About the Program

The program is named in honor of Joseph P. Dwyer, a US Army Medic in the Iraq War who, in the earliest days of the invasion in 2003, was pictured cradling a wounded boy while his unit was fighting its way up the Euphrates to Baghdad. PFC Dwyer’s post-war struggles with PTSD resulted in his untimely and tragic death in 2008.

The Joseph P. Dwyer Program was created by then-New York State Senator Lee Zeldin, who is now a congressman representing New York State’s 1st District. Zeldin served four years in the Army active duty, having been deployed in 2006 to Tikrit, Iraq. 

Started in 2012, the Dwyer Program now offers peer-to-peer counseling for veterans suffering from PTSD or TBI and any veteran looking to reintegrate into civilian society. It began in Suffolk County and quickly expanded to almost half the counties in New York State.