Craig Walker wins Pulitzer for images of Iraq veteran with PTSD

Denver Post photographer Craig Walker wins Pulitzer for images of Iraq veteran with PTSD

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 16, 2012
DENVER — Craig F. Walker, a photographer for The Denver Post, has won his second Pulitzer Prize for feature photography in three years.

Walker on Monday was named the 2012 winner for "Welcome Home", a series (http://bit.ly/vtKbHd ) that chronicled Colorado resident Scott Ostrom's struggles with severe post-traumatic stress disorder after four years as a Marine Corps reconnaissance man and two deployments to Iraq. Ostrom was honorably discharged in 2007.

The Pulitzer board cited Walker's "compassionate chronicle of an honorably discharged veteran, home from Iraq and struggling with a severe case of post-traumatic stress, images that enable viewers to better grasp a national issue."
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Welcome Home
Photo Essay: The Story of Scott Ostrom
After serving four years as a reconnaissance man and deploying twice to Iraq, Brian Scott Ostrom, now 27, returned home to the U.S. with a severe case of post-traumatic stress disorder. “The most important part of my life already happened. The most devastating. The chance to come home in a box. Nothing is ever going to compare to what I’ve done, so I’m struggling to be at peace with that,” Scott said.

He attributes his PTSD to his second deployment to Iraq, where he served seven months in Fallujah with the 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion. “It was the most brutal time of my life,” he said. “I didn’t realize it because I was living it. It was a part of me.” Since his discharge, Scott has struggled with daily life, from finding and keeping employment to maintaining healthy relationships. But most of all, he’s struggled to overcome his brutal and haunting memories of Iraq. Nearly five years later, Scott remains conflicted by the war. Though he is proud of his service and cares greatly for his fellow Marines, he still carries guilt for things he did — and didn’t do — fighting a war he no longer believes in.

A picture of Scott holding his little brother after graduating boot camp at Paris Island, S.C., in June 2003 hangs on the refrigerator at Scott's new apartment.

Scott counts the stitches in his wrist while having a drink at a bar in Boulder after his suicide attempt.

Click link above for more of this powerful series of photographs.