Soldier Made Famous By Photo In Iraq Has Died - With Video
This is reality, folks. Everybody deals with living through long-term periods of hypervigilance in different ways. For some, the end isn’t always perfect.
Our heartfelt condolences go out to the family of Army Pfc. Joseph Dwyer.
RIP, Soldier.
This from Newsday:
The March 2003 image became one of the most iconic of the U.S. invasion of Iraq: that of a bespectacled American soldier carrying an Iraqi child to safety. The photograph of Army Pfc. Joseph Dwyer, who was raised in Mount Sinai, was used by news outlets around the world.
After being lionized by many as the human face of the U.S. effort to rebuild a troubled Iraq, Dwyer brought the battlefield home with him, often grappling violently with delusions that he was being hunted by Iraqi killers.
His internal terror got so bad that, in 2005, he shot up his El Paso, Texas, apartment and held police at bay for three hours with a 9-mm handgun, believing Iraqis were trying to get in.
Last month, on June 28, police in Pinehurst, N.C., who responded to Dwyer’s home, said the 31-year-old collapsed and died after abusing a computer cleaner aerosol. Dwyer had moved to North Carolina after living in Texas.
Dwyer, who joined the Army two days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and who was assigned to a unit of the 3rd Infantry Division that one officer called “the tip of the tip of the spear” in the first days of the U.S. invasion, had since then battled depression, sleeplessness and other anxieties that military doctors eventually attributed to post-traumatic stress disorder.
The war that made him a hero at 26 haunted him to the last moments of his life.
“He loved the picture, don’t get me wrong, but he just couldn’t get over the war,” his mother, Maureen Dwyer, said by telephone from her home in Sunset Beach, N.C. “He wasn’t Joseph anymore. Joseph never came home.”
Dwyer’s parents said they tried to get help for their son, appealing to Army and Veterans Affairs officials. Although he was treated off and on in VA facilities, he was never able to shake his anxieties.
Full story here.
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An American Hero
July 7th, 2008 at 10:40 amHis untimely ending is a but a short, sad chapter in his life.
He volunteered to serve his nation in a time of war. While many sat, he stood up and offered himself for nation and family.
I pray that the family will let their pride will wash over the sorrow.
Heartfelt condolences to his family and loved ones.
July 7th, 2008 at 10:57 amThese incidents are very tragic. I wish there was a way to fix these broken troops. The mind cannot be fixed as easily as we think sometimes.
Rest in peace young soldier, I pray for your family to stay strong and to get through this tough time.
July 7th, 2008 at 11:23 amNot all of us come back with wounds you can see.
Godspeed mate.
July 7th, 2008 at 12:28 pmThis is very sad indeed; however I’m not too sure that his decision to abuse aerosols is related to his serving in Iraq.
RIP
July 7th, 2008 at 1:19 pmThis hurts.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
RIP. I hope you found peace
July 8th, 2008 at 2:48 pm