In December of 2003, a friend gave Jim MacMillan a fateful tip: The Associated Press was looking for a photographer to send to Iraq.

The 44-year-old Philadelphia Daily News staffer was keenly aware that history was being written in Iraq, and he was intrigued by the possibility of exploring America's involvement in the Middle East. In short, the opportunity was too good to pass up so he applied and got the job. The rest is history.

This month marks the end of MacMillan's yearlong assignment in Iraq, and when the photographer returns to the Daily News, he'll be greeted as a Pulitzer winner. Three of MacMillan's photos were included in the AP's group portfolio that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Photography.

"I grew up in the Vietnam era and as a child I remember all the great photographers of that time and how [their work] affected society," MacMillan said last week via a shaky phone connection from Baghdad.

For the last several weeks, the photographer has been running AP's photo desk in Baghdad. He's not sure what effect winning a share of the Pulitzer will have on his career, but it will at least be a nice line on his resume.

"I've noticed [winning a Pulitzer] has had a more profound effect on some careers than others," he says. "Some people, not that I blame them, exploit the opportunity more than others. It's hard for a guy of my age to move to the next level without that kind of acclaim."

MacMillan says he's happy with his job at the Daily News and is looking forward to getting back to it. Despite the boost winning the Pulitzer gives him, he cautions photographers who would volunteer for Iraq duty to make sure they're going for the right reasons.

"[Iraq] is an irrational risk for career enhancement," MacMillan says, adding that one's reasons for going to Iraq must be personal rather than professional.

"I'm uncomfortable with the burden [my assignment] has put on other people," MacMillan admits. "It's something I underestimated beforehand. Frankly, I underestimated the risk as well."

MacMillan says the intensity of the war surprised him, and the assignments where he was embedded with troops on the frontlines of battle were brutally difficult.

"You have your boots on 24 hours a day, the conditions are unspeakably difficult, the heat was mind-blowing," he says. "You do all of this in heavy body armor, plus people are trying to kill you."

MacMillan suffered several minor injuries along the way, mostly strains. One of the quickest things he learned from the troops while sleeping out in the open was to go to bed with a pile of rocks within arm's reach to ward off wild dogs in the night.

"The lack of plumbing has lots of ramifications," he says, with no need to elaborate. He went three weeks during one stretch without a shower, with only the occasional baby wipe to clean himself.

But through it all MacMillan captured some stunning moments through his lens. The three photos included in the Pulitzer portfolio were all taken while MacMillan was embedded with coalition troops during some of the most intense fighting of the last two years.

In the battle of Najaf, MacMillan captured the resourcefulness of one soldier who created a dummy out of his helmet, sunglasses and a stick to try to draw out enemy snipers. Another photo taken during the same blazing hot August day shows soldiers hugging the ground, as one imagines bullets and glass flying overhead. MacMillan also captured the tragedy of war with a photo of Marines grieving over a colleague killed near Ramadi.

MacMillan says one of the most difficult parts of the assignment has been dealing with a number of friends-military personnel and journalists among them--who have died during the war.

"I've lost more friends here than during the rest of my life put together," he says. "The vast majority of them were soldiers or Marines I've spent time with who later died."

Another frustration was not being able to move about freely. MacMillan arrived in Iraq last April just after insurgents in Fallujah brutally murdered four American security guards. That incident marked the beginning of the most intense period of fighting, and insurgent attacks still shake the country on a daily basis. In the past year, MacMillan has only completed 12 non-embedded assignments outside the heavily fortified "Green Zone," the last time coming in September. Since then he's been in virtual "lockdown" mode, working on the AP picture desk seven days a week in 12- to 18-hour shifts.

"I'm essentially a street photographer and I haven't been able to exercise that at all except for the embeds, which have some elements of that [style]," he says.

But MacMillan is walking away from his assignment with a better understanding of what soldiers go through and a deep admiration for the AP staffers in Iraq.

"My hope is that I return to my life as normal as I knew it before," he says. "As I stand here in Iraq I recognize how easy we have it in the U.S.--how safe and easy and free it is. I hope I don't loose track of that."