RUBS

By John

A general emailed in the past 24 hours threatening to kick me out. The first time the Army threatened to kick me out was in late 2005, just after I published a dispatch called “Gates of Fire.” Some of the senior level public affairs people who’d been upset by “Proximity Delays” were looking ever since for a reason to kick me out and they wanted to use “Gates of Fire” as a catapult. In the events described in that dispatch, I broke some rules by, for instance, firing a weapon during combat when some of our soldiers were fighting fairly close quarters and one was wounded and still under enemy fire. That’s right. I’m not sure what message the senior level public affairs people thought that would convey had they succeeded, (which they didn’t) but it was clear to me what they valued most. They want the press on a short leash, even at the expense of the life of a soldier.

Some readers might recall that LTC Barry Johnson denied my embed requests in 2006, but after I wrote “Censoring Iraq,” somehow the door opened up. Strangely, a couple days ago, LTC Barry Johnson invited me to be a panelist at a symposium in Washington D.C. on ”the role of blogs and bloggers in the news environment today. The intent is to help PAOs better understand the issues involved.” Call me suspicious, but my whiskers tingled on that one.

You know, Mike's reference to the Gates of Fire incident got me thinking about his decision to join the fight.

Remember that scene in "We Were Soldiers?" When Joe Galloway tells SGM Plumley "I'm a non-combatant" and gets a gruff "ain't no such thing today" in return?

I think there is place in battle, a certain nexus of intensity where the line between combatant and non-combatant blurs, that washes away rank, profession, class, and belief. Societal norms evaporate, leaving a small group of Americans, brothers, fighting for their fellow countrymen.

In Vietnam, the Army told Joe Galloway to pick up a rifle and stand with his fellow citizens. In Iraq, they are trying to kick Mike Yon out of theater for volunteering to do the same.

Update: Bob Owens has more.

March 23, 2007 05:41 AM Leadership

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Comments

John, IF I recall correctly, at another time in Viet Nam, Galloway went to a firebase to do a report. He spent his first? night pulling guard duty on the wire because the firebase was shorthanded. (I "recall" this being mentioned in the book "we were soldiers..." but it could have been from another Galloway interview).

Times have changed...

Jaimo · March 23, 2007 10:33 AM