Craig F. Walker, a photojournalist for The Denver Post, has won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for feature photography after chronicling the story of Ian Fisher, a young Lakewood man who went from high school to the U.S. Army in Iraq and returned home. Immediately after the announcement, Walker was unsure what to say.

“What am I supposed to say?” he asked, referring to his three-part “American Soldier” series. “I’m speechless.”

It is the Post’s sixth Pulitzer and the first since 2000, when the paper won for its coverage of the Columbine High School shooting. William Dean Singleton, the chairman and chief executive of MediaNews Group, which owns the Post, is particularly proud of the award, given the tough financial year for the paper.

The 2010 Pulitzer Prize board also honored Colorado Springs Gazette reporter Dave Philipps, naming him a finalist in the local reporting category for a series on combat soldiers at Fort Carson who returned home to commit violence and then struggled with mental-health issues. And a Boulder High School graduate, New York Times technology writer Matt Richtel, won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting on national affairs for “Driven to Distraction,” a series on driving and multitasking (via the Daily Camera).