James Blake Miller
United States Marine
James Blake Miller (born July 10, 1984) is a United States 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 United States in 2004. Miller suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after the war.
Early life
Miller grew up in Jonancy, Kentucky. Miller's parents' inspiration of his middle name was the show Dynasty, and both grandfathers served in the military with one serving in combat during the Vietnam War. He became an ordained minister. Not interested in working in the coal mines, Miller joined the United States Marine Corps, with the intention of eventually working in law enforcement.
Iraq War
Second Battle of Fallujah
Miller was part of Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, a unit which took part in the Second Battle of Fallujah in November 2004. Los Angeles Times photographer Luis Sinco took a photo of 20-year-old Miller leaning against a wall, smoking a cigarette. In explaining the photograph, Sinco said that "His expression caught my eye. To me, it said: terrified, exhausted, and glad just to be alive.
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This entry incorporates text from “James Blake Miller” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.