The "Marlboro Marine," three years later

Rolling Stone has his story. A brief excerpt:

Among many veterans, the image remains a matter of debate. "There's almost too much in that picture to talk about," says Paul Rieckhoff, an Iraq vet and the executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "He's the gritty patriot who is willing to sacrifice everything, the poster child for the tough Iraq War hero. It's one of those pictures that is vague enough so you can manipulate it into whatever you want it to be."

The best way to understand the photo, Rieckhoff suggests, is to put it next to a picture of Miller now. "That's a fair way of understanding that war is not what just happens over there — that when we come home, there is a whole other fight we have to deal with. That's the part of the fight when nobody takes pictures, and it's hard to get people's attention, and it's hard to get resources."