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2012 Feature
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Scott Ostrom returned from his second tour in Iraq with an honorable discharge from the Marines and post-traumatic streess disorder.
For nine months, Denver Post photographer Craig Walker chronicles Ostrom's anxiety attacks, depression, and job and relationship struggles. Ostrom was haunted by memories of the brutality in Iraq and carried guilt for things he did and didn't do in a war he no longer believed in. He admitted to Walker. "I was a brutal killer and I rejoiced in it. Now I'm trying to adjust and feel human again."
Walker photographed Ostrom looking over his military records and weeping after his application for a new apartment was rejected because of an assault charge. He'd been trying to escape an apartment that held only bad memories: two arrests and his own suicide attempt.
One in five veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from PTSD, depression or both, said Walker, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2010 for photos of a soldier's journey from high school to deployment. "These wars are going to affect not only veterans and their families but their communities and our nation for generations." |