Warren Zinn on the death of Spc. Joseph Dwyer

In all these years, I've cried more times than I would dare try to remember. This is one more time to be added to the many. Warren Zinn, the photographer of the famous image of Joseph Dwyer, has been trying to figure out if his picture had anything to do with Dwyer's death or the life he had when he came home. Zinn, like many, ask themselves the same question over and over again. What could have been done to prevent it? The truth is, nothing. While it's true they need more help from the DOD and the VA to heal their wounds, there has to be more outreach done for them and more community involvement, families and friends can only do what they know how to do in between now and the time that comes when they are all taken care of.

You didn't see the picture of Dwyer running to help the child but Zinn did.

Warren Zinn
Former Photojournalist, Army Times
Monday, July 14, 2008; 12:00 PM

"The e-mail was a punch in the gut: 'the soldier you made famous -- killed himself last Saturday -- thought you should know.' ... Dwyer was dead of a substance overdose at 31. I'd read news reports that he was struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder. He thought he was being hunted by Iraqi killers. He'd been in and out of treatment. He couldn't, his mother told the media, 'get over the war.' But as I stared at his image on my wall, I couldn't dodge the question: Did this photo have anything to do with his death? News reports said that he hated the celebrity that came with the picture. How much, I wondered, did that moment -- just 1/250th of a second when three lives intersected on a river bank in Iraq -- contribute to the burdens he'd brought home with him?"

Or what came after and the compassion

Washington: Mr Zinn, I really don't have a question at this time. The photograph you took is famous -- we have an enlarged, framed copy of it where I work. In fact, there are several. I am a physician at Walter Reed Army Center. That photograph exemplifies the best in all our medics -- we have the best medics in the world, and I am proud of them and proud to work with them. You did not cause this young man's death, nor is he the only one who chose to end his life as he did.

That is an unfortunate reality of war, the deaths that are not counted in the official death toll. So many of our men and women are walking wounded. They refuse the help they are offered and deny that they have a problem. We are trying very hard to change this culture of denial, but it is an uphill battle, most unfortunately. I think every time a warrior's "story" is told, it helps both them and someone else. Thank you for telling us your story, and a little bit about Joesph's.

for more of this go here

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/07/11/DI2008071102328.html

go here for more pictures

http://warrenzinn.com/iraq.php4?myimg=22

Too many pictures we will never see. Too many moments of compassion in the midst of horror. We may appreciate them, we may honor them, we may respect them, but what we all need to do is remember they are just humans like the rest of us but unlike the rest of us they have seen things and done things the rest of us will never have to because they do it for us.

It doesn't matter if you agree in the mission or not, because they do not all agree either. What they do agree on is that they are willing to lay down their lives for the sake of their brothers. This takes a rare individual. We cannot come close to understanding all of it but we can try. We cannot save all of their lives when they make it back home, but not all the way home. We can try and it's about time we got serious about this and stopped finding excuses for not doing it today for all of them.

When photographers like Zinn risk their lives to take the pictures of the troops, they bring us closer to understanding that it is not all just a bunch of news reports but news reports about people just like us. Please go to his site and look at all the pictures there. Just make sure you have a tissue. You'll need one.