War Is Personal

Eugene Richards

Reportage by Getty Images

MINERAL, ILLINOIS, 2008. Dusty Hill, 23, a former sergeant in the Illinois National Guard, lost both his hands, one eye, most of his right ear, and suffered fourth-degree burns on one-third of his body after an IED explosion in Baghdad ejected him from the gunner seat of his Humvee into pools of burning fuel. After months of hospitalization Dusty now prides himself that he can change his young daughter’s diapers and feed her with his mechanical hand. He uses the bare remains of his left hand to feel her forehead and make sure she’s not too warm.

Eugene Richards, "War Is Personal," in POYi Archive, Item #44701, http://archive.poy.org/items/show/44701 (accessed November 23, 2024).