Part One: Battles After the War

National

1 of 24

Next Photo

(Luis Sinco / LAT)

Email

1.	Palin has risen quickly from PTA to VP pick
2.	Boy, 15, dies of injuries to become 4th fatality in Eagle Rock car crash
3.	LAPD on the hunt for serial killer
4.	Sarah Palin a risky VP choice for John McCain
5.	Plane landing at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank crashes

Friday: The day in photos

World in photos

2008 Democratic National Convention: Thursday

Driving the very first Porsche

Life on NASCAR's infields

Part One: Battles After the War

November 9, 2004

This is the photo that made Marine Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller -- the "Marlboro Marine" --famous. This photo also changed my life. I’m Luis Sinco, a Los Angeles Times staff photographer, and I took it while embedded with his Marine unit in Fallouja. We had spent the previous night in a traffic circle, pinned down by enemy fire, and just before I snapped this photo, a tank had blasted an insurgent position next door to ours. Many people looked at the photo and saw a heroic figure; I saw, in his eyes, a man at the point of breaking. It was how I felt, too.