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Where everyone is a writer
Back in the Day
Military Correspondent
 
 
I've been writing for or about the U.S. Army since the mid-1980s. I was always the text go-to guy in infantry units, spending way too many hours writing performance evaluations, award recommendations and study guide material for other people.
 
In the mid-1990s I began to develop a military correspondent career while still on active duty as infantryman. I began by writing for Army magazines and newspapers in a volunteer capacity, then was later hired as a civilian command information writer. 
 
The Grunt Work
Cob as in Mob
 

In 1999 I documented the first textual accounts of the Combat Maneuver Training Center (Hohenfels, Germany) Civilian on the Battlefield (COB) and Individual Replacement Training (IRT) programs, and in 2000 had the distinct pleasure of working with Hungarian role-players, using the experience to pen another award-winning feature magazine article.

 

Soldiers magazine, April 1999

Training Journal magazine, September 1999

Training Journal magazine, May 2000

 

More Grunt Work

Journalism Awards & Ethics

 

Four first place journalism awards later, and it was suddenly normal for Armed Forces Network (AFN) reporters to ask what it was like for a combat arms guy to win coveted military journalism awards.

 

A mentor had much to do with my receiving the journalism awards, and a professional writer guided my freelance efforts as I transitioned from non-paying to paying markets.

 

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While on active duty, I sought a number of legal opinions for various writing projects to ensure all were "legally sufficient" (the military legal term for "ethically permissable").

 

Documented Army legal opinion