War Torn by Rich Messina

Mary Ellen Bell's 4-year old nephew, JJ, and a folded flag are her closest ties to the brother she lost in the Iraq war. Army Staff-Sgt. Anthony Orlando Thompson died in an ambush near Tikrit. "He was my heart," she says of her youngest brother who she helped raise and convinced to join the army as a career as she did. “My father is sleeping" says JJ who is currently living with Bell and her family while his mother deals with the loss and finishes her degree. The two stand in front of a flag presented to Bell upon her retirement from the Army. Like that flag, Bell's support of the war has faded.