Army honors Time Magazine reporter
By Sgt. Lorie Jewell
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 Michael Weisskopf, a senior correspondent with Time Magazine, accepts the Fourth Estate Award from Brig. Gen. Robert Gaylord, chief of Army Public Affairs. Weisskopf was honored at an Aug. 17 reception in the Fort McNair Officer's Club and the U.S. Army Band's Overture 1812 concert on the National Mall for his coverage of Soldiers serving in Iraq. Weisskopf lost his right hand in a grenade attack on a Humvee he was riding in while on patrol with Soldiers.
Sgt. Lorie Jewell
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WASHINGTON, D.C. (Army News Service, Aug. 19, 2004) – Before the war in Iraq, Michael Weisskopf’s lengthy journalism career was short on Soldier stories.
Three weeks with the 1st Armored Division’s Tomb Raiders in Adhamiya, a powder keg neighborhood in Baghdad, changed that. Weisskopf, a senior correspondent with Time Magazine, was embedded in November and December 2003 with the Survey Platoon, Headquarters Battery, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment. Earlier reporting from Iraq, in April 2003, peaked his interest in telling the war story from the trench level, he said.
His stories, and the manner in which he gathered and produced them, have earned Weisskopf the respect of Soldiers and Army leaders alike. Brig. Gen. Robert Gaylord, chief of Army Public Affairs, presented Weisskopf with the Fourth Estate Award, an annual recognition of a member of the media for their coverage of the Army, at an Aug. 17 reception in the Fort McNair Officer’s Club. Weisskopf, accompanied by his son, Skyler, 11, and daughter, Olivia, 9, was also recognized at the U.S. Army Band’s Overture 1812 concert later that evening on the National Mall.
“When we talk about an individual who tells our Soldier’s stories, who is willing to accept the risks and hardships of our Soldiers in combat -- this man epitomizes that individual,’’ Gaylord said. “He is the type of correspondent we know we can count on for getting the story right and embodying the principles that keep our democracy the way it is.”
Weisskopf co-wrote “Portrait of a Platoon,” an in-depth look at the Giessen, Germany-based unit that ran in Time’s 2003 end-of-year issue, which named the American Soldier as its Person of the Year. Three Tomb Raiders -- Sgts. Ronald Buxton and Marquette Whiteside and Spc. Billie Grimes -- were featured on the cover. Photographer James Nachtwey shot the cover photo the morning of Dec. 10. Later that evening, Nachtwey and Weisskopf were in the back of a Humvee when a grenade landed on the seat, blowing off Weisskopf’s right hand as he reached to throw it back out.
Grimes, a medic attached to the platoon, dashed from another Humvee to treat Weisskopf, Nactwey and two other Soldiers who were injured by flying shrapnel. The men were transferred from a base aid station to an Army hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. With clearance from acting Secretary of the Army Les Brownlee, Weisskopf went on to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where he received the same treatment Soldiers are afforded -- including a prosthetic hand.
Weisskopf resumed work earlier this year, reporting on Al Qaeda and the 9-11 report, among other stories. In a career stretching through three decades, Weisskopf has earned plenty of accolades -- including being a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1996 for national reporting. He considers the Fourth Estate award a great honor.
“It’s a great privilege to be here and act like an officer for a half hour or so,’’ Weisskopf quipped at the reception. “But most importantly, to be recognized by an institution that defends our constitution every day and on a personal level, an institution that provided me with great subject material and a ride back to the U.S., to my home, via Landstuhl and the great Walter Reed. Thank you most of all for returning me to my beautiful children.”
His experience with the Tomb Raiders did more than supply him with a powerful magazine story about Soldiers in a war zone, Weisskopf said. Living with them in such austere conditions, walking their walk, gave him an understanding he never had before of who they are, beneath their desert camouflage uniforms, flak jackets and Kevlar helmets.
“They are selfless, they practice extraordinary teamwork,’’ Weisskopf said. “They’re highly professional, highly disciplined, extremely patriotic and people who are devoted to service.”
Weisskopf is writing a book about his experiences, his recovery, and the fellow amputees he met at Walter Reed. It’s expected to be out in spring 2006, he said.
Iraq remains a compelling story, Weisskopf said; one with the power to pull him back. But he’ll think twice before climbing into another Humvee, he added. ~*~ |
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