Two in particular come to mind for me, one being the Fallujah Marlboro man, a soldier named James Blake Miller who has suffered from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) ever since his return from Iraq and the stress of being a "face of the war", something he sure didn't ask for. His battles sicne his return have been numerous and well documented in the media but fortunately he still is fighting and hopefully someday will reclaim his old self taken from him during the horrors of war.
Another that comes to mind was asoldier made famous by the picture below who's battles were similarly broadcast around the world causing him undue stress that inhibited his hopeful return to normalcy after his military discharge a number of years ago from Iraq also for PTSD.
He sadly lost that battle over the weekend to his own demons and his famous picture and terribly sad story is partially excerpted below. Say a prayer if you will for him, James and every other US soldier giving their lives for us and others around the world securing freedom and liberty for all who wish to get it and then to keep it.Freedom isn't free and most often it's price is the lives of these brave and generous beyond belief volunteers who ask for nothing but our prayers and respect for their hard work in our best interests and favor.
Soldier in famous photo never defeated 'demons':My Way News - "PINEHURST, N.C. (AP) - Officers had been to the white ranch house at 560 W. Longleaf many times before over the past year to respond to a 'barricade situation.' Each had ended uneventfully, with Joseph Dwyer coming out or telling police in a calm voice through the window that he was OK.
But this time was different.
The Iraq War veteran had called a taxi service to take him to the emergency room. But when the driver arrived, Dwyer shouted that he was too weak to get up and open the door.
The officers asked Dwyer for permission to kick it in.
'Go ahead!' he yelled.
They found Dwyer lying on his back, his clothes soiled with urine and feces. Scattered on the floor around him were dozens of spent cans of Dust-Off, a refrigerant-based aerosol normally used to clean electrical equipment.
Dwyer told police Lt. Mike Wilson he'd been 'huffing' the aerosol.
'Help me, please!' the former Army medic begged Wilson. 'I'm dying. Help me. I can't breathe.'
Unable to stand or even sit up, Dwyer was hoisted onto a stretcher. As paramedics prepared to load him into an ambulance, an officer noticed Dwyer's eyes had glassed over and were fixed.
A half hour later, he was dead.
When Dionne Knapp learned of her friend's June 28 death, her first reaction was to be angry at Dwyer. How could he leave his wife and daughter like this? Didn't he know he had friends who cared about him, who wanted to help?
But as time passed, Knapp's anger turned toward the Army.
A photograph taken in the first days of the war had made the medic from New York's Long Island a symbol of the United States' good intentions in the Middle East. When he returned home, he was hailed as a hero.
But for most of the past five years, the 31-year-old soldier had writhed in a private hell, shooting at imaginary enemies and dodging nonexistent roadside bombs, sleeping in a closet bunker and trying desperately to huff away the "demons" in his head. When his personal problems became public, efforts were made to help him, but nothing seemed to work.
This broken, frightened man had once been the embodiment of American might and compassion. If the military couldn't save him, Knapp thought, what hope was there for the thousands suffering in anonymity? continued
Here's another story about Mr Dwyer from earlier in the war about finding the young boy in the picture again aftewards
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