Found this haunting image of a Marine with the “2,000-yard stare” currently in storage at the National Museum of the Marine Corps awaiting display. (If anyone recognizes the artist, please let me know).
It is, of course, an homage to war artist Thomas Lea’s The 2000 Yard Stare of WWII fame:
“2000 YARD STARE”
“Down from Bloody Ridge Too Late. He’s Finished – Washed Up – Gone”
“As we passed sick bay, still in the shell hole, it was crowded with wounded, and somehow hushed in the evening light. I noticed a tattered Marine standing quietly by a corpsman, staring stiffly at nothing. His mind had crumbled in battle, his jaw hung, and his eyes were like two black empty holes in his head. Down by the beach again, we walked silently as we passed the long line of dead Marines under the tarpaulins. He left the States 31 months ago. He was wounded in his first campaign. He has had tropical diseases. He half-sleeps at night and gouges Japs out of holes all day. Two-thirds of his company has been killed or wounded. He will return to attack this morning. How much can a human being endure?” Life Collection of Art WWII, U.S. Army Center of Military History, Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
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Let me introduce myself. I am a bit of a conflict junkie. I am fascinated by war and warfare, assassination, personal protection and weaponry ranging from spud guns and flame throwers to thermonuclear bombs and Soviet-trained Ebola monkeys. In short, if it’s violent or a tool to create violence it is kind of my thing.
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Tom Lea was the artist.
I recall the LIFE picture, but I remember the title as The1000 Yard Stare. I just looked at my copy of LIFE’S Picture History of World War II, and it isn’t there. Not in my American Heritage Picture History of WWII, either. I guess I misremember.