I wrote about the military considering banning the sale of tobacco products on bases and ships today. (Charlie had an excellent piece the other day.)
I went back and looked up the so-called Marlboro Marine, Lance Corporal James Blake Miller, from this famous photo from the battle of Fallujah:
The photographer who took the picture went back a couple of years later and wrote a piece about the circumstances of the photo and Miller’s struggles with PTSD after leaving the service. Read the whole thing.
This passage is particularly striking. Instantly made famous by the picture, Miller gets a visit from a general days after it’s taken:
Then Maj. Gen. Richard F. Natonski, head of the 1st Marine Division, made a special trip to see the Marlboro Marine.
I was in the forward command center, which by then featured a large blowup of the photo. “You might want to see this,” an officer said, nudging me to follow.
To talk to Miller, Natonski had to weave between earthen berms, run through bombed-out buildings and make a mad sprint across a wide street to avoid sniper fire before diving into a shattered storefront.
“Miller, get your ass up here,” a first sergeant barked on the radio.
Miller had no idea what was going on as he ran through the rubble. He snapped to attention when he saw the general.
Natonski shook Miller’s hand. Americans had “connected” with his photo, the general said, and nobody wanted to see him wounded or dead.
“We can have you home tomorrow,” he said.
Miller hesitated, then shook his head. He did not want to leave his buddies behind. “It just wasn’t right,” he told me later.
The tall, lanky general towered over the grunt. “Your father raised one hell of a young man,” he said, looking Miller in the eye. They said goodbye, and Natonski scrambled back to the command post.
For his loyalty, Miller was rewarded with horror. The assault on Fallouja raged on, leaving nearly 100 Americans dead and 450 wounded. The bodies of some 1,200 insurgents littered the streets.