AverageNCO meets Brian Williams
A regular here, AverageNCO, who, by the way just retired from the Air Force recently, sent us a transcription from the journal he kept while he was at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait during the Second Iraq War.
5 APR 03
Pulled Viper Duty Again (call sign for four-man squad patrolling a 5K restricted zone outside the wire of Ali Al Salem). It was actually kind of boring. The highlight had been ordering Pizza. We were on our last patrol when we came across four civilians in the restricted area behind the burm. As we approached them they were Americans. Not only were they Americans. It was NBC Nightly News’ Brian Willams. He got kind of arrogant saying it was no problem that they weren’t going to film anything important. SSgt Peterson said it was a big deal and asked for his I.D. like he didn’t know or care who he was. After a lot of back and forth between us them and the Kuwaitis, they finally got to film. The Williams guy was actually kind of pompous. He told us he was going to call Donald Rumsfeld’s Secretary to make us let them tape.
Actually, Williams told the woman on the phone “Hey, this is Brian Williams…..get me Rummy on the phone!” as if that would impress the patrol.
I hate the media, generally speaking, in a war zone – they think they’re bullet proof and they don’t care that the rest of us aren’t. Their hangnails and the sand in their Underoos is always our fault. There are some good ones out there, but Brian Williams isn’t one of them. AverageNCO said that when they came up on the NBC crew, Williams jumped out the cab of the vehicle with hairspray in one hand and a hair brush in the other.
But I guess he’s getting his comeuppance now. How much truble do you have to be in for Dan Rather to think that he can salvage your reputation? The hippies are firing up their bowls to dig him out of his lies, like this Jennifer Gerson Uffalussy person, who says that he caught the PTSD when he arrived at the scene of the helicopter forced landing an hour after it happened;
While Williams has not said that he has post-traumatic stress disorder, it’s a common side effect of covering war and other disturbing events. A study done by Finnish researchers in 2007 shows that many journalists experience PTSD more as a result of guilt than as a result of what they have actually experienced or seen, due to their presence at the scene as a reporter instead of as a first-responder.
Yeah, uh-uh. That makes perfect sense – PTSD from guilt. Stupid hippies.
I honestly hadn’t planned on putting Williams on our Stolen Valor Page, but because everyone is coming out of the woodwork to defend him, I figured he needed some sort of special recognition.
Category: Media
Time to add a special playoff game between the last seed (#64) and a special entry (i.e., #65, Brian Williams)
The wild card!
I say you should establish a separate Brian Williams award for the tourney fake who was rocking the most outlandish lie or something. Kind of like a Vezina trophy or a MVP award.
Voted, most outlandish lie for an “Airmobile Operation”.
“And they nominees are”
I think he has earned his Stolen Valor stripe.
It gets even better. Based on new info, it appears even Williams’ apology was “less than the whole truth”:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/06/business/brian-williamss-apology-over-iraq-account-is-challenged.html?_r=0
http://pagesix.com/2015/02/05/pilot-of-brian-williams-flight-all-that-hit-us-was-dust/
http://www.stripes.com/news/us/brian-williams-apology-draws-mixed-reviews-from-mission-vets-1.327935
Questions are also now being raised about the veracity of his reporting during Katrina, for which he was lauded at the time – by people who were there at the time.
http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/news/11526453-148/nbc-news-anchor-brian-williams
And, finally, Tom Brokaw – who Williams replaced at NBC News – says he should be fired.
http://pagesix.com/2015/02/05/tom-brokaw-wants-brian-williams-fired/
(Edited to add: a few of the comments about Williams in the Brokaw article are a hoot, and are worth the time to read.)
What? Brokaw wants Williams fired? Now THERE’S the pot calling the kettle black!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA
Or is it just jealousy that Williams still has a job, and Brokaw doesn’t? Ditto for any credibility?
Brokaw wants Bri fired?
(falls off chair, laughing)
How do you hide money from a Hippie? Put it under the soap!
(Apologies to GWAR)
do not like most “combat reporters” from major news corp., They come late to the action and then make it sound like they were there from beginning to end. A news crew from a Dallas stration was looking for Marines from the Dallas/Fort Worth area to report about. Thank goodness I was on R&R at the time. They filmed the crew chief greasing the main head and for some unknown reason had the 1st mechanic hitting the main transmission with a hammer(he was hidden behind the main transmission. It was a long time for the crew chief and 1st mech to live this down.This is my experience. The actual combat reporters Marines told the truth sometimes when the higher-ups would be unhappy with their reporting. Joe
Can Brian Williams be in the 2015 Stolen Valor Tourney? Please? Please? Pretty please?
Actually, to me, BW (Gawd, I HATE that he has two of the same initials as me) is a non-entity. I don’t watch his “news” (biased propaganda), even if the Command Six happens to have it on the TV.
The fool has spent the last 4 days on the top of the trending list at Twitter.
Funny shit there, tons of it !!!
#BrianWilliamsWarStories is my favorite !!!
And he now HAS to be a part of the Stolen Valor Tourney !!!
I’ve worked with a ton of reporters over my time in both OEF/OIF. These pop and drop guys are the worst. The folks who stayed in the green zone for years and worked all over the country were no different then us after awhile and were at times to close to be objective. I know plenty that saw it all…including a close friend who took his own life recently. Only the top dudes pull this shit and give the average journo a bad name.
Six, I wrote this a decade ago about the media and the troops. It’s titled, “Just One Old Ernie Pyle.”
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2006/05/just_one_old_ernie_pyle.html
Like most of my poems, it’s doggerel, but it was written to display the sentiment not an old soldier’s sophisticated writing style.
Guys like Williams are contemptuous of folks like us…but they sure want to play the Rambo, don’t they.
I am more than likely too sensitive, but I have never liked that “thank you for your service” stuff. I suspect that for many, it’s just a throwaway line. Makes THEM feel good.
I remember the 60s too well and I have a brother who was spit on in airports and called a baby killer back then.
“A study done by Finnish researchers in 2007”. Well now I’m on board with the whole PTS thing! If the Finns did research, it has to be rock solid evidence. Now every journalist in the world will have that Finnish report in his smart phone for quick reference and retort.
GWOWTP …
Global War on Wooden Telephone Poles!
Look it up!
Let’s see now; Finland has been in how many wars since 1945?
Anyone?
OH … Avg NCO … this is a valuable nugget of info!@
Dan Rather was quoted as saying, “I set the bar so low for journalists, William’s should be awarded for his lie!”
Looks like my local liberal rag, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, has put out an article defending this jerkwad as well.
@AverageNCO
How “lucky” to meet such a journalistic luminary!!
Back in the day the only famous person I met overseas was Sebastion Cabot who starred with Doug McClure in a TV show from the early 60’s called “Checkmate.” (I had to google for the forgotten info)
Mr. Cabot was actually quite nice and stayed with us long enough to enjoy some C-Rations. And…..he never exaggerated about anything!
“It’s like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.”
– Patrick Rothfuss
Think this fits a few others we know here as well…
Paul Rieckhoff nas gone on record already giving him a hall pass.
In my career I’ve seen some horrible, horrible shit. Granted, not quite “war zone” horrible, but pretty bad all the same. Some I’ve watched unfold as they happened, others I arrived afterwards and picked up the pieces. I’ve seen people who were burned to death in their cars trying to escape a California wind-driven fire. I’ve seen traffic collisions that smeared a person’s brain matter on my turnout coat. I’ve seen families left homeless, kids drowned in swimming pools, crotch-rocket motorcycle riders whose head I found 15 yards from their shoulders, and people begging us not to let them die as they bleed through every trauma dressing in our bag. And according to the state shrink, I have the PTS. I’ve seen a lot more terrible shit than Brian Williams will ever imagine (which says something about Williams, as I’ve never been to Iraq or Afghanistan), and my mental condition was diagnosed by a certified professional, as opposed to some groupie who did a Google search. And I have never, ever claimed that I lost my kid, or that I got stabbed, or that I suffered a traumatic amputation, or that I deployed my fire shelter, or that I was trapped by a building collapse, etc. I was in a wreck once, but I have the Highway Patrol report, insurance claim, totaled truck, witnesses, and pictures to prove it, plus I don’t use it as some kind of self-aggrandizement; I don’t really like to discuss it at all. So fuck Brian Williams. My personal experience has been that medi folks fall into two categories. The first is exemplified by a guy with a video camera from a local news station (I think his title was “photojournalist” or something–he’s the guy who gets the footage the talking heads talk over) around here who sweet-talked his way into into riding on my engine for a few hours during a major fire we had here 7 or 8 years ago. He was cool, stayed out of the way, and when I, in a state of sleep-deprived exhaustion (104 hours straight on the fireline… Read more »
@The Other Whitey
I loved your comment above and one thing you should know…..don’t sell yourself short when you write:
“when I, in a state of sleep-deprived exhaustion (104 hours straight on the fireline with no relief kinda sucks, though I expect the combat vets here have been through worse)”
You’ve seen and experienced your share.
V/R
LIRight
One further comment from me……for my money carrying an M-16, M-60, or the like is a lot easier than dragging hose in 120-degree heat surrounded by fire!!
Well, if I’m *surrounded* by fire, that generally means I have SEVERELY fucked up and put myself in an interesting position, with “interesting” being defined as “Oh God, oh God, we’re all gonna die.”
At the same time, my line gear with full camelbak and canteens, my H/T, and a hosepack with 300 feet of 1-1/2″ wajax still ways less than a combat ruck, plate carrier, rifle, and standard load of ammo. Replace the rifle with a 240, or throw in one of those bigass radios an RTO has to hump around, and my load starts looking downright pussified in comparison.
As for the hazard, fire is a natural process governed by the laws of physics and chemistry. With all due respect to Robert DeNiro, everything in “Backdraft” was bullshit. If you can observe and measure all of the variables influencing a fire (fuel, weather, topography), you can accurately predict what it will do and when it will do it down to the second. It is rarely possible to observe and measure all of those in the real world, but we can usually get enough for a pretty good idea–Wildland Fire Behavior Calculation courses (NWCG S-190, S-290, and S-390 classes) are almost entirely about weather, and every engine company, hand crew, etc. carries a Kestrel and/or belt weather kit.
Compare that to (alleged) humans, no matter how dumb, armed and actively trying to end your life. Well, to me there’s no comparison at all. And my personal record is 43 days without going home, with the farthest I ever got being Susanville. Not remotely the same as 6-18 months in Afghanistan.
That’s supposed to say “weighs less,” not “ways less.” That has to be the dumbest autocorrect error I’ve ever seen.
LIRight,aside question.Do you post over on the Bullshido blog? If yes my user name there is Msrjoe. Thank You Joe
Joe – How are you?
I did answer you – I think it was last week when you asked me the same question….I’ve never been to that blog, although I’ve been told that I BS every now and then, but BullShido?? Nope. 😉
Thanks, LIRight, but nobody was shooting at me. Firefighting and armed conflict are two very different ballgames, and it never seemed right to me to equate one to the other.
Having seen building roofs collapse with firefighters trapped on them and barely survive by clinging to the building walls, I would have to disagree with you, TOW.
You do not have to be shot at to be in that category.
When I was in Philadephia, there were sometimes fires at the tank farm on the Delaware River, and occasionally, a cracking tower would light up in a major explosion. I watched from the 8th floor of the building where I worked, several miles away from the fire, as one of those things exploded in a ball of flame that shook the windows. The only thing that saved those firefighters was that they could get under the foam they had sprayed around the base of the cracking tower.
I think you and the rest of us will agree that there’s a lot of mutual respect going around with regards to your original and subsequent comments.
Pinto Nag is right – keep writing, but more often.
Nice writing, better read.
The way it should be!
TOW: That was a great read. You need to write more often!
Silly question: that white stripe censoring out part of the uniform in the pic–what goes there? Some kind of crazy name tape placement?
Yes Reaperman. We wrote our name and rank with magic marker on the front of our flack vests. The predates Velcro name tapes. And I asked Jonn to cover my name because of certain folks who visit this site.
Also, AverageNCO congrats on retirement.