Posted on 01/02/2006 1:08:07 PM PST by right-wingin_It
NEW YORK -- A 32-year-old former Wall Street Journal reporter has joined the U.S. Marines.
"When people ask why," Matt Pottinger wrote in a column last month, "I usually have a short answer. It felt like the time had come to stop reporting events and get more directly involved. But that's not the whole answer, and how I got to this point wasn't a straight line."
Among other assignments, Pottinger covered China for the newspaper for seven years.
"Friends ask if I worry about going from a life of independent thought and action to a life of hierarchy and teamwork," he wrote in that column. "At the moment, I find that appealing because it means being part of something bigger than I am.
"As for how different it's going to be, that, too, has its appeal because it's the opposite of what I've been doing up to now. Why should I do something that's a 'natural fit' with what I already do? Why shouldn't I try to expand myself?"
In China he was arrested for writing about corruption. "I was standing over a toilet," he told ABC News recently, "with a bunch of Chinese policemen standing around me shredding my notebook, page by page, and flushing it down a toilet." Freedom took on new meaning for him.
"I would come home, and you didn't feel coming home to the United States from abroad that we were a country at war," he said. "I was surprised by that ... and that disturbed me. It gave me a sense that we were being a little bit too complacent."
When he decided to join the Marines--after witnessing their work on tsunami relief--he surprised even himself, but he wasn't sure he could meet the physical requirements. After strict training he passed the minimum tests.
On completing officer training, he graduated in mid- December.
"I wanted to actually be participating in an incredibly important period in our history," he told ABC, "as opposed to just observing and reporting events. ... I didn't want to watch the movie and not have a part in it."
An officer at the ceremony congratulated Pottinger by quipping, "It's an honor, you know, to get somebody from the dark side to come over to our side."
Pottinger told ABC: "There's a war going on right now, and there's a very good chance that I'm going to end up in Iraq. I'm a bit scared. But I think anyone who would end up facing combat would be scared....
"The life of a reporter versus the life of someone in the military -- it is a radical departure."
I must say I am suprised he made the physical. Being in the marines is very demanding.
Hat's off to him, He Gets It......
My first thought was that the USMC had been infiltrated by the enemy...
Yeah, me too..But I think most of those types would have caved during training. After all, its the USMC!
"I must say I am suprised he made the physical. Being in the marines is very demanding."
He worked like hell to get in shape. I read the article he wrote for the WSJ about his efforts to pass the physical fitness test. He apparently convinced a Marine recruiter that he was serious when he ran hard enough to puke his guts out at the end of the run. He was still too slow at that point but the recruiter said, "I like your spirit" and worked with him as a personal trainer until he could pass.
I smell a book or two in the making.....
You're so right..Didn't think of that..HA!...You would think more journalists would have tried to do it just for something that!
He may have had it in the back of his mind to write an insider view of the US Marine Corps but when all is said and done he will self identify as a Marine before identifying as a writer.
It happens.
Don't get me wrong, I'm proud of what he has done. But if he wants any real credibility he better wind up in a place where bullets fly (and lots of them)
Thanks
I, Matt Pottinger, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic;
That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same;
That I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion;
And that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter.
So help me God.
That's very encouraging!
Maybe he'll tell the world how well our military is doing since the liberal media refuses to do so.
That was my first thought, as well. But good for him (giving the benefit of the doubt, here.)
My second thought arose from this statement: "Friends ask if I worry about going from a life of independent thought and action to a life of hierarchy and teamwork," I just can't reconcile "independent thought" with the establishment media, albeit the WSJ is not as odious as the rest.
I saw the clip on FOX of this guy and cracked up at the line about bringing him over from the dark side.
That story about the recruiter just raises my respect for him. A lot of people couldn't do what he's volunteered to do. Let alone get in shape and join up at 35. And for a reporter at a big paper, even if it's not the NYT's but instead WSJ, impressive. I just don't expect that from journalists these days.
God Speed to him.
"I smell a book or two in the making....."
If he does get a book or two out of it, good for him. I sincerely doubt that is the reason why he joined. If a book is all you want out of it, it is a lot easier to be an embed for a few weeks, and then churn something out from that.
Additionaly, the money you get from writing a book -- with the exception of superstar authors like Tom Clancy or Stephen King -- won't make up what he is probably losing in the private sector. Writing is a lot loike profession sports -- there are a few thousand folks in the big leagues making six or seven figure incomes, and then there are the multitudes in the minors pulling down chicken feed.
If you read the guy's WSJ piece its obvious he joined out of good ol' fashioned patriotism -- patriotism fostered by what he saw in China, and what he felt about America being under attack. If that is a man bites dog story, that is a reflection on the rest of the press corp, not this guy.
So, I hope he gets a book or two out of it, and I hope it gets to the top of the NYT best-sellers list (if only because it would put Pinch Sulzberger's nose out of joint). God bless him.
How many years do you have to sign up for now to go to Quantico?
There are an infinite number of easier ways to do a book.
So9
If so, the book he eventually writes will probably be far from the one he envisioned going in.
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