Posted on 01/12/2006 3:39:39 PM PST by SandRat
AL ASAD, Iraq(Jan. 12, 2006) -- Imagine you are walking through a thick Vietnamese jungle in the spring of 1965; the temperature is a sweltering 130 degrees and rising with 100 percent humidity. You are surrounded by a seemingly invisible enemy in their country and they want you dead. The Vietnam War is in its early stages with soldiers and Marines hard at work locating, closing with and destroying a fierce enemy.
You are a war correspondent for United Press International with little training in the art of war, but with the 9th Marine Regiment on your first of four arduous tours in Vietnam, you feel somewhat safe.
This atmosphere set the stage for Joseph L. “Joe” Galloway, co-author of “We Were Soldiers Once … and Young,” to become known as “the finest combat correspondent of our generation – a soldier’s reporter and a soldier’s friend,” according to retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf.
“The Marines taught me how to sleep standing up, and run lying down,” said Galloway. “They taught me that there was a right way, a wrong way, the Marine way, and that the Marine way was the only way.”
Galloway is making multiple stops in Iraq in an effort to get the total picture of what is going on in Operation Iraqi Freedom from the perspective of the soldiers and Marines on the ground. He landed at Camp Al Asad Jan. 5 to spend time with Col. Stephen W. Davis, the commanding officer of Regimental Combat Team – 2, and the Marines, soldiers, and sailors of this regiment.
The best way to make a fair and impartial assessment of what is going on is to walk the same ground the Marines and Soldiers walk on a daily basis, which is exactly what he did in Haditha.
Galloway arrived at Haditha Dam, located on Lake Qadisiyah and received an operations brief from Maj. Samuel H. Carrasco, the operations officer for 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment.
This briefing was followed by a trip to a base located in downtown Haditha. In order to get to the base, one must pass through Market Street, which was jam-packed with merchants and shoppers enjoying the beautiful, crisp January day. Children greeted the passing military vehicles with smiles and waves.
Upon reaching the base known as Sparta, Galloway was given a tour and an update of the current situation by Capt. Lucas M. McConnell, Company K’s commander. Galloway walked around, chatted and posed for photos with Marines who were eager to meet the legendary author.
Marines consistently asked him questions about the movie, “We Were Soldiers,” based on his book, which starred Mel Gibson. Galloway said that 80 percent of the movie was accurate, and he and Lt. Gen. Harold G. “Hal” Moore fought tooth and nail for the other 20 percent. He mentioned that the scene where he was given an M-16 by the sergeant major was “total Hollywood,” because he brought his own, and that he was much better looking as a 24-year-old than Barry Pepper, the actor that portrayed him.
When asked about the scene at the end of the legendary Ia Drang Campaign, where a helicopter lands and drops off a load of media, Galloway says it was true. “The reporters would only come out under the agreement that the Army would have them back in Saigon before dark.”
When asked about his feelings on leadership, Galloway said he must defer to quotes from his good friend, Moore, who said: “Three strikes and you are not out. Life is not baseball. You need to keep swinging.”
Moore also said, “Hate war, but you must love the warrior.”
Galloway is best known for his coverage of 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry’s air assault into the Ia Drang Valley Nov. 14, 1965. The battalion was commanded by then Lt. Col. Hal Moore, whose mission was to find and kill the enemy.
RCT-2 has been carrying out the same mission by finding and killing the enemy in western Al Anbar province since March 2005.
Marine PING
Thanks for the post!
Oh, this one!
That's gotta be at least 100 times more armor than what he (Joes Galloway) had on during the Battle of LZ X-Ray.
Barry Pepper, who portrayed Joe Galloway in We Were Soldiers (although this pic is taken from Saving Private Ryan)
...and young Mr. Pepper did a superb job in BOTH movies. I will risk the raucous laughter of this thread's denizens when I also add he deserves kudos for his very game performance in that stinker, "Battlefield Earth". He did remarkably well with the material he was given.
Didn't he say negative things about the war in Iraq some time back?
Don't know.
I'm googling to see if he did. I sure do remember something about it. Just don't remember exactly what. I commented to my hubby about it when I read it.
My opinion Joe Galloway: Iraq war about politics and power
My opinion Joe Galloway
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 12.20.2005
The spin-meisters have been having a field day. President Bush journeyed to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., not long ago to declare before a safe audience that he will never cut and run in Iraq.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld chimed in to warn that any withdrawal from Iraq short of victory would lead to radicals taking power throughout the Islamic world. Dick Cheney traveled to Fort Drum in upstate New York to stand before the usual photo-op backdrop of soldiers in desert uniforms and add Spain to Osama bin Laden's Islamic empire.
Ah yes, a new domino theory: First Iraq falls, and the next thing we know the Moors will be back running Spain and invading France. Where have we heard that one before?
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice then jetted to Europe and said the ban on cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment of terrorist suspects extends to U.S. forces overseas.
Bush added several angry speeches this past weekend to defend his use of National Security Agency resources to keep tabs on Americans with international connections.
The administration is trying to reverse its sinking standing in the opinion polls; to rebut criticism from even some hawkish members of Congress; to counter perceptions at home and abroad that the war in Iraq isn't going well; and to counter those who demand that the United States abide by the Geneva Conventions and international treaties that prohibit torture.
The prize for the strangest argument of all, as usual, goes to Cheney with this: "Some have suggested by liberating Iraq from Saddam Hussein we simply stirred up a hornet's nest. They overlook a fundamental fact: We were not in Iraq in September 2001, and the terrorists hit us anyway." That's right. And the terrorists who hit us didn't come from Iraq, weren't in league with Iraq and in fact had nothing to do with Iraq or Saddam Hussein.
The 9/11 attacks were plotted and directed out of Afghanistan. where al-Qaida was sheltered by the Taliban government.
We rightly invaded Afghanistan, overthrew the Taliban government and were in hot pursuit of al-Qaida and its leadership when Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld took their eyes — and considerable military and intelligence resources — off job one and diverted them to invading Iraq.
That's when they stuck the stick in the hornet's nest. By invading Iraq without a postwar plan for occupying, pacifying and rebuilding it, they created a recruiting tool of al-Qaida and a schoolhouse for jihadists worldwide who want to learn how to kill Americans.
By botching the mission — demobilizing the Iraq army and barring anyone who had belonged to Saddam's Baath Party from employment in the public sector — the United States unwittingly helped fuel the growth of a homemade insurgency among the minority Sunni Muslims of central Iraq, who ruled under Saddam.
Iraq, to put it plainly, is a disaster of the Bush administration's own creation. It was a disaster to invade Iraq when we did, on the spurious grounds that the administration originally gave as reason. Now they tell us it would be an even greater disaster to leave Iraq short of a victory that they can't define.
They can surround themselves with uniforms and wrap themselves in the flag and spin the message day after day, but they can't ignore their Republican friends in the House and Senate who must face the voters in 2006. They can talk tough all day long, but watch to see whether there's a drawdown of troops in Iraq before Election Day next November.
This isn't about victory over the terrorists. This isn't about supporting our soldiers. This is about politics and power.
Joseph L. Galloway covers military affairs for Knight-Ridder newspapers. Contact him at jgalloway@krwashington.com.
It's allowed then?
Man-o-man, Galloway can't stand this administration and isn't shy about saying so. He sounds like moveon.org people.
Ping
Yup.
;-)
The following excerpt was written for Knight-Ridder but appeared on the page of Common Dreams NewsCenter - breaking news & views for the progressive community.
Note to Mr. Bush: The U.S. is Not a Monarchy
by Joseph L. Galloway
"... Our forefathers created a system of government built on checks and balances ... They never intended for an imperial presidency to rise above the legislative and judicial branches of government, for they had their fill of kings and emperors who ruled with absolute power in the old world. They knew that absolute power corrupts absolutely... George W. Bush is not the emperor of America or the king of the 50 states of the union..."
Galloway shines a well deserved spotlight on the honorable men and women of the American military; then he rushes in to share as much of the limelight as possible. He speaks from one side of his mouth, saying that we should not undermine our warriors; then he speaks from the other side of his mouth, ripping the military and political establishment up one side and down the other, as long as his targets are conservatives and not fellow travelers on the left.
Well! Perhaps the Marines will teach him that we don't have a Duma or Zampoli either.
I read that story as well. He's a lefty through and through.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.