[R-G] US Towns Gather In Their Wounded - Their Photos Tell the Story

Wed Jan 7 22:26:18 MST 2004



> [Original Message]
> From: <portsideMod at netscape.net>
> To: <portside at yahoogroups.com>
> Date: 1/7/04 12:53:01 AM
> Subject: US Towns Gather In Their Wounded - Their Photos Tell the Story
>
> Returnees Shunned By National Media Win Warm Local Welcome
>
> "After Cher's visit, in late October, she called a television phone-in
> program to ask: "Why aren't Cheney, Wolfowitz, Bremer, the president -
> why aren't they taking pictures with these guys? I don't understand
> why these guys are so hidden, why there are no pictures of them."
>
> To some, this is more evidence that George Bush - who has yet to
> attend the funeral of any soldier killed in the war and refers to the
> casualties only in general terms - is trying to distance himself".
>
> 1. Their Photos Tell the Story by Jimmy Breslin (Newsday -- Dec 30)
> 2. US Towns Gather In Their Wounded - Returnees Shunned By National
> Media Win Warm Local Welcome by Gary Younge (The Guardian -- Dec. 27)
>
> ==================
>
>
> Their Photos Tell the Story
> by Jimmy Breslin
> Newsday -- Tuesday, December 30, 2003
>
>
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/newyork/columnists/ny-nybres303605595dec
30,0,1839774.column?coll=ny-ny-columnists
>
>
> The Army Times, a civilian newspaper that is sold mainly on military
> bases and thus reaches the prime wartime audience, uses eight pages of
> its year-end review, out now, to run photos of all those who have died
> in Iraq and Afghanistan, except 35.
>
> I usually don't refer to other publications, for I have enough trouble
> with my own. But this issue of the Army Times is so extraordinary and
> gives hope that it will provide some leadership in the news industry.
>
> There were 506 killed by the time the newspaper closed last Friday.
> Since then, another seven have died. The newspaper has said this is
> the deadliest year for the U.S. military since 1972, when 640 were
> killed in Vietnam.
>
> In introducing the pictures, under the headline "Faces of the Fallen,"
> the Army Times said: "More than 500 service members died in operations
> Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom in 2003, a group that represents
> the full, rich face of American diversity.
>
> "They grew up in big cities like Chicago and New York and small towns
> like Layton, Utah, and Cross Lanes, West Virginia. Ten were women, the
> youngest six 18-year-olds barely out of high school. The oldest, Army
> Sgt. Floyd G. Nightman Jr., was 55.
>
> "They died at the hands of the enemy, from illnesses contracted in the
> war zones and the accidents that inevitably push human beings and
> their equipment to their limit.
>
> "They came from all walks of life, from every race and creed. But all
> shared a common bond - commitment to, and pride in, serving their
> country in the cause of freedom.
>
> "As the New Year dawns, we pause once to honor those who fell in
> 2003."
>
> The pictures are small and run in neat columns. The names, ranks and
> date and place of death are in small type underneath the small
> pictures. The understatement is devastating.
>
> The paper's senior managing editor, Robert Hodierne, was saying
> yesterday, "When I looked at the pages, I felt the same as I did when
> I walked along the Wall."
>
> He met Maya Lin, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall architect who was
> 23 when she designed it.
>
> "I am in love with her," Hodierne says.
>
> The chilling photos run at a time when the government tries to
> describe the war as a civic venture, and nearly all of the news
> industry doesn't know how to object. This probably is the worst
> failure to inform the public that we have seen. The Pekingese of the
> Press run clip-clop along the hall to the next government press
> conference.
>
> "We started on the issue three or four weeks ago," Hodierne said. The
> paper has been running pictures of the dead every week.
>
> "We had 75 percent of the photos. We had to make the best effort we
> could to go after the others. We went to families and hometown papers.
> The military doesn't give out so many photos of the dead. People here
> were upset by the gaps in the rows of photos."
>
> One who was bothered was Anna Pozzie, who scanned the photos into a
> computer. It was slow, painful work. She became saddened by the
> pictures. The ages of the dead young men were wrenching.
>
> Steve Zelfers, the photo editor, said, "You stare at the photos and
> see the cost of the war." [CORRECTION: Steve Elfers is photo editor of
> the Army Times. His last name was misspelled in a column by Jimmy
> Breslin yesterday. Pg. A02 Q 12/31/03]
>
> The complaint about the military holding back pictures is one part of
> the attempt to make you as unaware as possible that soldiers are dying
> in Iraq. They have this Bremer who stands in his jacket, shirt and tie
> and talks about the new Iraqi government that we have set up.
>
> He doesn't seem to know about death.
>
> He doesn't know that every time we try to put our democracy into one
> of these totalitarian countries, the scum comes to the top. They have
> been living elsewhere and rush back to lick American boots and get
> positions in the great new government.
>
> The government folds and the imams take over.
>
> And the dead are brought back here almost furtively. There are no
> ceremonies or pictures of caskets at Dover, Del., air base, where the
> dead are brought. "You don't want to upset the families," George Bush
> said. That the people might be slightly disturbed already by the death
> doesn't seem to register.
>
> The wounded are flown into Washington at night. There are 5,000 of
> them and for a long time you never heard of soldiers who have no arms
> and legs. Then the singer Cher went into Walter Reed Hospital and came
> out and gave a report that was so compelling she should walk away with
> a Pulitzer Prize.
>
> Finally, a couple of television stations and a newspaper here and
> there began to cover these things. There are miles to go.
>
> For now, Cher, on one day, and the Army Times for the whole year, have
> served the nation as it should be served.
>
> Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.
>
> ==================
>
> US Towns Gather In Their Wounded - Returnees Shunned By National Media
> Win Warm Local Welcome
>
> by Gary Younge in Greenfield, Missouri The Guardian -- Saturday
> December 27, 2003
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1112913,00.html
>
> As the honorary grand marshall of Greenfield's Christmas parade,
> Derick Hurt waved with his right hand as he led the other vehicles in
> a lap of the main square on Saturday. His left hand is still not
> functional since he bailed out of his Humvee in Mosul, Iraq, and
> landed on it, breaking his wrist. Every now and then he would stop
> saluting locals holding "Welcome Home Derick" posters and tap the spot
> where his lower leg used to be, to ease the throbbing.
>
> Behind him, local dignitaries, church groups, and the kings and queens
> of the high school threw sweets to children from the boats and floats
> on which they were towed. Ahead of him was a lifetime of disability as
> an amputee, with a body flecked with shrapnel.
>
> "It's a big thing for me," said Mr Hurt, 26, of the reception he has
> received in the week since he arrived home. In a town of around 1,500
> nestled in the rural midwest, an area of big skies and small creeks,
> his injury and homecoming have been a big event. Local people raised
> thousands of dollars to help his family travel to see him at the
> Walter Reed military hospital in Virginia. Cameras from the local
> networks met him when he arrived at the airport in Springfield. When
> he got to Greenfield, the town was waiting in the square.
>
> Around 2,657 soldiers have been injured in Iraq, according to the
> Pentagon. But while the death toll influences political debate and
> prompts public discomfort, the swelling legions of the wounded -
> around 10 a day - have failed to make any impact on a national level.
>
> With the exception of Jessica Lynch, whose capture, rescue and return
> has already produced two books, one film and a national myth, little
> has been heard until recently about those who came back to start a new
> life in wheelchairs and on crutches.
>
> And little that has been heard has been good. There were the wounded
> who had to wait for weeks for medical treatment in Fort Stewart
> Georgia, where they complained of filthy conditions. There was
> Shoshana Johnson, a black woman who was shot in both legs and held
> prisoner for 22 days, who says racism is the only explanation for why
> she receives $700 (£500) less each month than Ms Lynch. Then came was
> the scandal of wounded soldiers being forced to pay $8.10 a day for
> their hospital meals, until the rule was repealed by Congress.
>
> When Mr Hurt was at Walter Reed hospital, a cast of stars visited to
> boost morale, including Bruce Willis, Shania Twain and Cher.
>
> After Cher's visit, in late October, she called a television phone-in
> program to ask: "Why aren't Cheney, Wolfowitz, Bremer, the president -
> why aren't they taking pictures with these guys? I don't understand
> why these guys are so hidden, why there are no pictures of them."
>
> To some, this is more evidence that George Bush - who has yet to
> attend the funeral of any soldier killed in the war and refers to the
> casualties only in general terms - is trying to distance himself.
>
> But last week, Mr Bush was to be seen on television visiting the
> Walter Reed hospital.
>
> "We put a lot of fine troops in harm's way to make this country more
> secure and the world more free and the world more peaceful," he said.
>
> "We ask them to face great dangers to meet a national need."
>
> When Mr Hurt joined the army in 2000, he had little sense of great
> danger. "It was peaceful at the time," he said. "I never imagined I
> would fight."
>
> Then came September 11. Mr Hurt was sent to Jordan. It was his first
> time abroad.
>
> The second was when he went to Kuwait in February, in preparation for
> the invasion of Iraq. On September 13, he drove a Humvee through the
> city's empty streets. The night before, he had written to his father
> saying all was quiet in town.
>
> Suddenly there was a flash, and then another one. "I was in shock," he
> said. "The engine had died and I knew I had to get out of the car. I
> used my bodyweight to lever myself out of the window, which is
> probably when I broke my wrist."
>
> He lay face-down on the kerb amid the smoke and the gunfire. "I
> thought, this is it. I'm going to die right here, just like a
> vegetable on the ground."
>
> Then he heard one of his fellow soldiers shout his name as his
> comrades came to his aid. He screamed in pain as one tied a tourniquet
> around one of his injured legs.
>
> "One of them was just hanging on by a thread and the other one was all
> battered up," he said.
>
> His father received a phone call at 1.30 the next morning. "I knew it
> was the military, and I knew that since they called me he must still
> be alive, because they come around in person if they're dead," he
> said. "So I thought, 'So long as he's still alive I can deal with the
> rest.'"
>
> Mr Hurt was in hospital in Germany for five days before he was flown
> to Walter Reed, where he stayed for three months. "I was thinking,
> 'This is it. It's not going to get any better. What kind of job can I
> get now?'"
>
> Still, he does not regret joining the army - "These things happen for
> a reason," he says.
>
> Mr Hurt cannot fault the veterans' administration, which is advising
> him on benefits. He misses sport, but is driving already, and living
> with his father until he returns to Walter Reed for treatment next
> month. After that, he is thinking of going back to his former job as a
> machinist, where the workshops are wheelchair friendly.
>
> "I've been very impressed," said his father. "It took me six months to
> get a job when I got back from Vietnam, and they gave me nothing."
>
> ==================
>
>
>
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