Defining the word ?soldier?

[thedrifter]

Issue Date: January 05, 2004

Defining the word ?soldier?
Time?s Person of Year means Marines, too


As is widely known by now, Time magazine chose the ?American Soldier? as its Person of the Year for 2003. But an editor?s letter in the same issue states that the term was used ?in the broadest sense, to stand for all those in a U.S. uniform who go in harm?s way, including the Navy?s sailors, the airmen and women of the Air Force and the Marines.?
The soldiers on the cover ? Sgt. Marquette Whiteside of Pine Bluff, Ark.; Spc. Billie Grimes of Lebanon, Ind.; and Sgt. Ronald Buxton of Lake Ozark, Mo. ? are members of the 1st Armored Division?s Survey Platoon, Headquarters Battery, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, and are the subject of a feature article in the Jan. 5 issue.

So why use the word ?soldier??

?We had such a debate about this,? said Nancy Gibbs, a Time editor-at-large. who said editors also considered using words such as ?warrior,? ?fighter? or ?men and women in arms.?

?It was really a question of clarity. Within the vernacular to anyone who is reading, ?soldier? is the generic term for anyone serving in the armed forces.?

It was in no way meant to slight the Air Force, Navy, Marines or Coast Guard, she said.

There was less of a debate over the photo. Shot by James Nachtwey, it was part of a series taken during a Time embed with the platoon and was seen as a symbolic choice for Time?s Person of the Year and for Time itself.

?After what happened to Mike [Weisskopf] and Jim [Nachtwey] in the course of doing this reporting, I think all of us were glad that Jim had shot this amazing photo.?

Nachtwey was hit with shrapnel, Weisskopf lost a hand and two other soldiers were injured when a grenade was tossed into their Humvee on patrol in Baghdad on Dec 10.

The photo ?is emblematic of all people in the armed forces,? Gibbs said.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/sto...PER-2510133.php


Sempers,

Roger