Joseph L. Galloway
is the senior military correspondent for Knight Ridder Newspapers and a nationally syndicated columnist.
One of America's preeminent war correspondents,
with more than four decades as a reporter
and writer, he recently concluded an assignment
as a special consultant to Gen. Colin Powell
at the State Department.
Galloway, a native of Refugio, Texas, spent
22 years as a foreign and war correspondent
and bureau chief for United Press International,
and nearly 20 years as a senior editor and
senior writer for U.S. News & World Report
magazine. His overseas postings include tours
in Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Singapore
and three years as UPI bureau chief in Moscow
in the former Soviet Union. During the course
of 15 years of foreign postings Galloway served
four tours as a war correspondent in Vietnam
and also covered the 1971 India-Pakistan War
and half a dozen other combat operations.
In 1990-1991 Galloway covered Desert Shield/Desert
Storm, riding with the 24th Infantry Division
(Mech) in the assault into Iraq. General H.
Norman Schwarzkopf has called Galloway "The
finest combat correspondent of our generation
-- a soldier's reporter and a soldier's friend."
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has cleared the way for the name of Air Force Capt. Edward Alan Brudno to be engraved on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, his brother Robert Brudno told Knight Ridder on Friday.
Alan Brudno was shot down over North Vietnam and spent seven and a half years in a series of North Vietnamese prison camps before he was freed in 1973 and returned home. Four months later, a day before his 33rd birthday, Brudno took his own life.
The Air Force undertook a complete examination of its records in the case at Robert Brudno's request and found that under existing rules, Alan Brudno's name belonged on The Wall. The Defense Department reviewed the case after a controversy erupted over adding the name of a soldier who'd committed suicide after the war to the roll of honored dead. The department ruled that Brudno met its criteria to be counted as a casualty of the war.
Former POWs such as Marine Col. Orson Swindle III, who became close to Brudno during years of imprisonment, said "his suicide was a result of deep wounds he suffered during his long imprisonment and harsh treatment and torture." He added, "There is no better candidate than Al to be on The Wall."
The Air Force found that it had let Brudno down when he returned home, providing no support or counseling, and that he'd suffered physical and psychological wounds during his captivity that led to his death.
Because of Brudno's death, returned prisoners of war now get the medical and psychological support they need to readjust to life at home.
Robert Brudno said of his brother: "His death was the wakeup call that saved other POWs. I think that the others whose names are already on The Wall will be honored by the addition of one more very brave man."
