POW joined to pay off student loans
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Pfc. Patrick Miller, seen in this Iraqi video broadcast earlier this week.
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(CNN) -- Before becoming a private in the U.S. Army, Patrick Miller, a 23-year-old Kansan, was a welder and a father.
Miller, father of a 4-year-old son and a 7-month-old daughter, joined the military just last summer to pay off student loans, according to his half-brother, Thomas Hershberger.
After shipping out, Miller on Sunday found himself one of five lost members of his unit, the 507th Maintenance Company based at Fort Bliss, Texas, to be captured by Iraqi troops.
Miller lived in Valley Center, Kansas, where he worked for a welding company before joining the Army and moving to Fort Bliss. His wife and children are now living in Park City, Kansas. They moved after Miller was deployed.
Miller's wife and children, said to be in seclusion, are not speaking to the news media. "This is just wiping her out," Rev. Ron Pracht -- the family pastor -- told The Associated Press.
The captured soldier's sister -- upon learning of her brother's fate -- told a Kansas television station, "It just tore me up inside, I mean, I didn't think it could be my brother, but it was. It was hard."
Hershberger -- who recognized his half-brother this week in a video broadcast on Iraqi TV -- said he "looked as good as possible."
"We are glad he wasn't killed," Hershberger said during an interview on CNN's "American Morning." "We hope he makes it back. We all love him and we hope he is treated humanely."
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
