Magazine cover brings whirlwind of fame and attention to soldier

Stars and Stripes ^ | Wednesday, January 28, 2004 | Lisa Burgess

[Veritas_est]

Wednesday, January 28, 2004

Magazine cover brings whirlwind of fame and attention to soldier

Spc. Billie Grimes

By Lisa Burgess, Stars and Stripes European edition, Tuesday, January 27, 2004

Lisa Burgess / S&S Spc. Billie Grimes, one of three 1st Armored Division soldiers featured on Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” cover in December, during a Monday visit to the Pentagon.

ARLINGTON, Va. — At 26, Spc. Billie Grimes is too young to remember Andy Warhol, the New York artist who once said, “In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.”

After appearing on the Dec. 23 cover of Time magazine, along with fellow 1st Armored Division soldiers Sgt. Marquette Whiteside and Sgt. Ronald Buxton, Grimes definitely understands the concept.

The trio was chosen to represent all American soldiers. But inevitably, the spotlight has shone on the individuals featured on the popular weekly’s most prominent issue of the year.

Ever since the magazine hit the newsstand, Grimes’ life has been a whirlwind of interviews, television appearances, and meetings with high-ranking officials and celebrities.

She, Whiteside and Buxton were guests of President Bush at his Jan. 20 State of the Union address. The trio rang the opening bell on Wall Street in New York. They’ve met with Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, Acting Army Secretary Les Brownlee and a host of other Army brass.

And the press junket was supposed to culminate on Sunday with a half-time appearance at the Super Bowl, but that’s been nixed, Grimes said.

“I’m not disappointed,” combat medic Grimes said during a Monday interview with Stars and Stripes in the Pentagon. “The Colts are my team and they lost [the playoffs], so I don’t care.”

All in all, it’s been quite a ride, Grimes said. But she’s going to be glad when it’s all over.

Fame, said Grimes, “is a lot more hectic than I thought it would be. I’m actually looking forward to going back to Iraq, just to get away from all this.”

Grimes will get her wish after a concert appearance with country singer Toby Keith in Houston on Saturday night.

From Texas, Grimes will report to Baltimore-Washington International Airport, where she’ll fly back to Iraq, the 1st Armored Division’s C Company, 501st Field Support Battalion.

A quiet, thoughtful young woman, Grimes chose the Army in May 2002, after a four-year stint in the Army Reserve.

She arrived in Friedberg, Germany, in July 2002 to sign in with her current unit, which was sent to Iraq less than a year later, arriving in Baghdad in early June.

Grimes later was detached and sent to help staff an emergency medic station for the 1st AD’s Survey Platoon, Headquarters Battery, 2nd Battalion 3rd Field Artillery Regiment.

The “Tomb Raiders,” as they call themselves, are based in Giessen, Germany.

In Iraq, they stay in the Azimiya Palace, a compound in the restive Adhamiya neighborhoods that has been mortared and shot at repeatedly.

“If I was a cat, I’d have used up seven of my nine lives,” Grimes said.

Grimes has been on at least two patrols that ultimately resulted in severely injured or dead U.S. personnel, including a Nov. 1 patrol that cost the life of the platoon’s popular leader, 1st Lt. Ben Colgan.

His death “was the first one where it really hit home,” Grimes said. “We were actually out here and people are dying.”

She was also there on Dec. 10, when Time reporter Michael Weisskopf and photographer James Nachtwey were injured after someone threw an explosive into their Humvee.

Weisskopf lost his hand after attempting to toss the grenade away; Nachtwey had shrapnel injuries, as did two of the platoon’s soldiers.

“It’s kind of a bittersweet feeling,” being a medic, Grimes said. “I couldn’t help Lt. Colgan, but we saved the reporters ... it’s kind of a teeter-totter feeling.”

Grimes first got the news that she was on the cover while in Kuwait, where she was on the first leg of a scheduled two-week R&R to see her family in Lebanon, Ind.

“Someone came up to me with a Stars and Stripes and said, ‘Hey, did you know you’re on the cover?’ ” Grimes said.

“I was like, ‘Oh, God, what is it going to be like when I get home?’”

She soon found out.

From the moment she got home, on Dec. 24, to the day she left, “the phone never stopped ringing.”

She said it was her mother, Wanda Grimes, who helped put all the attention “in perspective.”

“My mom told me to keep it in perspective, just go with the little ride I’m on,” Grimes said. “She said, ‘You were picked for a reason.’”

Grimes said she doesn’t anticipate any envy from her unit mates when she gets back, although she knows she’s going to get plenty of ribbing.

Besides, the cover wasn’t about Billie Grimes, she said, “it’s about the entire U.S. military. All three of us are really proud of who we’re representing.”

[Veritas_est]

Ping

[Britton J Wingfield]

Good for her.

[CholeraJoe]

Katie Couric couldn't even tell she was female.

[Valin]

Yes, but there's so much Katie Colonic doesn't know we'd be here for the next year and just scratch the surface.

[familyop]

Our young men, having seen that our roughest, toughest combat soldier (Lynch) was a woman, according to our Party and the press, know that our country doesn't need men any more. They're also learning from their friends and relatives that all soldiers must be single for life to avoid depression and suicide while overseas (natural human reaction to being betrayed by a spouse or girlfriend, which these days, is essentially a spouse). Thus, we will be getting yet more "confirmed bachelors" and "confirmed bachelorettes" in our military.

Rome had such policies just before it fell. And as for the military? I would not do it again under the present circumstances. I would demand a return to traditional (say, 1700s) divorce policy and an end to U.S. lies about Amazons in our military.

[Moose4]

I couldn't either, when I first saw the thumbnail picture of the cover. With full battle gear on including helmet, and that stern expression on her face, she looked mannish. With the helmet off and a big smile in the picture above, now it's easy to see she's actually kind of cute. And she's got a good head on her shoulders, too.

God bless and protect all our soldiers over there, and the soldiers of our allies in the "coalition of the willing." They are the best we have to offer.

}:-)4

[CholeraJoe]

They interviewed her on Fox and Friends a couple of weeks ago and she's very articulate.

[Prodigal Son]

What you said is so bizarre. Are you quoting someone?

[familyop]

"Yes, but there's so much Katie Colonic doesn't know..."

Katie Couric knows her own advocacy, which says that there's no difference between men and women. She also knows that her kind own both of our parties now (see column above and the many others like it over the past year).

It won't last.

[Prodigal Son]

Here is how the average, typical liberal sees that same soldier:

http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1046111/posts

Warning, it will piss you off.

[Khurkris]

Are you channeling somebody?

[familyop]

"What you said is so bizarre."

I made a statement against gender bending propaganda. What's so bizarre about that? Amazonian feminism is what's bizarre, and it's adherents often use projection in indirect ad hominem attacks.

"Are you quoting someone?"

Huh?

[familyop]

"Are you channeling somebody?"

What do you mean by "channeling?" Please, do explain that to us from an expert perspective.

I'm against the homosexual efforts to say that women are the same as men, whether it be from the Democrats or the Isis worshippers who are apparently temporarily displaced into my Party for the time being.

[Prodigal Son]

Our young men, having seen that our roughest, toughest combat soldier (Lynch) was a woman,

When did they see this?

according to our Party and the press, know that our country doesn't need men any more.

What the hell are you talking about with all this?

They're also learning from their friends and relatives that all soldiers must be single for life to avoid depression and suicide while overseas

Biggest bunch of BS I've ever heard. In my own experience, married soldiers were usually very stable when deployed. They had a support system. I was one of those married deployed soldiers- I know this.

Your comments are just bizarre. I mean, this is something you have worked up in your head.

[milbuf]

She is both articulate and grounded because she is from Indiana. We are proud of our young men and women in uniform.

[tongue-tied]

Rome had such policies just before it fell. And as for the military? I would not do it again under the present circumstances. I would demand a return to traditional (say, 1700s) divorce policy and an end to U.S. lies about Amazons in our military.

Okay, maybe I'm missing the obvious here, but (1) what exactly are the 1700s divorce policies, and (2) I haven't met any Amazons in 24 years in the Navy so please explain this as well.

[familyop]

"I mean, this is something you have worked up in your head."

Do you have any real argument against my argument, and can you begin to avoid insults?

No, I didn't work it up in my head. The Lynch lies are what were bizarre. Since when do spec. ops. from three branches get ordered to a mission to rescue one soldier? Since when does our govenment make up a bunch of stories about a woman soldier like that? Everyone who participated in that debacle are a bizarre disgrace to our country--not to mention their kiilling of motivation for more recruiting of young men when we need it.

Generally, REMFs should stick a sock in their fantasies about Amazons. I once (as an AI who did my senior NCO's work, because he was illiterate, good man as he was) tried to train chicks to do line combat work. It always fails.

My statement that women are not the same as men when it comes to warfare is not a bizarre statement. Such practice is ruining our military.

[Khurkris]

"What do you mean by "channeling?" Please, do explain that to us from an expert perspective."

Lighten up. I was unclear as to exactly what you were trying to say. Your post came across as being from some transcript or as if you were relaying the message of someone else.

I'm against the homosexual efforts to say that women are the same as men, whether it be from the Democrats or the Isis worshippers who are apparently temporarily displaced into my Party for the time being.

In this we agree. Although its more than the homosexual faction doing this.

[familyop]

Anyone who has any effect on personnel policy in our miitary should know about the History of divorce trends, feminism and socialist plans for feminism. Without this knowledge, our politicians and personnel people are incompetent to handle todays problems that are killing future retention and recruiting of men.

They preach to the world that women are the same as men in combat now. And they lie to the world about why most of our real soldiers are committing suicide. Then they call anyone who tells the truth about these things, "bizarre."

I left, exactly because of what these complaints are about (wife encouraged to be loose at home, women in the Army being touted as combat heroes,...), as have many others. But who wants to discuss these truths with buddies in the unit? Everybody knows it, but nobody talks about it. To discuss it would be as shameful as telling about having been forcibly sodomized (perfect metaphor for all of this) by highly educated, sexually confused recruiters and officers.

Soldiers with good wives are happy soldiers. Soldiers living under laws like the USFSPA and other stupid divorce laws are unhappy soldiers. Read the following.

Soldiers Risking Their Lives in Iraq Might Face Prison Over Child Support Upon Return

Read our lips. We're tired of feminism and homo-sexual-confusion in our leaders. Young men are tired of it, because they've already heard it all from their single moms. It will go, one way or the other.

Nothing bizarre about someone blowing the whistle on this garbage policy from garbage science. What's bizarre, is that a bunch of ignorant leaders have been pushing this political correctness regardless of what it will do to our military tomorrow.

And as for the Navy and Amazons? LOL! Just like my drill sergeants said, "If you wanna have sex in Initial Training, join the Navy!" ;-)