate MOSs after Wes served. The work he did in Air Defense C4I was the kind of technical, mission-critical work that only the best-scoring, most squared-away soldiers got. Wes was one of them. He went from a kid who dropped out of high school to an Honor Graduate who led a squad in combat theater. That's not a small thing. That's the foundation of everything that came after.
— Veterans Restoration of Louisville