He fought terrorism as an FBI agent, now he is fighting cancer and for the health of his fellow 9/11 responders

Retired FBI Particular Agent Jeffrey Miller has all the time answered the decision to service. 

He enlisted within the Air Pressure then grew to become a Pittsburgh police officer, earlier than being chosen to affix the racks of the FBI. 

It was with the FBI that he first joined the battle in opposition to al-Qaeda. 

He was a part of a contingent of brokers despatched to Africa in 1998 to analyze the simultaneous bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania the place 224 folks, together with 12 People have been murdered.

An agent with the bureau’s proof response staff, Miller was additionally there in 2000 after the usS. Cole was attacked by an al-Qaeda suicide bomber the place 12 sailors have been killed, leaving the destroyer crippled. 

And 25 years in the past, he answered the decision once more when al-Qaeda terrorists weaponized 4 passenger jets on 9/11. 

“The importance hit me after I watched the TV and the billowing smoke,” Miller informed ABC Information’ Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas. “We have been within the workplace and there was quite a lot of vitality, after which the second airplane hit. And I instantly informed my supervisor, ‘Hey, I’ve to go as much as New York. I am on the proof response staff.’ They usually rightly mentioned, ‘Wait, let’s let’s determine this out.’ After which the Pentagon was hit shortly thereafter. And that is when it grew to become completely actual.”

When American Airways Flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon, Miller rushed to the scene, spending weeks on website recovering proof from the burned wreckage. 

“Not solely did I work the command submit throughout the day, an eight-hour shift, however I labored proof response the second shift,” he mentioned. 

Now, two and a half a long time later he is without doubt one of the many FBI brokers which can be affected by the long-lasting results of that day.

He and his colleagues have been uncovered to poisonous particles within the wreckage. Twenty-five years after 9/11, that publicity led to many FBI brokers and different first responders creating most cancers.

So excess of 30 FBI personnel have died from most cancers or different sicknesses the FBI says are associated to publicity to poisonous materials on the 9/11 websites.

Miller says he personally is aware of a minimum of a dozen of them.

He pointed to Bob Roth, one of many first brokers to reach on the still-smoldering wreckage of the Pentagon on Sept. 11, who developed a number of myeloma in 2006 and died in 2008, according to the FBI’s Wall of Honor.

Miller remembered Roth as one of many first names on the FBI’s Wall of Honor and as a “nice agent, an important household man.”

“He did the whole lot he may, however in the long run, he succumbed to most cancers. And that was initially my direct publicity to somebody that I had truly labored with,” Miller mentioned.

It didn’t instantly daybreak on Miller that he is also vulnerable to most cancers. 

“We began serious about it and the primary week on the Pentagon, we did not have PPE, we did not have correct safety gear, we did not have the right masking,” he mentioned.  “I begin serious about and form of inventorying my days there and what I used to be uncovered to.”

In 2024, Miller was identified with prostate most cancers.  He did nicely with therapy and thought he had put the most cancers behind him — full remission. 

However earlier this 12 months Miller, after a exercise, mentioned he began feeling extreme ache in his again.  Medical doctors discovered tumors have been urgent on his backbone. Most cancers had returned.  

“I’ve kidney most cancers, I’ve lung most cancers, two lymph nodes; I’ve backbone, and I the final one I’ve is mind,” he mentioned. “And we’re praying on daily basis — our religion received stronger as a result of we have now to. “

Miller’s spouse, Amy, informed ABC Information that her husband has a constructive perspective, and he’s targeted on making issues higher for future generations.

“There’s been quite a lot of occasions throughout this journey that we have thought, nicely, this have to be it. This, he cannot probably should undergo one thing else,” she mentioned. “We simply type push by way of no matter comes alongside the way in which and we have all the time been that manner.”

And even now, as Miller battles most cancers, he’s targeted on serving others.  Miller is advocating to modernize the World Commerce Middle Well being Program to maintain up with the brand new know-how and screening for first responders who put themselves in hurt’s manner on 9/11 and did not comprehend it.

There have been vital developments in most cancers detection within the 12 years for the reason that WTCHP’s screening coverage was established in 2014.  Miller is advocating for updating the most cancers screening coverage to make accessible the very newest and most complete most cancers screening to the 9/11 responder neighborhood. 

“We want that energetic screening … I might have caught this — my oncologist mentioned shut to 2 years in the past,” he mentioned.  “And it could have given me a elevate, a leg up on this battle, a very powerful factor I may have accomplished.”

FBI Deputy Director Christopher Raia has met Miller and acknowledged that extra might be accomplished. 

“We do want to determine higher methods to not solely detect this, higher assessments, higher care as of us age and perhaps these items begin to metastasize of their physique,” Raia mentioned.

“I wish to champion for them, and I wish to do the whole lot I can from my chair, because the Deputy Director, to actually give these of us the assist, the care, and the battle that they want that they wanted to proceed.”

In any case Miller has been by way of, he mentioned he would have responded to the Pentagon once more.

“I can nearly assure that each agent, particular agent {and professional} assist that I do know of would do it once more,” he mentioned.