THE WAR WITHIN

[sunny]

My nephew Brandon is going through this very thing right now, not doing well at all. It brings home the fact that we ask so much of our soldiers. The article is a long read, and it will tug at your heart.


THE WAR WITHIN
Matthew B. Stannard, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Pike County, Ky. -- BATTLE SCARS: The photo of the ‘Marlboro Man’ in Fallujah became a symbol of the Iraq conflict when it ran in newspapers across America in 2004. Now the soldier has returned home to Kentucky,where he battles the demons of post-traumatic stress.

The photograph hit the world on Nov. 10, 2004: a close-cropped shot of a U.S. Marine in Iraq, his face smeared with blood and dirt, a cigarette dangling from his lips, smoke curling across weary eyes. It was an instant icon, with Dan Rather calling it "the best war photograph in recent years." About 100 newspapers ran the photo, dubbing the anonymous warrior the "Marlboro Man."

The man in the photograph is James Blake Miller, now 21, and he is an icon, although in ways Rather probably never imagined.

He's quieter now -- easier to anger. He turns to fight at the sound of a backfire, can't look at fireworks without thinking of fire raining down on a city. He has trouble sleeping, and when he does, his fingers twitch on invisible triggers.

The diagnosis: post-traumatic stress disorder.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... GVCEV1.DTL

[wxcrazytwo]

When I got out of the military I became sullen and very callous and unfeeling like.