The Military Reporters & Editors Association honors the legacy of Joseph Galloway, the legendary war correspondent whose book We Were Soldiers Once … And Young is universally recognized as the definitive account of the 1965 Battle of Ia Drang.
For helping to save wounded soldiers while under fire, Joe was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with “V” Device for valor, making him the only civilian to receive a valor award from the Army during the Vietnam War.
Joe spent decades of his life covering conflicts all across the world and he was always generous to share his accumulated insights with other reporters who were learning how to cover conflict zones.
Each year, MRE honors journalists who have done an exceptional job covering the military and our top honor is the Joe Galloway Award.
Sig Christenson, of the San Antonio Express-News, was one of Galloway’s good friends. Christenson, who helped found MRE in 2002, offered the following tribute to Joe:
“What can I say about Joe? Well for starters, he had a big, big heart. I was only a few weeks back from the invasion of Iraq and sure I’d lost my mind. Joe and I had never met, but we spent three hours at Shelly’s Tavern. Joe, who went to war four times and had done it all, set me straight, telling me that I was really perfectly normal. Much later, he joked that I was crazy as hell. What a true friend Joe Galloway was, the journalist who fought at Ia Drang and later was awarded a Bronze Star with “V” device for valor. He was brave and truly decent. Ever the soldier’s friend who lived in the mud with them and endured their privations, he was my generation’s Ernie Pyle. I so grieve his loss.”