Elliott Miller, 31, a Navy SEAL who was severely wounded in Iraq three years ago, got a hug from his girlfriend’s mother, Patti Walters, before leaving Thursday for Chicago. Three years ago, when an Iraqi bomb fractured Elliott Miller’s body and brain, hardly anyone thought he would survive. Three months ago, the doctors and physical therapists who worked with him doubted that he could climb a flight of stairs on his new prosthetic leg. But tomorrow, just after midnight Chicago time, the former Marine and current Navy SEAL will get out of his wheelchair and try to climb not just one flight of stairs, but 103 of them — all the way to the top of the iconic skyscraper formerly known as the Sears Tower. It’s the tallest building in the Americas. “If he makes it, that’s great,” said Dr. Kirk Parsley, the medical officer for Miller’s Coronado-based SEAL unit and one of several people who will make the climb with him. “And if he doesn’t make it? Well, he’s a SEAL. He’ll be champing at the bit to come back next year.” Read the entire Union Tribune story here.
