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.

Spc. Joseph Patrick Dwyer dies after PTSD struggle

Army Pfc. Joseph P. Dwyer, 26, from Suffolk County, N.Y., carries a boy injured in a firefight between the 7th Cavalry Regiment and Iraqi militia troops near Al Faysaliyah village, south of Baghdad.

Credit: Warren Zinn, Army Times

Soldier in photo dies after PTSD struggle

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Jul 3, 2008 15:56:51 EDT

During the first week of the war in Iraq, a Military Times photographer captured the arresting image of Army Spc. Joseph Patrick Dwyer as he raced through a battle zone clutching a tiny Iraqi boy named Ali.

The photo was hailed as a portrait of the heart behind the U.S. military machine, and Doc Dwyer’s concerned face graced the pages of newspapers across the country.

But rather than going on to enjoy the public affection for his act of heroism, he was consumed by the demons of combat stress he could not exorcise. For the medic who cared for the wounds of his combat buddies as they pushed toward Baghdad, the battle for his own health proved too much to bear.

On June 28, Dwyer, 31, died of an accidental overdose in his home in Pinehurst, N.C., after years of struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder. During that time, his marriage fell apart as he spiraled into substance abuse and depression. He found himself constantly struggling with law, even as friends, Veterans Affairs personnel and the Army tried to help him.

“Of course he was looked on as a hero here,” said Capt. Floyd Thomas of the Pinehurst Police Department. Still, “we’ve been dealing with him for over a year.”

The day he died, Dwyer apparently took pills and inhaled the fumes of an aerosol can in an act known as “huffing.” Thomas said Dwyer then called a taxi company for a ride to the hospital. When the driver arrived, “they had a conversation through the door [of Dwyer’s home],” Thomas said, but Dwyer could not let the driver in. The driver asked Dwyer if he should call the police. Dwyer said yes. When the police arrived, they asked him if they should break down the door. He again said yes.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/07/military_suicidedwyer_070308w/


Death casts shadow over photographer’s famous shot

By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Jul 3, 2008 15:50:59 EDT

Warren Zinn felt sucker-punched the day he learned that former Pfc. Joe Dwyer had died.

Sitting in his office with the image of the young soldier he had made famous more than five years ago hanging above his desk, Zinn looked at Dwyer’s face and considered the poison-pen emails he received from people he doesn’t know, people who suggested he had contributed to the troubled man’s death.

“The sad thing is that he clearly had a problem coming back from this war and nothing was done about it, or not enough was done,” said Zinn, 30, a former Military Times photographer now a law student at the University of Miami. “I think it’s almost like an indication of the war right now.”
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/07/military_dwyer_photographer_070308w/


From war hero to war haunted
LI vet depicted in famous struggle with menacing stress disorder that escalated to a standoff

BY INDRANI SEN, STAFF WRITER

October 23, 2005

Army Spc. Joseph Dwyer angled a mirror out the back window of his apartment in El Paso, Texas, trying to make out the Iraqis in the evening gloom. He couldn't see them, but he felt that they were out there somewhere, ready to attack.

Holding his 9-mm handgun tight, the 29-year-old medic from Mount Sinai phoned in an air strike using military code. He directed the fighter jets to his own street address.

Then he heard a noise from the roof - maybe an Iraqi trying to get in? - and that's when Dwyer began firing.

Nobody was hurt in the three-hour standoff Oct. 6 in which Dwyer, deep in a post-traumatic stress-induced delusion, barricaded himself into his apartment, fighting off an imaginary Iraqi attack.

Back then, an image of hope
go here for more
http://fox17.trb.com/ny-liptsd234481526oct23,1,421499.story