🧵The Marine combat correspondent MOS + related visual comms fields (photographer, videographer, public affairs officer) have recently been diminished as cushy PR jobs where combat is avoided and A/C is enjoyed.
Let's not get it twisted - anyone holding a public affairs/combat camera MOS is a POG (Person Other Than a Grunt), a moniker reserved for those not assigned to direct combat arms fields, and used to describe a military lifestyle full of comfy accommodations & a 9-5 schedule.
Regardless of MOS, a combat deployment is really a luck of the draw. Where you are stationed and what unit you fall under is out of a junior servicemember's control (you have more input when reenlisting), and being engaged in direct combat is an experience held by relatively few.
The history of Marine combat correspondents and combat photographers goes back to World War II, when Marine Sgt. Lou Lowery took the very first photo of iconic U.S. flag raising at Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima on Feb. 23, 1945.
Our collective community also includes a Medal of Honor recipient, when Cpl. William T. Perkins posthumously received the MOH for his actions on Oct. 12, 1967, when he sacrificed his body on a grenade in Vietnam, saving the lives of his fellow Marines.
There is no shortage of examples of Marine combat correspondents, photographers and officers killed during the past several decades of combat. I'll start with Cpl. William Salazar, a combat photographer killed by a car bomb in Karabilah, Iraq on Oct. 15, 2004.
Cpl. Aaron Mankin, a Marine combat correspondent, suffered severe burns when his amphibious assault vehicle struck an IED in Iraq on May 11, 2005, killing four Marines and injuring 11 others.
Marine Maj. Megan McClung, a public affairs officer with I Marine Expeditionary Force, became the first female Marine Corps officer killed in combat when her vehicle struck an IED while escorting media on Dec. 6, 2006 in Ramadi, Iraq.
Sgt. Dorian Gardner, a combat correspondent and public affairs chief for Regimental Combat Team 1, suffered severe vision and hearing loss when shrapnel from an IED struck his face during a foot patrol in Afghanistan in 2010.
Cpl. Eugenio Montanez, a combat correspondent with the 1st Marine Division, suffered severe injuries to his arm during a rocket attack during a patrol in Afghanistan in October 2010.
Lance Cpl. Ralph Fabbri, a combat photographer with the 1st Marine Division, was killed while conducting combat operations in Afghanistan on Sept. 28, 2010.
I apologize if I omitted any other examples from our community. There are also the invisible injuries suffered by combat correspondents, photographers and videographers that weigh heavily long after the deployment, as with so many others in different fields.
Long thread, but I had to say something, especially when I hear so many, including in national media like @brikeilarcnn literally five minutes ago, characterize the combat correspondent MOS as a safe, cushy job.
The Defense Information School, where combat correspondents, PA specialists, photographers, videographers, artists and officers learn their respective trades, has a "Hall of Heroes" honoring the sacrifices made by our community from all military branches. dinfos.dma.mil/About/DINFOS-C…
Correction - Regimental Combat Team 2*
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