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<p>The young Marine lighted a cigarette and let it dangle. White smoke wafted around his helmet. His face was smeared with war paint. Blood trickled from his right ear and the bridge of his nose.</p> <p>Momentarily deafened by cannon blasts, he didn't know the shooting had stopped. He stared at the sunrise. His expression caught my eye. To me, it said: terrified, exhausted and glad just to be alive. I recognized that look because that's I how felt too.</p>

Post-war stress too much for Marlboro Man's marriage By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles (Filed: 28/06/2006) A US marine whose photograph touched the hearts of countless Americans has filed for divorce just weeks after his lavish wedding was funded by donations from the public. An iconic picture of James Blake Miller, 21, was taken in 2004 during a break from combat in Fallujah and was published in hundreds of newspapers. Showing him grubby-faced and exhausted with a cigarette dangling from his lips, it earned him the nickname Marlboro Man. After his return to the United States, the lance corporal revealed...

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 stres

LONG FORK - The steep mountainsides in western Pike County are painted in the drabbest of winter browns and grays now, but already there is a feeling in the air that the land is ready to break out with spring color in a few weeks, bringing new life, new hope. Maybe that's a good omen for a young man back home after surviving the meat grinder of Iraq but still struggling to cope with the psychological shocks of all he's seen and done, shocks that ultimately cut short his career in the U.S. Marine Corps. Millions of Americans remember him...

PIKE COUNTY MARINE IS HOME, LIVING, COPING AND HEALING By Jim Warren HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER LONG FORK - The steep mountainsides in western Pike County are painted in the drabbest of winter browns and grays now, but already there is a feeling in the air that the land is ready to break out with spring color in a few weeks, bringing new life, new hope.Maybe that's a good omen for a young man back home after surviving the meat grinder of Iraq but still struggling to cope with the psychological shocks of all he's seen and done, shocks that ultimately...

The young Marine dubbed the "Marlboro Man" after his front-page appearance in The Post has become a celebrity poster boy for the U.S. effort in Fallujah and a hero in his hometown.[snip] A portrait of the rugged and muddied Miller — snapped after 12 hours of bloody combat with guerrillas — became a powerful symbol for the American forces' gritty effort to retake Fallujah. Marine brass were thrilled with the poignancy of the shot, and Lt. Gen. John Sattler visited Miller's company to applaud them for the feature. News agencies that ran the shot were besieged with calls and...

Marine Pictured in Photo Unfazed by Fame PIKEVILLE, Ky. - An eastern Kentucky Marine whose battle-grimed face has quickly become a symbol of the fighting in the Iraqi city of Fallujah says he doesn't understand what all the fuss is about. But his mother is thrilled. Maxie Webber, of Robinson Creek in eastern Kentucky, said the close-up of Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller let her know that her son was OK. Webber said she first saw it Wednesday on CBS. "I just sat here and I thought, that's my son," Webber said. "I couldn't believe it." The photograph, taken by...

Smokin' Marine: Publicity a drag By Patrick J. McDonnell, Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times; Patrick McDonnell is traveling with the Marines in Fallujah; staff writer P.J. Huffstutter in Chicago contributed to this report Published November 14, 2004 FALLUJAH, Iraq -- The Marlboro man was angry: He has a war to fight, and he's running out of smokes. "If you want to write something," he tells a reporter, "tell Marlboro I'm down to four packs, and I'm here in Fallujah till who knows when. Maybe they can send some. And they can bring down the price a bit." Those are the...

FALLUJAH, Iraq — The Marlboro man was angry: He has a war to fight, and he's running out of smokes. "If you want to write something," he tells an intruding reporter, "tell Marlboro I'm down to four packs, and I'm here in Fallujah till who knows when. Maybe they can send some. And they can bring down the price a bit." Those are the unfettered sentiments of Marine Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller, 20, a country boy from Kentucky who has been thrust unwittingly and somewhat unwillingly into the role of poster boy for a war on the other side...

PIKEVILLE, Ky. -- The mother of a Marine from eastern Kentucky now fighting in Iraq said she was thrilled to see her son's photograph on the front pages of newspapers this week. Maxie Webber of Robinson Creek in Pike County said the close-up of Lance Cpl. Blake Miller, his face covered with dirt and a cigarette hanging from his lips, let her know that her son was OK. Miller, 20, a graduate of Shelby Valley High School, is serving with Charlie Company of the U.S. Marines First Division in Fallujah, an insurgent stronghold. Fallujah has been the site of...