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| Iraq |
| Man Bites Dog! Seattle P-I frontpager on local Army officer, DSC winner |
| 2007-11-16 |
| You could have knocked me over with the proverbial feather when I saw this on the front page of our local uberleftist daily fishwrapper... Second Lt. Bryan Jackson was eight months into his first tour of duty in Iraq and out on patrol in Anbar Province in September 2006 when the Humvee he was towing behind a Bradley Fighting Vehicle got stuck in the mud. It was a mundane mishap, but it made Jackson and his crew nervous. Not only did they fear the Humvee would roll over, but they also knew the stall made them a naked target for insurgent fire. Just a month earlier, a comrade had been seriously wounded at the same spot near the town of Hit. What happened next would earn Jackson, now a first lieutenant, the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism in action -- making him only the seventh soldier since the Vietnam War to receive the nation's second-highest military honor. Jackson, a West Point graduate, is from Oak Harbor where his father, now based in Washington, D.C., commanded a Navy P3 Orion squadron on Whidbey Island. The writer continues with a just-the-facts narrative of this young man's exploits - performing first aid on a gravely wounded sergeant while firing back at the enemy. No Chomskyite blather, no attempts to cast him as villain or victim. Guess the editor must have been out sick that day - this writer's probably going to have to do a LOT of penance to make up for this transgression. Like maybe a five-column, front-page, above-the-fold tongue bath on Saint Watada... For his actions, Jackson received the nation's second-highest distinction after the Medal of Honor for valor during a ceremony Nov. 2 in Washington, D.C. His citation reads in part: " 2nd Lt. Jackson's selfless courage under extreme enemy fire was essential to saving another soldier's life. ..." "I couldn't be more proud of my son," said his father, Navy Capt. Walter Jackson, who is stationed at the Naval Research Lab in Washington, D.C. "No one knows how they'll react in a situation like that. I'm proud that when it was his turn to step up, he did." if you're unfamiliar with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, it may be difficult to understand just how shocking it was to see this article on the front page. You never, never, NEVER see coverage about military personnel in the PI unless there's an antiwar/anti-Bush spin that can be imparted. What's even more remarkable is that the online version's comments section didn't have any troll droppings from the local "progressives" calling 1LT Jackson a warmongering, baby-killing fascist stooge |
| Posted by:Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) |
| #4 I dunno, Sea...except for about 15 minutes after 9/11, |
| Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) 2007-11-16 22:09 |
| #3 Me neither. |
| Posted by: lotp 2007-11-16 08:00 |
| #2 After his award, and my post on the subject, several of us wrote the P-I asking about their doing a story. Perhaps they got enough e-mails. |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2007-11-16 07:56 |
| #1 If I was a suspicious, cynical person, I might question the timing of this story, perhaps as an effort to distract Washington's citizens from coverage of the disgraceful assault on the Port of Olympia and the US military by antiwar anarchist loonbats, and an effort to pretend, for an hour or two at most, that the P-I Supports The Troops, at least until it's time to denounce their commander-in-chief yet again. Good thing I'm not a person who would think such things. Certainly not. Nope. Nope. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2007-11-16 03:40 |