’Marlboro Man’ soldier files for divorce (Married < 1 Month)

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060626/NEWS0104/60626018

A Kentucky Marine, famous for his portrayal in an iconic photograph from the Iraq War, has filed for divorce less than a month after dozens of Americans contributed to a dream wedding for him and his bride.

Millions became intrigued with James Blake Miller, 21, after first seeing the down-home soldier in a 2004 Los Angeles Times photo, in which the grubby, exhausted Marine lance corporal takes a break from combat in Fallujah with a cigarette dangling from lips. The picture earned Miller the nickname “Marlboro Man.”

His story as a young Appalachian husband who couldn’t afford a proper wedding for his wife caught the attention of a California couple, who helped foot the bill and drew more contributions to a $15,000 wedding June 3 at a country club near his hometown of Pikeville.

But by June 12, Miller and his bride, Jessica Holbrook, were living apart, according to court papers. Miller filed for divorce on June 20, saying the marriage was “irretrievably broken with no prospect of reconciliation.”

which I fear is becoming quite common among returning veterans.

I'm sure there will be many more divorces by our troops after this war. I can't imagine what it would be like to fight a war and then try to settle down to a normal life afterward.

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.

His life in Kentucky, before and after the clicking shutter, says as much about hundreds of thousands of new American war veterans as his famous photograph said about that one bad day in Fallujah -- a photo Miller cannot see as an icon.

"I don't see a whole lot," he said. "I see a day I won't care to remember, but that I'll never forget."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/29/MNGMHGVCEV1.DTL

The former Marine says he now questions the US tactics and believes troops should have been withdrawn some time ago. He said: "When I was in the service my opinion was whatever the Commander-in-Chief's opinion was. But after I got out, I started to think about it. The biggest question I have now is how you can make a war on an entire country when a certain group from that country is practising terrorism against you. It's as if a gang from New York went to Iraq and blew some stuff up and Iraq started a war against us because of that."

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0202-07.htm

still buys into the RW misconception that Iraq was responsible for 9/11.

I knew a guy who used to be in the Canadian Army (his regiment was actually banned)

You simply can't wake the guy up any other way then make a lot of noise from outside the room, otherwise he's likely to get up in a flash, put his knife to your throat (or his gun, he sleeps with both), and then come to his senses. Scary shit.

Too bad that it didn't work out, but a kind gesture is never a dumb thing.

I think it could have been better spent in a lot of other ways for this young mercenary. A fancy wedding was a poor choice, counseling would have been better.

I think the people who donated had their hearts in the right place. They had no way of knowing the marriage wasn't going to work out.

This war has so many dimensions in the field of "fucked up" I can't even calculate all the vectors.

bandwidth to go into my problem.:rofl:

I've read a couple of pieces about him. He's bad off.

In my opinion, every combat soldier suffers from it to some degree.

I’ve cared for many Nam Vets, and all these years later they still suffer.

far more than the Bush regime has been about the number of returning soldiers with serious psychological problems. Didn't we read a story last week about a PTSD veteran being ordered back to Iraq?

this guy is someone i like -- though i doubt he and i could hardly travel in the same political circles.

he has an authenticity about him that i find refreshing.

That picture always got to me because he looks so old. He must have aged 20+ years over there.

and causes tears of sadness.

THE WAR WITHIN

Matthew B. Stannard, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, January 29, 2006

01-29) 04:00 PDT 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.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/29/MNGMHGVCEV1.DTL

:cry:

Published on Thursday, February 2, 2006 by the Independent / UK

'Marlboro Man' Turns Against War He Symbolised

by Andrew Buncombe

A cigarette hung from his mouth in the manner of John Wayne or Humphrey Bogart, his grime-covered face showed the exhaustion of battle.

This image of US Marine Lance-Corporal Blake Miller, taken during the battle of Fallujah, instantly captured the public imagination and for a while he was known simply as Marlboro Man.

But 15 months after that photograph appeared in more than 100 US newspapers, the 21-year-old is back from Iraq, back on civvy street and he is talking about the trauma of what he experienced and the scars he still bears, physical and mental. The once unquestioning Marine is now also questioning whether US forces should be in Iraq.

The mental health experts who are treating him call his condition post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but Mr Miller describes it in more immediate language: nightmares, sleeplessness and periods when he will "blank out", not knowing where he is or what he is doing. "I could tell you stories about Iraq that would make the hair stand up on the back of your neck," he said. "And I could tell you things that were great over there. But that would still not tell you what it was actually like. You had to be there and go through it to really understand."

Mr Miller is not alone. The federal Veterans Affairs (VA) department revealed last week that up to a third of US troops returning from Iraq or Afghanistan - about 40,000 - suffer mental health problems. It is to spend an extra $29m (£16.3m) on troops who have PTSD. Days ago, The Independent reported the suicide of another veteran of the Iraq war, Doug Barber, a National Guardsman who took his life after struggling with his experiences of the war after he returned to civilian life.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0202-07.htm

This kid is mentally devastated from what he saw and had to do in Iraq. He'll probably never be right again. It's also a shame for the poor girl who found a total stranger had come home instead of the person she loved.

Fuck you George Bush, fuck you til your asshole is a perfect donkey asshole.

to end this war by the middle of next year!

War, what's it good for?

PTSD has to be hell for both of them.

The rest of the family sends similar condolences for the wreckage, as well.

OMFG.

he's got the smirk of his unc (uncle?)

throw some battle fatigues on that kid!

there's a spot reserved for right here for ya son:

The Bushes are more amoral than consciously immoral, I believe. Cheney and Rove are pure evil. W., Pierce, Jeb, Neil, Babs, Bush 41, the daughters - they are unconscionably banal. Well, maybe there is pure evil there, too.

I'm in the minority here, because I don't think Bush is fundamentally evil. And I don't think his family is, either. Good ol' W is a dim bulb who tries to please everybody, ends up pleasing nobody and is in way waaaayyy over his head. But evil? Nope, he's just not smart enough to be the kind of focused sociopath I associate with true malevolence.

Cheney? Rove? Rumsfeld?? Wolfowitz?? Ohhhh you betcha, evil. Calculatingly, mercilessly evil. Those guys scare the crap out of me.

And this is IMHO, friends. Don't nobody flame me cuz I don't think W's the spawn of Satan.

i've gone back and forth on the issue of whether or not * is really as evil as the people he surrounds himself with.

but I think the question is moot: he is complicit. The latter half of my first sentence tells all: look at the group of people of which he is a part. What's the old adage, "you are known by the company you keep"? He is complicit. Dimwitted? Definitely. I don't believe he is so dim, however, that he can't understand the simple concept - cavorting with the likes of Cheney, Rummy, Wolfy, et al, rightfully earns you the accurate descriptor, evil.

He like Cheney "Has other priorities in his life"

A study by the New England Journal of Bogus Medicine, shows that smoking cigarretes causes divorce.

Why doesn't Congress propose an amendment to make this kind of sacrelege illegal? :sarcasm:

He's suffering from severe PTSD. It's no wonder his marriage failed. He's been trying like hell to fit back into society, but it's been really difficult for him.

I guess he was trying like hell to have some assembly of normalcy in his life.

I feel really bad for him.

Welcome to the disposable army.

i believe it was before he was married since the girl he was with was referred to as his girlfriend who he later married and is now divorcing.

you could see he had a problem and even he said he did. i agree with those who say it's likely PTSD . very sad for him and the girl he married .

as there have been many, many cases of returning vets murdering their wives/girlfriends. It sounds like he is aware of his PTSD, enough that he will divorce instead of taking his rage out on her.

For all her bad luck, she's a lucky girl.

I'm sure he doesn't enjoy living his private life publicly now just because someone snapped a snazzy photo of him. Poor guy.

maybe he figured it was better to live apart because he was afraid something violent would happen. Sad all the way around.

I'd relate some personal stories about seeing changes in my friends and watching them no longer care about anything or seeing them "invest" in a daily case of beer at the Hadnot Point 7 day store or watching them engage in nice destructive behavior like drugs, multiple unsafe sexual practices or racing no helmet sans a care for any consequences but no one *really* cares.

Certainly some people may feel sorrow but like the saying goes "Everyone's your brother, until the rent is due..."