Kazuhira Miller

Kazuhira Miller, also known as McDonell Benedict Miller (マクドネル・ベネディクト・ミラー), and Master Miller, was FOXHOUND's survival trainer during both Big Boss's and Roy Campbell's command of the unit. He was well-read and possessed a vast array of scientific knowledge.

Early life
Kazuhira Miller was born in America over sixty years after his grandparents immigrated to the U.S. from Japan. The child of an American GHQ officer under the command of General Whitney returning to the United States and a Japanese woman, he was born during Japan's occupation by U.S. military forces and was given the name "Kazuhira" - the Japanese name for "Peace". At first, his early life in Japan was a struggle, and many Japanese children mocked him for his light blue western eyes and ash blond hair. His father left his mother some money before returning to the U.S. and she had to raise money for both Kaz and herself by selling cigarettes to American occupation soldiers. The STDs from being a prostitute caused his mother to develop a condition where she would eventually forget who her son even was. While his mother was in bed with the condition, Miller ran the shop at ten years old. While doing this, he eventually stumbled upon a picture of his father and mother, and while running the shop asked if he knew who the man in the picture was. He eventually learned from one of his father's students that the man was Colonel Miller, a man who retired from active duty and is serving as a military instructor. Miller knew he wanted to go to University as well as meet his father, so he eventually sent a letter to his father in the U.S., requesting to travel there.

That wish was eventually granted and Kaz was picked up from his home, left his mother behind, and went to the U.S. to get an education. Kaz's father eventually committed suicide, but that didn't stop him from completing school and earning his college degree in an Ivy League school. He then returned to Japan, only to find that his mother wasn't angry that he left her behind, she had simply forgotten who he was entirely. Shortly after returning, he joined the JSDF.

Unfortunately, life in the JSDF wasn't as glamorous as Kaz had hoped. His skills as a policeman were unmatched, but his superiors often feared them and chose not to reward those skills, so he didn't rise through the ranks as quickly as one would expect. Furthermore, he longed for a more active battlefield than what life in Japan typically offered, so by the late 60s he finally decides to leave the JSDF. After his mother died, he began to drift around the world as a mercenary and a well known philanderer who loved the freedom of the 1970s.

Miller's travels eventually led him to meet Big Boss (Naked Snake) in Colombia, where he was fighting for the rebels and Big Boss for the Colombian government. Big Boss and his men had already wiped out all of Miller's unit, so Miller prepared to take his own life with a grenade and die fighting. Big Boss was impressed with his spirit, likening it to that of a samurai, and convinced him to instead join the Militaires Sans Frontieres. Miller played a vital role in the management of the MSF and supported Big Boss during his missions in Colombia.

Peace Walker Incident
Main Article

In 1974, Kazuhira "Kaz" Miller brought over Paz Ortega Andrade and Ramón Gálvez Mena, who desired to see Big Boss and the Militaires Sans Frontieres, after making sure that they weren't followed by "their "friends" from Langley". Unlike Big Boss, he didn't really feel that being hired by Gálvez to repel the invasion force of Costa Rica was a bad idea, especially with the offer of an offshore production facility in the Caribbean to use as a base (as their current base was in disrepair). Big Boss eventually agreed to take Galvez's offer for Paz.

Miller started transmitting unidirectional signals to Big Boss relating to the mission from the offshore Shipping Facility and Big Boss managed to find a radio in the Shipping Facility and contacted Miller. Apparently, there were a few things out of place with the Shipping facility, as there were an unusually large amount of Film ID Badges, badges used in areas involving radiation, in the facility, and even the Radioman that he interrogated was wearing one, as well as the man he was talking to mentioned something about "Spears" being delivered in the cargo. Miller and Big Boss then realized that this would mean that this could mean only one thing: They were bringing nukes into Costa Rica, something that thought Miller was horrifing.

Miller then suggested that Big Boss try and recruit a FSLN group that was ousted from Nicaragua to help in tracking down the supply route to the facility in Mount Irazu. Afterwards, he picked up Amanda Valenciano Libre, Chico, and Cécile Cosina Caminades after Big Boss discovered them. Big Boss and Miller eventually learned that Hot Coldman (the CIA Station Chief of Central America) was the one behind the invasion and the Peace Walker project. However, neither Big Boss nor Miller had known that Coldman was planning on using Peace Walker to launch a nuke towards the Mother Base, namely to poison the fish and crops so that mass production can begin but also to annihilate the MSF, Miller stated that Big Boss had to stop Peace Walker from arriving in Nicaragua. However, after that had failed, he considered evacuating Mother Base, but decided against it as the personnel believed in Big Boss.

Later on, Miller arrived with the majority of the MSF forces into Nicaragua to aid Big Boss in stopping Coldman's plans. After joining forces with Amanda's FSLN group, they took down the Peace Sentinels, arrested Gálvez (whose was really Vladimir Zadornov, a KGB agent), and a dying Coldman. Miller also lectured a distraught Paz in not picking up a gun unless she used it. Miller discovered that Coldman activated Peace Walker, and not only was it going to be launched to Cuba (Zadornov had changed the false code earlier), but it also will transmit false missile trajectories to third parties all over the world, including NORAD and The Pentagon. He alerted Big Boss and Strangelove (who were on their way to the Peace Walker unit to find out the answers to why The Boss and Big Boss fought in Tselinoyarsk) about what happened, with Coldman dying before he could give the abort code (a factor he had taken into account), forcing Big Boss and Strangelove to destroy the Peace Walker unit.

After the fiasco ended, Miller teammed up with Huey Emmerich and Strangelove in building Metal Gear Zeke, which was created from the AI Weapons. After Zadornov escaped for the seventh and last time, Big Boss told Kaz that Zadornov had "an accomplice" given his final words. Miller then notices Zeke moving on its own, implying that someone had hijacked it. Miller also noticed that Paz was acting strange, and then Paz revealed that she was really Pacifica Ocean, a Cipher agent. After disabling Zeke and defeating Paz, Miller apologized to Big Boss because the former apparently at least suspected what Paz and Galvez were up to all along, but didn't tell Big Boss sooner. It's later revealed that Kaz was acting strictly as a business partner to Cipher to expand MSF (Because Miller belived that the mercenary business will become a new driving force in the world economy after the Cold War's end). However, Kaz presumably stopped working for Cipher altogether after the latter had ordered Paz to launch a nuke at the East Coast to frame the MSF as being an extremist cult should Big Boss refuse to rejoin Cipher.

Later Career
At some point, Miller parted ways with Big Boss, changed his name to "McDonell Benedict Miller", and later served as a survival master in the SAS, the Green Berets, a U.S. Marine boot camp, and FOXHOUND. He also served in the FBI and went on to volunteer as a coach in a mercenary school twice a year before eventually retiring. During his time as a drill sergeant in FOXHOUND, he was referred to as "Hell Master" and draftees called him "Master Miller" with the utmost respect. It was there that he met and helped train Solid Snake. At some point in his life, Miller divorced from his first wife, Nadine, and later resided in Los Angeles with his daughter, Catherine.

In 1999, Master Miller was reunited with and assisted Solid Snake, whom he provided him with information on improving one's health, along with guidance on how to overcome the various obstacles he faced there.

By 2005, McDonell Miller had retired and had moved to Alaska to live in solitude, in a three story house with his huskies, occasionally helping to train the Alaskan scouts during his free time. However, three days prior to a revolt, Miller was murdered in his home by an unknown assailant. Liquid Snake (the leader of FOXHOUND during the Shadow Moses Incident) assumed Miller's identity and posed as him in order to "aid" Solid Snake in his mission on Shadow Moses, providing Snake with information on health and on how to operate within the Alaskan environment. After Snake unwittingly activated Metal Gear REX, Liquid mockingly revealed his true identity to him.

Mother Base Staff
Miller is a unique staff member at Mother Base, available from the start of the game. He requests Big Boss assign him to any of the unit divisions as they were initially understaffed. His skill ("Mother Base deputy Commander") increases morale of all staff on assigned team. However, if he is assigned to the Combat Unit he cannot be used in missions.


 * Life: 7000
 * Psyche: 7000
 * GMP: 7875


 * Combat Unit: B
 * R&D Team: B
 * Mess Hall Team: A
 * Medical Team: B
 * Intel Team: A

Trivia

 * During 1999, Miller refered to Big Boss (his former friend from 1974) as a "monster", revealing that he eventually came to disagree with the latter's vision of Outer Heaven.
 * Miller had a bit of a womanizing problem. One time, he had gone out with two of the female members of the MSF at the exact same time, causing them to take it to Big Boss. Big Boss then read Miller the riot act (presumably as the latter's punishment for his womanizing behavior), leading Miller to argue with Big Boss which caused them to get into a brawl in the showers that Paz ended up witnessing.
 * Also, one time, Miller was attending one of the Militaires Sans Frontieres' monthly birthday parties and trying to shield Paz from the crude atmosphere of the parties, but he inevitably became drunk himself, and as a result he starts mooning everybody saying that they should see the real Kazuhira Miller.
 * Miller had an older half-brother who died in Vietnam, which was one reason why his father was depressed when he met him and eventually committed suicide.

Alternative History
Some of the details of McDonell Miller's background were elaborated upon in official strategy guides and novelizations, written by various authors. As such, their canonicity in regards to the Metal Gear saga are unconfirmed.

McDonell Miller was once placed in a POW camp in Vietnam, although he later managed to escape, decapitating the head interrogator in the process. While serving in FOXHOUND, Miller taught Solid Snake various forms of code over the radio, e.g. changing the frequency by claiming to change cigarette brands, as well as how to sense an enemy if sight alone couldn't help, and how to determine whether a person was lying by their eyes.

In 2005, Miller was murdered in his home by a nerve toxin.

Behind the Scenes

 * In the original MSX2 version of Metal Gear 2, Miller had a distinctly Asian appearance. In the re-releases, he was redesigned to resemble his appearance in Metal Gear Solid, with blond hair and sunglasses.
 * In the re-release of Metal Gear 2, Miller's first name was mistakenly spelled as "McDonnell".
 * An Extra Op featured in Peace Walker, portrays Miller as being bisexual, with the player having the opportunity to go on a date with him. The non-serious nature of this mission puts its canonicity in dispute.