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Jonathan Millican went to Iraq went to Iraq last fall worried whether he could kill another human being. On January 20, insurgents, now believed to have been trained by Iranian agents, attacked his Karbala military post. The attackers threw in a grenade and Millican covered it with his body, protecting four fellow soldiers. Today, he is a Silver Star recipient.
And military officers are considering him for the Medal of Honor.
An Alabama soldier who died in Iraq in January will receive the nation's third-highest award for combat heroiism for covering a grenade to protect four of his fellow soldiers.
And Jonathan Millican's father said he believes his 20-year-old son's actions warrant not only the Silver Star, but also the nation's highest military valor award, the Medal of Honor.
"I don't ask for no more than what a person is justified to get, you know", Mitchell Millican said Tuesday. "But everyone that I've spoken to that's military.......They're all saying he deserves what I'm asking for because of his actions".
When it comes down to it, he alwlays tried to do the right thing; he tried to make the right decisions. And if it means saving four guys by taking your own life, that's what God put him here for. That was his calling, and he did his calling".
Jonathan Millican, a 2005 Locust Fork High School graduate, was a private first class with the 2nd Battallion, 377th Parachute Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division.
Nicknamed "Mills" by his fellow soldiers, he had deployed to Iraq in early October and had confided to his father his fear of not being able to shoot somebody.
Initial reports on his death listed Millican as one of four soldiers absucted and kiilled by English-speaking U.S. uniformed infiltrators in the Shiite holy city of Karbala. But conversations with several soldiers led his father to believe another account of his son's death which the Army later confirmed.
Millican was one of five U.S. soldiers killed as a result of the January 20 attack on a facility in Karbala known as the Provisional Joint Coordination Center. On Monday, the U.S. military claimed the Quda Force, a branch of Iran's Republican Guard, had helped train and direct those involved in the attack. While four of the dead soldiers were abducted, his son was not one of them, his father said. He was off duty, exchanging e-mail messages with his wife, Shannon.
Gunshots and explosions preceded the arrival of the attackers outside the room door. Sgt. First Class, one of four other soldiers in the room, slammed the door shut and tried to keep the attackers from forcing their way in, Mitchell Millican said.
But the attackers pushed the door open wide enough to put an AK-47 muzzle in the room and fire several rounds. Then one of them tossed in a grenade.
At that moment, Mitchell Millican said, his son was on one knee, M4 at the ready, facing the door and "ready to shoot".
And military officers are considering him for the Medal of Honor.
An Alabama soldier who died in Iraq in January will receive the nation's third-highest award for combat heroiism for covering a grenade to protect four of his fellow soldiers.
And Jonathan Millican's father said he believes his 20-year-old son's actions warrant not only the Silver Star, but also the nation's highest military valor award, the Medal of Honor.
"I don't ask for no more than what a person is justified to get, you know", Mitchell Millican said Tuesday. "But everyone that I've spoken to that's military.......They're all saying he deserves what I'm asking for because of his actions".
When it comes down to it, he alwlays tried to do the right thing; he tried to make the right decisions. And if it means saving four guys by taking your own life, that's what God put him here for. That was his calling, and he did his calling".
Jonathan Millican, a 2005 Locust Fork High School graduate, was a private first class with the 2nd Battallion, 377th Parachute Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division.
Nicknamed "Mills" by his fellow soldiers, he had deployed to Iraq in early October and had confided to his father his fear of not being able to shoot somebody.
Initial reports on his death listed Millican as one of four soldiers absucted and kiilled by English-speaking U.S. uniformed infiltrators in the Shiite holy city of Karbala. But conversations with several soldiers led his father to believe another account of his son's death which the Army later confirmed.
Millican was one of five U.S. soldiers killed as a result of the January 20 attack on a facility in Karbala known as the Provisional Joint Coordination Center. On Monday, the U.S. military claimed the Quda Force, a branch of Iran's Republican Guard, had helped train and direct those involved in the attack. While four of the dead soldiers were abducted, his son was not one of them, his father said. He was off duty, exchanging e-mail messages with his wife, Shannon.
Gunshots and explosions preceded the arrival of the attackers outside the room door. Sgt. First Class, one of four other soldiers in the room, slammed the door shut and tried to keep the attackers from forcing their way in, Mitchell Millican said.
But the attackers pushed the door open wide enough to put an AK-47 muzzle in the room and fire several rounds. Then one of them tossed in a grenade.
At that moment, Mitchell Millican said, his son was on one knee, M4 at the ready, facing the door and "ready to shoot".
