For many, Army Pfc. Joseph Dwyer was the face of the United States invasion of Iraq: captured in a famous picture carrying an Iraqi child to safety. He has now become the face of the tens of thousands of walking wounded. This week he was found overdosed in an apartment after spending years struggling with post traumatic stress syndrome and poor military health care.
The March 2003 picture became a symbol of the benign U.S. intentions for the war and was a counter-image to the later pictures of torture at bu Ghraib. What the picture did not capture was Dwyer’s inner injury after searching in a unit with the 3rd Infantry Division called by a commander “the tip of the tip of the spear.” He would return home with nightmares of being attacked by Iraqi gunmen and, in 2005, he fired shots in his El Paso, Texas, apartment. He only surrendered after holding police at bay for three hours.
He was found in his apartment shortly after his wife left him with his daughter. He had overdosed with a computer cleaner aerosol, Dust-Off.
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Who is the watchdog of the government?
My deepest condolences to this hero’s family. It is a tragic loss and I honor him. God bless him and all those who are suffering under similar circumstances. This should be a bigger news story than it is. It is an American tragedy.
A very sad story. That is no way for a genuine hero to die. The PTSD is just killing veterans without little or no help from the VA. The way the Bush Administration treats veterans is almost as shameful as the torture program. Our best to the family.
Bless the Army. Here’s an article on how they just want to get the truth out about the war, so they’re in the movie making, did I say propaganda? business now. How touching.
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-armyfilms7-2008jul07,0,2707554.story?track=rss
This is enraging, unbearable and common.