thedrifter
03-02-05, 06:53 AM
02-22-2005
From the Editor:
The Unmasking of ‘Soldier Babe’
http://www.sftt.org/JPG/article02222005a.jpg
Mystery solved.
Thanks to several sharp U.S. Army Reserve officials at Fort Jackson, S.C., the mystery of “Soldier Babe” is now over.
For those of you who fortunate enough to have missed it, “Soldier Babe” was the subject of a 3,300-word profile in the left-leaning C*leveland Free Times early last month by erstwhile reporter and part-time cabbie Joshua Greene, who sympathetically portrayed the 33-year-old “Babe” as a weary warrior forced against his will back into the Army for a combat tour in Iraq (see “Back to Iraq: A Cleveland Soldier Returns to the Persian Gulf to Fight a Second Bush War.”).
http://www.freetimes.com/print.php?sid=2354
Young Mr. Greene filled his notebooks during a month of sitting at “Babe’s” knee, portraying him as a high school dropout later sent to college by the Army; a veteran paratrooper who had amassed 4,426 jumps with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault); a behind-the-lines commando in battles still cloaked in secrecy; shot seven times and court-martialed multiple times (but always acquitted), etc. etc. To add drama, “Babe” refused to be photographed without having his eyes masked. Despite scores of informed, angry letters to the editor accusing Greene and the Free Times of tarring the reputation of soldiers everywhere by foisting this barroom braggart off as a symbol of today’s U.S. Army, and despite their grudging admission that they were conned, both Greene and the newspaper to date have refused to identify who this bozo really is (see my column, “The Military Education of Joshua Greene,” DefenseWatch, Feb. 10, 2005).
So let me have the honor.
For those of you on active duty in the Army, it is my sad duty to inform you that Josuha Greene did get one fact straight: “Soldier Babe” is, indeed, a soldier. For those of you soldiers serving in great danger in Iraq, it is my pleasure to inform you that “Soldier Babe” is stationed nowhere near Southwest Asia. Here’s the straight skinny:
Army Reserve Spc. Margabriel Bleuwater was separated from active duty in 1995 after honorably serving three years and 11 months, mostly as a 13F10 Fire Support Specialist in Germany. His initial enlistment was satisfactory, if not exceptional: He earned a pair of Army Achievement Medals, the National Defense Service Medal, Overseas Service Ribbon and qualified as an expert marksman. He also was a qualified driver and earned the mechanic’s badge.
He apparently returned home to the Cleveland area where as a civilian he worked as a waiter at Dicks Last Resort and a as store clerk at West 9th Street News and Video while honing his skills as a barroom commando and raconteur of tall tales of military exploits that not even “Captain Marvel” comics would stomach.
Then, in late 2004, Bleuwater (born Earle Franklyn Thompson in 1971 but later changing his name to Muhvi al-Basi Roo Ilahi in 1983 and later again to Margabriel Bleuwater) decided to re-enlist for another tour of duty – that is, voluntarily re-enlisted, as in, no coercion, no mysterious Army spooks tracking his computer address or, for that matter, monitoring transmissions from his dental fillings. For four weeks as he filled out Army paperwork, he helped Joshua Greene fill his notebooks. But neither “Babe” nor Greene realized that the outlandish, irresponsible article would precede the reservist to his MOB station.
Here’s how one Army official described it in an email responding to my request for information on “Babe”:
“We received notification from the Cleveland MEPS that Spc. Bleuwater, a prior Soldier who re-enlisted, was en route to Fort Jackson on 7 Jan 05, and he had done an interview with the Cleveland Free Times that appeared the same week as he shipped.”
“Chain of command at Fort Jackson was notified & took a wait-and-see attitude. Spc. Bleuwater denied that he been interviewed or knew a Josh Greene. I spoke with Josh Greene & he verified that the person in the [newspaper article] pictures was the same person that he interviewed. Spc. Bleuwater stated that he only posed for the picture and that Josh Greene interviewed numerous people for the article.”
“I again contacted Josh Greene and he stated that he only interviewed one person and Josh Green quoted him directly and would not [give] up his name. Fort Jackson cleared him for shipment to Germany on 30 Jan 05.”
http://www.sftt.org/JPG/article02222005b.jpg
‘Soldier Babe’ without his *Free Times blindfold, courtesy of the state of Ohio.
The real person, not the puffed-up commando of Joshua Greene’s fervid imagination, was actually quite humble and self-effacing, according to a second Army source who encountered him during his in-processing at Fort Jackson:
“Babe’s 15 minutes of infamy hit the post before he did. A guidance counselor at MEPS saw his story in the Free Times and sent it ADVON of Babe’s arrival.
By the time Babe arrived, there were many soldiers waiting with questions. Most of his ‘fans’ are legitimate combat veterans and many of us from Airborne units.
“The Babester was never ‘recalled’ or ‘recaptured for his elaborate killing skills’ by the Army, he rejoined. So he had to in-process all over again at the beautiful Reception Battalion. After whining to the Drills about how he had been framed, this little turd hid in the HHC company area and cowered, waiting to ship to GERMANY, not Iraq, GERMANY.” …
“As a paratrooper and combat vet myself, I was angriest at those damned pictures that moron posed for [in the Free Times] than the comedy routine he called ‘his life.’ ”
But this USAR official, like his counterpart, reserved most of his anger not for the fake hero, but for the recalcitrant tabloid reporter:
“I was, however, LIVID (I know this isn’t a bona fide Infantry term) with Joshua Greene, because he actually started defending Babe and attacking those who sought to discredit him. … Luckily in the military, we train folks to attain a proper sight-picture before applying pressure to the trigger. Apparently, with the advent of the information superhighway, any dip**** can pick up a keyboard, pose as a journalist, and start atrocities from his nice warm office chair.”
So where do things stand now?
The embattled Free Times attempted to explain away the whole sordid tale without actually punishing Greene or his editors for their failure to recognize a barroom con artist. In a statement published shortly after the fertilizer hit the fan, the newspaper announced its “last word” on “Soldier Babe”:
“We want to thank our readers for their letters and inquiries about factual errors contained in Joshua Greene’s January 5 profile of the Army soldier ‘Babe’. Following numerous conversations with Army officials and other sources, we have confirmed that the story’s subject made numerous false and exaggerated claims about his background and military experience, and these, unfortunately, went unchecked. To our deep regret, our procedures failed, in this instance, to prevent the publication of false information. This is by no means a matter we take lightly, and we want to assure our readers that every effort is being made to ensure that a lapse of this kind does not happen again in the pages of the Free Times.”
Especially since Joshua Greene remains a staff writer for that distinguished rag. (If you’d like to send Greene your thoughts and best wishes, his email address is jgreene@freetimes.com.)
And as for our buddy, “Babe,” he is probably hiding in the latrine somewhere in USAREUR as his sergeants-major guffaw over the saga of the guy who made such a big fool of himself, a gullible reporter blinded by his own prejudices, and a newspaper indifferent to the facts.
The ultimate victim, of course, is the U.S. Army as a whole. It is a sign of the service’s worsening personnel shortage that even a doofus like “Soldier Babe” was welcomed back into uniform with open arms. Soldier on, soldiers.
Ed Offley is Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at dweditor@yahoo.com. Please send Feedback responses to dwfeedback@yahoo.com. © 2005 Ed Offley.
Ellie
From the Editor:
The Unmasking of ‘Soldier Babe’
http://www.sftt.org/JPG/article02222005a.jpg
Mystery solved.
Thanks to several sharp U.S. Army Reserve officials at Fort Jackson, S.C., the mystery of “Soldier Babe” is now over.
For those of you who fortunate enough to have missed it, “Soldier Babe” was the subject of a 3,300-word profile in the left-leaning C*leveland Free Times early last month by erstwhile reporter and part-time cabbie Joshua Greene, who sympathetically portrayed the 33-year-old “Babe” as a weary warrior forced against his will back into the Army for a combat tour in Iraq (see “Back to Iraq: A Cleveland Soldier Returns to the Persian Gulf to Fight a Second Bush War.”).
http://www.freetimes.com/print.php?sid=2354
Young Mr. Greene filled his notebooks during a month of sitting at “Babe’s” knee, portraying him as a high school dropout later sent to college by the Army; a veteran paratrooper who had amassed 4,426 jumps with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault); a behind-the-lines commando in battles still cloaked in secrecy; shot seven times and court-martialed multiple times (but always acquitted), etc. etc. To add drama, “Babe” refused to be photographed without having his eyes masked. Despite scores of informed, angry letters to the editor accusing Greene and the Free Times of tarring the reputation of soldiers everywhere by foisting this barroom braggart off as a symbol of today’s U.S. Army, and despite their grudging admission that they were conned, both Greene and the newspaper to date have refused to identify who this bozo really is (see my column, “The Military Education of Joshua Greene,” DefenseWatch, Feb. 10, 2005).
So let me have the honor.
For those of you on active duty in the Army, it is my sad duty to inform you that Josuha Greene did get one fact straight: “Soldier Babe” is, indeed, a soldier. For those of you soldiers serving in great danger in Iraq, it is my pleasure to inform you that “Soldier Babe” is stationed nowhere near Southwest Asia. Here’s the straight skinny:
Army Reserve Spc. Margabriel Bleuwater was separated from active duty in 1995 after honorably serving three years and 11 months, mostly as a 13F10 Fire Support Specialist in Germany. His initial enlistment was satisfactory, if not exceptional: He earned a pair of Army Achievement Medals, the National Defense Service Medal, Overseas Service Ribbon and qualified as an expert marksman. He also was a qualified driver and earned the mechanic’s badge.
He apparently returned home to the Cleveland area where as a civilian he worked as a waiter at Dicks Last Resort and a as store clerk at West 9th Street News and Video while honing his skills as a barroom commando and raconteur of tall tales of military exploits that not even “Captain Marvel” comics would stomach.
Then, in late 2004, Bleuwater (born Earle Franklyn Thompson in 1971 but later changing his name to Muhvi al-Basi Roo Ilahi in 1983 and later again to Margabriel Bleuwater) decided to re-enlist for another tour of duty – that is, voluntarily re-enlisted, as in, no coercion, no mysterious Army spooks tracking his computer address or, for that matter, monitoring transmissions from his dental fillings. For four weeks as he filled out Army paperwork, he helped Joshua Greene fill his notebooks. But neither “Babe” nor Greene realized that the outlandish, irresponsible article would precede the reservist to his MOB station.
Here’s how one Army official described it in an email responding to my request for information on “Babe”:
“We received notification from the Cleveland MEPS that Spc. Bleuwater, a prior Soldier who re-enlisted, was en route to Fort Jackson on 7 Jan 05, and he had done an interview with the Cleveland Free Times that appeared the same week as he shipped.”
“Chain of command at Fort Jackson was notified & took a wait-and-see attitude. Spc. Bleuwater denied that he been interviewed or knew a Josh Greene. I spoke with Josh Greene & he verified that the person in the [newspaper article] pictures was the same person that he interviewed. Spc. Bleuwater stated that he only posed for the picture and that Josh Greene interviewed numerous people for the article.”
“I again contacted Josh Greene and he stated that he only interviewed one person and Josh Green quoted him directly and would not [give] up his name. Fort Jackson cleared him for shipment to Germany on 30 Jan 05.”
http://www.sftt.org/JPG/article02222005b.jpg
‘Soldier Babe’ without his *Free Times blindfold, courtesy of the state of Ohio.
The real person, not the puffed-up commando of Joshua Greene’s fervid imagination, was actually quite humble and self-effacing, according to a second Army source who encountered him during his in-processing at Fort Jackson:
“Babe’s 15 minutes of infamy hit the post before he did. A guidance counselor at MEPS saw his story in the Free Times and sent it ADVON of Babe’s arrival.
By the time Babe arrived, there were many soldiers waiting with questions. Most of his ‘fans’ are legitimate combat veterans and many of us from Airborne units.
“The Babester was never ‘recalled’ or ‘recaptured for his elaborate killing skills’ by the Army, he rejoined. So he had to in-process all over again at the beautiful Reception Battalion. After whining to the Drills about how he had been framed, this little turd hid in the HHC company area and cowered, waiting to ship to GERMANY, not Iraq, GERMANY.” …
“As a paratrooper and combat vet myself, I was angriest at those damned pictures that moron posed for [in the Free Times] than the comedy routine he called ‘his life.’ ”
But this USAR official, like his counterpart, reserved most of his anger not for the fake hero, but for the recalcitrant tabloid reporter:
“I was, however, LIVID (I know this isn’t a bona fide Infantry term) with Joshua Greene, because he actually started defending Babe and attacking those who sought to discredit him. … Luckily in the military, we train folks to attain a proper sight-picture before applying pressure to the trigger. Apparently, with the advent of the information superhighway, any dip**** can pick up a keyboard, pose as a journalist, and start atrocities from his nice warm office chair.”
So where do things stand now?
The embattled Free Times attempted to explain away the whole sordid tale without actually punishing Greene or his editors for their failure to recognize a barroom con artist. In a statement published shortly after the fertilizer hit the fan, the newspaper announced its “last word” on “Soldier Babe”:
“We want to thank our readers for their letters and inquiries about factual errors contained in Joshua Greene’s January 5 profile of the Army soldier ‘Babe’. Following numerous conversations with Army officials and other sources, we have confirmed that the story’s subject made numerous false and exaggerated claims about his background and military experience, and these, unfortunately, went unchecked. To our deep regret, our procedures failed, in this instance, to prevent the publication of false information. This is by no means a matter we take lightly, and we want to assure our readers that every effort is being made to ensure that a lapse of this kind does not happen again in the pages of the Free Times.”
Especially since Joshua Greene remains a staff writer for that distinguished rag. (If you’d like to send Greene your thoughts and best wishes, his email address is jgreene@freetimes.com.)
And as for our buddy, “Babe,” he is probably hiding in the latrine somewhere in USAREUR as his sergeants-major guffaw over the saga of the guy who made such a big fool of himself, a gullible reporter blinded by his own prejudices, and a newspaper indifferent to the facts.
The ultimate victim, of course, is the U.S. Army as a whole. It is a sign of the service’s worsening personnel shortage that even a doofus like “Soldier Babe” was welcomed back into uniform with open arms. Soldier on, soldiers.
Ed Offley is Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at dweditor@yahoo.com. Please send Feedback responses to dwfeedback@yahoo.com. © 2005 Ed Offley.
Ellie