[Vision2020] Medic made famous in photo enlisted after 9-11

[John Harrell]

Medic made famous in photo enlisted after 9-11

Air Force Times
http://www.airforcetimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1713440.php
March 27, 2003
Robert Hodierne

[see URL for photo]

DOHA, QATAR — The war in Iraq is only a week old and one photograph has already become an
icon: A young, grimy soldier in full
battle gear, a look a deep concern on his face, carrying a wounded Iraqi child to safety.
The photograph has been on newspaper front
pages around the world and broadcast on most American television networks. The military
brass has mentioned it when briefing the
press. 

The soldier in the picture, Pfc. Joseph P. Dwyer, 26, is still in the field, about 80
miles outside Baghdad with his outfit in the 3rd
Infantry Division. [He was misidentified by a superior in the field and in the original
caption.] Until today, he hadn’t a clue that he was
famous. His reaction when he found out? 

He laughed. 

And couldn’t stop laughing. He was both amused by this and embarrassed. 

“Really, I was just one of a group of guys. I wasn’t standing out more than anyone else,”
he said in a telephone conversation during
some rare down time. 

Dwyer has lived the past six years in Wagram, N.C., where his parents moved after his
father retired as a New York transit
policeman. Dwyer grew up in Mt. Sinai on New York’s Long Island. His three older brothers
are New York City policeman. One
brother lost a partner when the Trade Center towers collapsed. 

“I mean everyone lost someone, a lot of good people,” he said. Dwyer was sure that he had
lost someone, too; he believed that his
brother had been killed. “I thought he was gone.” 

But when he talked to him the night of Sept. 11 and learned his brother was safe, “I knew
I had to do something.” 

Two days later, Dwyer enlisted in the Army to become a medic. 

“It was just what I could do at the time,” he said. 

Tuesday morning, when the now famous image of Dwyer was taken, his unit, the 3rd Squadron
of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, had
been ambushed repeatedly the night before as they worked their way north along the
Euphrates River. Just as the sun was rising, they
were ambushed again by Iraqi troops firing from tree lines on both sides of the road. The
Americans fired back with everything they
had and called in airstrikes. 

An Iraqi family was caught in the crossfire. When the fighting stopped, the father came
running out, screaming that his family needed
help. 

“It came over that there was a family that had some injuries,” Dwyer recalled. “We went
on down there. It was kind of hectic at first.
… We didn’t know what was going on. Who was friendly and who wasn’t. 

“We didn’t want to get too close to the village knowing that there could be possible
enemy there,” he went on. “We saw him with the
child. He came running out to where we had the hospital set up.” 

And then he and some other soldiers, guns at the ready, bolted from cover to help. Dwyer
reached the father and grabbed his son
from him, cradling the young boy in a protective embrace as he raced back to safer
ground. 

The boy, about 4 years old, “grabbed right onto to me, that was the weird thing,” Dwyer
said. “The kid was doing all right. I could
feel him breathing real hard and I was just carrying him and he didn’t cry one bit and
you know he was a cute little kid. 

“He was scared, though, you could tell.” 

“You know, for (the father) to trust us to take his child over and know that we’d take
care of him, maybe it’s just me being
optimistic, but I think it was a good feeling knowing he trusted us to take care of his
child. 

“It was a little kid. I have little nieces and nephews back home. … It was just a kid, it
wasn’t an enemy. This is what I signed up to
do, to help people.” 

That day was the first time Dwyer treated any wounded. The little boy had a broken left
leg, but Dwyer says he’ll make a quick
recovery. 

Though gratifying as the encounter may have been, it left Dwyer with some lingering
concerns; he wishes he could talk to the family. 

“I wonder how they felt about us,” he said. “I mean if I was in their position, and this
was going on, I’d be mad at me, you know, for
being here. I don’t know. I wouldn’t mind being able to talk to him, that’s for sure.” 

Dwyer nevertheless is glad he’s in Iraq. 

“I know that people are going to be better for it. The whole world will be. I hope being
here is positive because we’re a caring group
of people out here. If they find that out that would be great. Maybe they’d stop shooting.”

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