Demons haunted soldier made famous by Iraq photo; dies huffing aerosol, couldn't get VA psych help

[DogPoundPup]

After being lionized by many as the human face of the U.S. effort to rebuild a troubled Iraq, Dwyer brought the battlefield home with him, often grappling violently with delusions he was being hunted by Iraqi killers.

His internal terror got so bad that, in 2005, the Long Island native shot up his El Paso, Texas, apartment and held police at bay for three hours with a 9mm handgun, believing Iraqis were trying to get in.

On June 28, police in Pinehurst, N.C., who responded to Dwyer's home, said the 31-year-old collapsed and died after abusing a computer cleaner aerosol. Dwyer had moved to North Carolina after living in Texas.

Maureen Dwyer, who broke into sobs as she spoke about her son, said she agreed to be interviewed despite her grief because she said she hoped to bring attention to the disorder."Every second that goes by, there is another soldier just like Joseph," Maureen Dwyer said. "Another family can't go through this. All the politicians talk so great about the soldiers, about patriotism, but mental illness is something they are not putting enough into."
http://www.thespec.com/News/CanadaWorld/article/399583



*"He loved the picture, don't get me wrong, but he just couldn't get over the war," his mother, Maureen Dwyer, said by telephone from her home in Sunset Beach, N.C. "He wasn't Joseph anymore. Joseph never came home."
"Every second that goes by, there is another soldier just like Joseph," Maureen Dwyer said. "Another family can't go through this. All the politicians talk so great about the soldiers, about patriotism, but mental illness is something they are not putting enough into."

[beachmom]

1. This story just breaks my heart. nt

[hisownpetard]

2. Mine, too. What a damned shame.

[peacetalksforall]

3. I despise our leaders who approve and vote to do this - just try to remember

the last time you heard of this administration attempting to make real peace. We are on a plunder and conquer mission. Including Dem leaders. Why don't we acknowledge this as a nation. It is stupidity to allow ourseleves to be fooled.

Know what Halliburton, KBR, GE, Northrup, SunSystems, Dyncorp, Blackwater and all their friends are thinking if their Public Relations people excalate this type of sub-reproting up to their Board? They won't feel one bit of compassion, they will only want to know how to silence it.

Stockholders are enablers as much as the lobbying firms these people employ.

This is a real war - it is a war of people who believe they can own the resources of earth and sky for their own purposes and profits. They are at war against the leaders and defenders of all the countries on their target list. They are at war with us. Their weapons against us are lies, all five tv networks and affiliates, right wing radio, the newspapers who publish dribble and lies, the theft of our life details on THEIR databases, and threats to shut down the world's internet.

The mother is right - people should know more about the state of health of our kid-soldiers. Our corporate owners work hard to keep things quiet.

In right wing churches they will say Let Us Remember Him - meaning his service. They won't say Let Us Remember HIM and the real reasons he was there.

I thank the mother for speaking and being quoted. All honor to the poor mentally ill son. May this country heal itself and end this pursuit of earth resources by a few for a few.

[peacetalksforall]

5. I wonder if they will order the media to never show that image again.

[Blue Diadem]

4. "He wasn't Joseph anymore. Joseph never came home."

Joseph and so many other soldiers are among those who are forgotten and not honored because their "wounds" aren't visible. How awful that we don't provide sufficient care for them.

RIP Joseph Dwyer

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. And yet there are still people in this country who lust for war