Empty chair reserved for Capt. Erik Anthes' fallen friend

Soldier keeps alive the memory of old friend killed in Baghdad
Tampa Bay Times
By Bill Stevens
Times Columnist
Sunday, September 23, 2012

Two-hundred soldiers stood in formation, ready to meet their new commanding officer. Friends and family filled the chairs for the ceremony.

All but one.

Army Capt. Erik Anthes mourns his former classmate, Spc. Patrick Miller, at the Florida National Cemetery near Bushnell.

Capt. Erik Anthes reserved it for a fellow soldier, a man he hadn't seen since high school back in New Port Richey, but promised he would never forget.

As Anthes snapped salutes and accepted the responsibility for Company E, 1st Battalion of the storied 16th Infantry Regiment which dates back to the Civil War, he felt awash with emotion. How coincidental — no, how fitting — he thought as he glanced toward the empty chair and the sign taped on it: Spc. Patrick "P.J.'' Miller, March 29, 2008.

That was the day a roadside bomb exploded next to the young soldier's vehicle in Baghdad, one week before he was scheduled to return home. His outfit: the 16th Infantry Regiment.

Anthes, 26, assumed his new role on Aug. 30 at the regiment's headquarters in Fort Riley, Kan. At night, when he went home to be with his wife, Kelli, and their 5-month-old daughter, Reagan, he changed from his uniform. He didn't remove the bracelet that bears P.J. Miller's name.

"I never take it off,'' Anthes said. "I never forget.''
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