The Washington Times has earned the Society of Professional Journalists Public Service Award for the investigative series "Disposable Heros," a story that exposed "unethical treatment of war veterans during a VA medical experiment."

In a note to staff, editor John Solomon gave shoutouts to Audrey Hudson, Rod Lamkey, Christian Fuchs and Alex Wilson. See his full note after the jump...

Folks:

For those who were out of the newsroom last night when we made the impromptu announcement...

The Washington Times has captured one of journalism's most coveted prizes - the Society of Professional Journalists Public Service Award - for its investigative series last year entitled "Disposable Heroes" that disclosed the unethical treatment of war veterans during a VA medical experiment. As most of you know, our 10-part series prompted letters of outrage from Barack Obama and members of Congress, a full-scale congressional investigation and hearings and ultimately an apology and sweeping changes inside the VA.

As a result, veterans enrolled in future medical experiments by the VA will face much better safeguards than those in place when Iraq War veteran James Elliott, a PTSD sufferer, experienced a near-lethal psychotic episode while being treated with an anti-smoking drug the VA knew could cause such side effects.

There's lot of credit to go around for this impressive body of work. Audrey Hudson led our dogged reporting effort, spending hours learning the story of Mr. Elliott, interviewing VA doctors and patients and gathering internal documents. She also became the first Times reporter to work directly with network television to create a combined package. Her collaboration with Brian Ross and ABC News only further catapulted the story's reach. And her tireless work with every other department in the newsroom helped create a multimedia, four-dimensional bonanza that educated our readers about the severity of the VA's lapses through sights, sound and text.

Rod Lamkey shot those haunting photos of Mr Elliott that we have seen over and over again the last eight months. Rod's exquisite work captured the despair of an Iraq war veteran who was let down by the very agency that was supposed to treat his illness and who in his own words declared he felt like a "disposable hero."

Christian Fuchs, our first multimedia editor, shot the incredible video that brought readers inside the near fatal confrontation Mr. Elliott had with police while having the drug-induced psychotic episode and the struggles the veteran experienced while recovering.

Our Graphics Department put together some fantastic graphics that helped break down the numbers, the issues and the timelines of a very complex medical ethics story.

And Alex Wilson put together one of the most elaborate Flash interactives that tied the entire project together for Web users and kept them up to date on every twist and turn of the story.

Attached are links to the entire series, starting with the impact and going back to the original Disposable Heroes expose.

Please join me in giving the entire team a big round of applause.

John