Marine Pictured in Photo Unfazed by Fame.

Yahoo! News ^ | Sun, Nov 14, 2004 | AP

[lizol]

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 a Los Angeles Times photographer and transmitted by The Associated Press, has been printed in more than 100 newspapers and shown on network television.

Miller, 20, is shown with smudged camouflage paint and a bloody scratch on his nose, a cigarette drooping from the side of his mouth. He was exhausted and grimy after more than 12 hours of nonstop fighting.

Miller, a graduate of Shelby Valley High School, is serving with Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, scene of fierce battles over the past week.

He didn't know about the photo and his spreading fame until two Los Angeles Times staffers traveling with his unit told him about it.

"I was just smokin' a cigarette and someone takes my picture and it all blows up," Miller told them Friday.

The picture, which appeared in the Times on Wednesday, was taken on the afternoon after Charlie Company entered Fallujah under intense hostile fire.

Miller and his fellow platoon members had spent the day engaged in practically nonstop firefights, fending off snipers and attackers, and hadn't slept in more than 24 hours.

"It was kind of crazy out here at first," Miller says. "No one really knew what to expect. They told us about it all the time, but no one knows for sure until you get here."

He grew up in rural Jonancy, named after his great-great-great grandparents Joe and Nancy Miller, the first settlers in the area. His father, James Miller, is a mechanic and farmer, and the young Miller grew up working crops of potatoes, corn and green beans. His mother is a nurse.

His mother said she stays home as much as possible in case he calls.

"I don't want to miss his call because you never know if that call will be the last one," Webber said.

She said she bought an answering machine in case Miller, the oldest of her three sons, calls while she's out. She has one message on the machine from Aug. 1.

"And when I get lonely, and it's been a few days, I play that tape," Webber said.

Webber said her son's decision to join the Marines has changed the way she thinks about America.

"Until my son went into the Marines, I never really realized what that flag stood for — but now I do," she said.

[mel]

You may have meant that as sarcasm, but the sad truth is he probably would have put in for PH for the scratch

[jess35]

I thought at the time that this woman must be a liberal, because only a liberal would so completely miss the importance of this picture and what that young man was all about

"Lifestyle nazis" aren't just limited to the liberal wing of politics.

Years ago, people wouldn't have thought anything about that picture. Now, the brainwashing has set in and people instinctively recoil from the cigarette. In 20 years it will be something different. Pretty soon, you'll have to hide in a room to scarf down anything with fat or sugar. People will glare at you for sitting on the porch instead of exercising and tobacco products, no doubt, will be a death penalty offense.

[zip]

ping