Veteran Remembers 9/11 and Tinley Park Cousin Who Died in Action

After U.S. Marine veteran Craig Miller lost nine of his men in the Middle East in 1987, he thought he was done with death in the military.

But in 2009, the Oak Forest man and chairman of the Oak Forest Veterans Commission picked up the phone to tell his mother that her 22-year-old nephew, Miller’s cousin Army Staff Sgt. Josh Rath, who was from , had been killed in action. Rath’s unit was hit by an Iraqi suicide bomber.

The first day of Rath’s wake would have been his 23rd birthday.

It was the events of 9/11 that sealed Rath's intent to join the Army. Now Rath’s name is carved on a Middle East war memorial in Illinois.

Patch first heard Miller and Rath's story in May, after the death of Osama bin Laden. If anyone was going to hunt down bin Laden, Darlene Rath was willing to bet on her son. 

In May, Darlene Rath reflected on the death of the man behind the attacks that led to the war that ultimately killed her son.

"Our lives—every single American life—was changed on 9/11," she said. "We didn't know the fear we knew, before 9/11."

READ MORE: Family of Tinley-Born Soldier Killed in Action 'Celebrate the Defeat' of Osama bin Laden

The impact of Josh Rath’s death is still reflected in Miller's eyes.

"I think, sometimes there's going to be death and war, but what was the cost?" Miller told Patch.

He recalls his reactions to the 9/11 attacks with the same indignation as the day they happened.

"Now, it's personal," he said. "Now it really brought it home. It's on our home turf. Now it's personal."

Each year, on the third Saturday in June, Miller joins hundreds of family members, friends and motorcyclists who participate in the Illinois Freedom Run in remembrance of the names on the memorial. Miller never misses the ride. He also welcomes anyone involved in the memorial into his own home.

“I’m going to go every year until no more names are read off,” he said.

Miller is uneasy about the state of the American military.

“The older I get, I get frustrated that young men fight the battles old men start and can’t fight themselves—frustrated that the people who are so unable to come to terms aren’t the ones who are dying on the battlefields.” 

This is one of a series of 9-11 portraits assembled by the Patch network for 9/11: The Decade After, a special report for Huffington Post. Find more photos on the Action America Facebook page.