MacArthur 5K run to benefit vets in crisis

Joseph Dwyer didn't want to die. Like so many post-traumatic stress disorder sufferers, the former Army combat medic took a fatal overdose of drugs to get "some peace -- to forget the horrors of war," his older brother Brian Dwyer recalled.

Dwyer was on hand Wednesday for the launch of this year's Long Island MacArthur Airport 5K Run for Veterans. The race, which is set for June 4, benefits Long Island 9-1-1 Veterans, a charity that provides financial assistance to veterans in crisis in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

"Life can be really tough for returning veterans," race director and airport employee Arthur Turner said at the event, where a painting replicating a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of Pfc. Joseph Dwyer, then 24, carrying an Iraqi child from battle to safety was presented to town and airport officials.

The photograph, by Warren Zinn of Army Times, ran on the front pages of U.S. newspapers in the initial days of the Iraq invasion in 2003. Dwyer, originally from Mount Sinai, was with the U.S. Army 37 Cavalry at the "tip of the tip of the tip of the spear" as American forces marched up the Euphrates toward Baghdad, said Chris Delaney, who heads 9-1-1 Veterans.

The painting, by Angelo Marino, a disabled Air Force veteran now in his late 70s, has hung in Brookhaven Town Hall for the past year and now will be displayed at the airport in Ronkonkoma, which regularly welcomes home Long Island veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Joe Dwyer saw and smelled and experienced the horrors of war," Delaney said. "He served with honor and when he came home, we as a nation failed him. . . . This iconic image and heroic story turned tragic. We're hoping -- with Long Islanders turning out to run this race and support us -- that we can turn this back into a hero story again."

Last year's inaugural race on MacArthur's taxiways and runways drew 1,255 entrants and netted $45,000 for the nonprofit. Delaney said the charity raised almost $200,000 overall last year, 95 percent of which was spent on veterans' needs. The charity's checks for such things as heating costs, electric bills, rent and mortgage payments go directly to the providers.

Airport Commissioner Teresa Rizzuto said BAE Systems of Greenlawn and Ronkonkoma-based vitamin manufacturer NBTY had each pledged $15,000 in support of this year's race, "a testament to the commitment of the local community to our veterans."

Kathleen Walsh, Brookhaven deputy supervisor and councilwoman, who attended the event, spoke of her own 27-year-old son who returned from Afghanistan in 2007 suffering a traumatic brain injury and PTSD. He and Dwyer became close friends with three other former Long Island servicemen during their time spent in treatment at the Northport VA Medical Center. "Of the five young men, just two of them are still alive," she said, her voice wavering. "The other three of them have succumbed to PTSD or its side effects." Walsh said her son continues to receive treatment at the hospital.