Mark Thompson (reporter)

Mark Thompson

Thompson addressing a gathering at Boston University in 2005
Born c. 1953
New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Residence Kensington, Maryland
Alma mater Boston University
Occupation National security correspondent, TIME magazine
Spouse(s) Diane
Children Jonathan & Geoffrey

Mark Thompson (born about 1953) is an American investigative reporter who won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for public service journalism.[1][2][3][4]

The Pulitzer Prize gold medal award.

Thompson graduated from Boston University in 1975 and began his career where he grew up, at the Pendulum, in East Greenwich, Rhode Island.[4] After a spell in Pontiac, Michigan, he moved to Washington in 1979, where he joined the Washington bureau of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. There he won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service recognizing a five-part series published in March 1984. Thompson covered, or uncovered, a design flaw in Bell helicopters that went uncorrected for a decade and led to the deaths of 250 U.S. servicemen; in consequence of his work, 600 Huey helicopters were grounded and modified.[1][2][3][4] He joined Knight-Ridder Newspapers in 1986, where he reported extensively on the Persian Gulf War and the U.S. invasion of Panama.[4] In 1994, he joined TIME magazine as defense correspondent,[5] where he has written or co-written cover stories on the Army's use of prescription drugs on soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan,[a] the Marines' V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft,[b] the Army at the breaking point,[c] the wisdom of restarting the military draft,[d] and profiles of then-United States Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld,[e] and then-General Tommy Franks.[f]

Thompson also reported extensively from Afghanistan and Iraq, reporting on the progress of the conflicts there and the unexpected lack of armor for the U.S. military,[g] and has written four major pieces on the true costs of the Iraq war—an early look at the war's wounded,[h] a study of the U.S. troops killed in a single week,[i] the lonely vigil of an Ohio family whose son was the first American soldier in this war to be listed as missing in action,[j] whose remains were ultimately recovered in March, 2008,[6] and the death of a GI at the hands of Army medicine a year after he was slightly wounded in Iraq.[k]

Selected works

^[a] Thompson, Mark (June 5, 2008). "America's Medicated Army". Time Magazine (Time Inc). Retrieved 2009-01-10.
^[b] Thompson, Mark (September 26, 2007). "V-22 Osprey: A Flying Shame". Time Magazine (Time Inc). Retrieved 2009-01-10.
^[c] Thompson, Mark (April 5, 2007). "America's Broken-Down Army". Time Magazine (Time Inc). Retrieved 2009-01-10.
^[d] Thompson, Mark; Michael Duffy (September 1, 2003). "Is The Army Stretched Too Thin?". Time Magazine (Time Inc). Retrieved 2009-01-10.
^[e] Thompson, Mark; Michael Duffy (April 14, 2006). "Pentagon Warlord". Time Magazine (Time Inc). Retrieved 2009-01-10.
^[f] Duffy, Michael; Mark Thompson (March 17, 2003). "Straight Shooter". Time Magazine (Time Inc). Retrieved 2009-01-10.
^[f] Thompson, Mark (December 17, 2004). "How Safe Are Our Troops?". Time Magazine (Time Inc). Retrieved 2009-01-10.
^[h] Thompson, Mark; Romesh Ratnesar (November 10, 2003). "The Wounded Come Home". Time Magazine (Time Inc). Retrieved 2009-01-10.
^[i] Gibbs, Nancy; Mark Thompson; Amanda Bower; Nathan Thornburgh; Simon Robinson (July 21, 2003). "A Soldier's Life". Time Magazine (Time Inc). Retrieved 2009-01-10.
^[j] Thompson, Mark (February 14, 2005). "What Happened to Matt Maupin?". Time Magazine (Time Inc). Retrieved 2009-01-10.
^[k] Thompson, Mark (February 14, 2008). "Dying Under the Army's Care". Time Magazine (Time Inc). Retrieved 2009-01-10.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Public Service". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2013-10-29.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Holloway, Karel (April 25, 1985). "FW paper sees Pulitzer as vindication". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved 2009-01-10.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 James Kelly;Joseph J. Kane/Atlanta, with other bureaus (May 6, 1985). "Local Angle". TIME. Retrieved 2009-01-10.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Mark Thompson: Bio". CNN. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. 1996. Retrieved 2009-01-11.
  5. ↑ Long, Elizabeth Valk, President (June 13, 1994). "To Our Readers". TIME. Retrieved 2009-01-10.
  6. ↑ Associated Press (March 31, 2008). "Remains of Soldier Missing Since ’04 Are Found in Iraq". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-01-11.