Rupert Hamer, RIP
I know that many people here have a dislike of the media when it comes to reporting conflicts, but I thought that deserves a post.
A British journalist has been killed in an explosion while covering the war in Afghanistan. Rupert Hamer, 39, the defense correspondent of the Sunday Mirror newspaper, was with the US Marines in Helmand province when he was killed by a roadside bomb.
Because sometimes we forget that some of the reporters go through the same risks and hardships many of our troops see every day. But sometimes to do not get seen in the same light as our service-members.
Tina Weaver, Editor of the Sunday Mirror, said: “Rupert believed that the only place to report a war was from the front line and, as our defense correspondent, he wanted to be embedded with the US Marines at the start of their vital surge into southern Afghanistan. He left on New Year’s Eve with photographer Phil Coburn, determined to be there from the start. It was his fifth trip to Afghanistan.”
So in closing leave you with this;
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said: “Rupert Hamer died in the course of important work informing the world about the situation in Afghanistan. I pay tribute to his efforts, and those of Philip Coburn, undertaken in the most dangerous of circumstances.” Jim McLean, a Times journalist and friend of Hamer since childhood, said: “Rupert was a born reporter. There was never another job he would have wanted to do.”
He leaves a wife and three children aged 6, 5 and 19 months.
Video added.
Category: Media, Terror War
Few reporters have balls. All the others suck balls.
Rupert had big, big balls.
Rest in Peace, Rupert, God speed.
It also bears mentioning that one Marine was killed and five others wounded in the explosion.
Sgt K
I know but there was no information of those that where killed. It has become harder to get IDs of the fallen since the DOD stopped sending out the emails of with all the information.
Agreed he had courage. The real kind, not the kind drawn from a half-dozen shots at the Willard Hotel bar while waiting for a pissed-off flunky to pass along some classified to dope hoping to take down his boss while gaining some street creds with the media mafia.
Rupert was a real reporter, willing to go to the story, rather than wait for something to land in his lap.
I wish to God there were more like him. I might not agree with what he wrote, or why, but, by God, he was willing to risk it all to see what was going on.
Ultimately, he lost that bet and his family, and we, are the worse for that.
We are also the better for having had someone like him in our lives.
As of 9:20 this morning, there was no entry yet on the DoD’s casualty page of the Marine casualty.
The only problem I have is that his dealth will get more coverage than any serviceman’s.
But that’s not really his fault, more the fault of his profession. And combat correspondants (well, some of them) are the only journalists who I typically respect and don’t want to see hung from a tree.
War Photographers and Journalists have always facinated me from Dickey Chapelle to James Nachtwey. There is a very good book of all the photographers that died while on assignment in Vietnam which shows a little of their work and gives their bio. It seems there is such a difference between the correspondants then and now and their approach to our soldiers. Anyway, the book is called Requium.
Let’s face it, there are reporters who can be in combat zones (my favorite on TV are Greg Kelly and Ollie North – Marines are riflemen first and understand chain of command) and those who do not (those who put “the story” over the safety of servicemembers). We are blessed by the former and cursed with the latter.
Condolences to his family.
I’m more interested in Marines’ WIA and KIA so proper respects may be paid.