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James Blake Miller (born July 10, 1984) is a US Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War, who fought in the Second Battle of Fallujah and was dubbed the "Marlboro Man" (and the "Marlboro Marine") after an iconic photograph of him with a cigarette was published in newspapers in the USA in 2004.
During the battle of Fallujah, Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller became known as the Marlboro Marine when a picture of him, grimy and bloodied, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, ran in 150 newspapers and magazines.
The photo became a symbol of the Iraq conflict when it ran in newspapers across America in 2004. But the soldier returned home to Kentucky, where he battles the demons of post-traumatic stress.
The photo (shot by the Los Angeles Times photojournalist Luis Sinco) was so instantly popular that the Marines offered to yank Miller off the front line so he wouldn’t get hurt; Miller refused.
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."
Miller, who received an honorable discharge after two tours of duty in Iraq, walks the property he grew up on in Jonancy, Ky., a small town in the eastern part of the state.
During the battle of Fallujah, Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller became known as the Marlboro Marine when a picture of him, grimy and bloodied, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, ran in 150 newspapers and magazines.
The photo became a symbol of the Iraq conflict when it ran in newspapers across America in 2004. But the soldier returned home to Kentucky, where he battles the demons of post-traumatic stress.
The photo (shot by the Los Angeles Times photojournalist Luis Sinco) was so instantly popular that the Marines offered to yank Miller off the front line so he wouldn’t get hurt; Miller refused.
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."
Miller, who received an honorable discharge after two tours of duty in Iraq, walks the property he grew up on in Jonancy, Ky., a small town in the eastern part of the state.