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thedrifter
06-03-03, 06:07 AM
Who They Are

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Exclusive commentary by Michael P. Tremoglie



Jun 1, 2003


During a commencement speech he delivered, New York Times war correspondent Chris Hedges described the soldiers he met in Iraq “as boys from places such as Mississippi and Arkansas who joined the military because there were no job opportunities.“ Hedges believes military personnel to be a bunch of unskilled hicks with no life.

I know two young people in the military. One in the Airborne, one in the Marines. They are nothing like Hedges describes.

Captain Paul Nicolosi was born in a Naval Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan. A handsome young man, he was the son of an Air Force sergeant who was stationed in Viet Nam.

Paul was not a normal teenager. His parents were divorced. He lived with his mother in North Carolina until the age of sixteen when he went to live with his father in Philadelphia. There was the difficult adjustment to a new school and culture. Despite this, he was an above average student.

He knew he wanted to go into the military from adolescence. He was interested in guns as a youth. He became proficient and in high school was captain of the freshman Marksmanship team.

Somewhere along the way, he realized he wanted to study Engineering. It was a demanding subject and therefore interesting. After graduating from Northeast High School, Paul applied to Drexel University, was accepted and initially majored in Mechanical Engineering-eventually graduating with a degree in Industrial Engineering.

Paul knew his father could not help him pay the tuition. As Paul told me in an email, “His (father’s) words were, "if you want it bad enough, you'll find a way to make it". And make it I did, the old fashioned way, federal student loans and the 80% Army ROTC scholarship and a part-time job. My father purchased my Macintosh computer,... Later, when I lived on campus he helped with my rent for about 6 months. That was about the extent of my family funding. ”

As the number one cadet in ROTC, Paul had the opportunity to volunteer for Airborne school-which he did. Ironically, he is not very enthusiastic about jumping out of a perfectly normal operating aircraft. He would prefer to fly them. However, despite his reluctance to jump from an airplane in flight he went to Fort Benning, GA. This is consistent with someone who continually likes to “be all that he can be.” He majored in engineering for the same reason he went to airborne school.

After graduating from Drexel, Paul was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant and assigned to an Armored Division. He was subsequently sent to Ranger School-a requirement for Infantry officers. Because of the Army’s policy of cross-training officers, Paul was given his current assignment to the 82nd Airborne Division.

Paul was considering a career with the FBI. He applied and in the interim intended to complete his MBA. The events of 911 changed all that. He was to be deployed in Afghanistan. Paul pended his FBI application and instead married his girlfriend. He wrote in his email, “I got married because of the war ... I didn't want to leave .. my wife if I died in Afghanistan without anything such as medical insurance for her or life insurance when I stepped on a mine etc.”

Paul’s service in the military is not a function of the lack of opportunity. As he said it, “I had plenty of opportunities. I just took the one that most appealed to me and one that I knew I would be successful in.”



Elizabeth Leach is an attractive young woman of nineteen. Articulate and intelligent, Liz took some college courses after high school. The daughter of a nurse, she was not quite sure what she wanted to do.

She was a manager of a retail business before she enlisted in the Marine Reserve last year. “ I wanted the challenge of the Marine Corps, “ she told me when I asked her why she made the unusual choice of enlisting in the Marines. She graduated from Parris Island May 17th and is now on 20 days leave pending an assignment.

Liz could have gone anywhere, she chose the Marines. The Marines did not choose her, she chose them. Liz believes it is a valid and viable option for her.

Contrast these two young people, who are in the military because of their character, with the portrayal of military personnel furnished by Hedges during his commencement speech at Rockford College. Both Paul and Elizabeth are in the military because they both wanted to improve themselves. Both believe in altruism. They both have mentioned the concept of self-sacrifice to me. Paul marrying his girlfriend so she would benefit if he were a casualty evinces this. Elizabeth’s letters to me from Parris Island always mentioned how much she appreciated the esprit de corps in the Marines.

Self-sacrifice, altruism, and accepting responsibility are not words that come to mind when thinking of the New York Times. Reading about what Chris Hedges said did nothing to change that opinion. Perhaps Hedges should remember the words of Marine Chaplain Father O’Brien, who wrote,

"It is the soldier, not the reporter who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who gives us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag."

Hedges should stop worrying about the men and women of the United States military. Unlike New York Times’ publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Paul was accepted by the college of his choice. Sulzberger’s choice, Harvard, rejected him. Unlike Times’ editor Howell Raines, who claimed he was not responsible for Jayson Blair, both Paul and Elizabeth seek and accept responsibility.

Hedges should be more concerned about his colleagues at the Times. Maybe his next commencement speech should be about affirmative action and journalistic ethics.


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Michael P. Tremoglie is a freelance writer whose work as appeared in Phila Inquirer, Phila Daily News, Insight and Front Page magazines working on his first novel.



Sempers,

Roger