Anniversary of Iraq Liberation from Saddam

Marine in historic war photo identified

On April 9, 2003, as a tow chain pulled down the larger-than-life statue of Saddam Hussein in downtown Baghdad, news photographers captured one of the most iconic moments of the Iraq war.
Two similar versions of the same photo — taken by photographers from Reuters and the Associated Press — were plastered on the front page of newspapers across the world, symbolizing the end of the invasion. In each, a gritty-looking Marine in the foreground eyes the crowd and the statue. Captions accompanying the photos didn't include his name.

Now, on the fourth anniversary of the statue's fall, Marine Corps Times has identified and located the mystery Marine. He's back in Iraq.

Sgt. Kirk Dalrymple, then 22, now 26, pushed into Baghdad in 2003 as an assaultman, a job with responsibility for supporting fire against enemy tanks and bunkers. Now a Criminal Investigation Division agent, he's on his second deployment to Iraq.