By: Miki Johnson For its "Final Salute" package, which won this year's Pulitzer Prizes for both feature writing and feature photography, Denver's Rocky Mountain News combined images by Todd Heisler and 12,000 words from Jim Sheeler to tell the story of local Marines responsible for notifying the families of fallen soldiers and helping them through the grieving process.
The 24-page, ad-free special Veterans' Day section had been conceived nearly a year prior when Sheeler met the story's central figure, Maj. Steve Beck, at a military funeral. Sheeler, who has covered "the war at home" since the first Iraq casualty returned to Colorado in March 2003, says he eventually enlisted the reluctant Beck to help show "the care that his Marines were showing to these families."
For nearly a year, Sheeler and Heisler followed mourning families and the soldiers who support them, gaining deep access in part because of the three-time Iraq embedded photographer's familiarity with combat realities and military terminology.
"He got to know the families as well as I did," Sheeler says of Heisler. "He was a huge support ? I wouldn't have been able to get through all this without him." And despite having to expose themselves during a difficult time, the families in "Final Salute" want their soldiers' stories told, Sheeler adds.
"The families really feel this is their story," he says, describing the scene at the News when the Pulitzer results came in. The story's subjects had been invited, along with Terry Cooper, the mother of the first Coloradoan who died in Iraq. Although known for her stoic courage, Cooper was extremely emotional on Pulitzer day. "She basically said that this recognition will mean that all of their sons and husbands won't be forgotten," adds Sheeler.
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