Esquire's "most gripping story you will read this year."

I didn't see the print edition, but did you do a breakout box with a bar graph in it? Readers love that shit.

 

Yeah, the idea was mine. Honestly, I was just curious after reading the CNN story that Boobie mentions. I just wanted to know what happened. That was probably in July when I pitched it. I had some other stuff to clear away, so I really didn't start working on it until October. I started my calling Joey's family, asking for their blessing. We had talked about writing about other soldiers, but there were things about Joey's story that I kept coming back to -- from a small town, carried by his brother soldiers for a long march, and I had a lead on a couple of the people I needed to talk to. The more I dug into it, the more it seemed like he was the guy I was supposed to write about. Just so many things fell into place.

For instance, I went up to Fort Richardson, Alaska, to meet his platoon. I was trying to find out who brought Joey from Falcon to the airport in Baghdad. I was talking to Lt. Rudberg about it, and he had no idea -- he knew that it was by helicopter, but that was it. So, he actually says out loud, "You know, I think one of our guys was on that helicopter with Joey," and just at that moment, SSG Slaght was walking by -- and this is not a small place, there a lot of guys there. And he says, "I was on the helicopter with Joey." I was like, Holy.

Another weird fluke: When I went to Dover, the folks I was meeting were given a heads up that I was coming. So Chaplain Sparks looks down at his desk, and for whatever reason, at the top of the pile -- nearly a year later -- was the prayer he'd hand-written on the incoming sheet for Joey's planeload. He had kept very few of the prayers, and there was this one, sitting right there on his desk. He said it gave him goosebumps to see it there.

Anyway, I believe in stuff like that more than most people, but still, Joey was the guy for a lot of reasons.

Then I went into the detective work, finding the people. Some were pretty tough to figure out. The military was really cooperative, but still, I knew a general met the plane at Dover, but which general? That took a lot of digging. Chaplain Staggers, too, the man who met the family at the airport, he was one of the tougher pieces. And Joey's platoon had come back from Iraq and had gone on leave, so they were all over the place. Two of them were actually in Scottsburg, at Joey's grave, the day before I got there. I'd just missed them. But eventually I got them all.

The interviews were long, but they were just conversations. I sort of went down paths with people. The girl in the flowered dress, that started with my asking about the emotions of the moment. (I spoke to that honor guard as a group.) Someone said they never look at the family, they look somewhere else, and someone else agreed. So I asked where they were looking. Schnieders remembered looking at the logo on the police car. And then the two girls sat there for a moment before one of them said, "Remember the girl's dress?" And then that sparked both their memories of that moment. I have no idea who that girl in the dress is. I kind of like that in a way. I think that's probably my favorite part of the story.

I did go back to talk to some people more than once. Gail, Joey's mother, I spoke to probably ten times. I went to Scottsburg three times. Esquire was really good about just letting me go on this one. The budget, all told, was probably something like $6,000. That's a lot, but it's not ridiculous. I drove most of the time, stayed in cheap hotels, just so they wouldn't come down on me, but they never did.

One of the harder parts was, the family asked me to wait to talk to them until after New Year's. At that time, we had the idea that the story would appear in the May issue, for Memorial Day. (At that time, I thought the story would also be around 6,000 words.) That meant my deadline was February. So waiting till after New Year's made it a little tight, but I worked on everybody else and then talked to the family last. That actually worked out, because it meant I could answer a lot of their questions. I knew most of the story then.

Then last, the editing. Esquire does that jointly. They never balked at the length, but I warned them that it was getting out of control. I had mapped out a one-page outline, just each stage in the journey. Then I wrote the Kalitta section, which at that time was one of 13 stages, and I was like, Uh oh. I told them it would be 10,000 words. Then 15. Then it ended up 22K. So we had to knock it down. Space did become an issue at that point. Luckily, with a story that length, just a line edit with save you a few thousand words. But we did take out whole scenes. I'll post the one that hurt the most to lose, the soldiers back in Iraq. It came out mostly because it messed up the chronology. Writing backwards, we wanted to make sure it was as clear as possible, that the story flowed. This scene kind of took it out of swing.

Anyway, I'll post it in a separate post. Think of it like a deleted scene from a DVD.

Thanks again for all the kinds words, sincerely. (JR, you make me blush.) And I hope it doesn't seem weird answering the questions. I like talking about this stuff. I think this story will make me a better reporter. I always heard about Gary Smith talking to fifty people for a story and to be honest, I was like, That's stupid. But now I get it.

I haven't seen the print edition yet. I do not believe there is a bar graph.

 

The memorial service in Iraq:

One week later, on May 29, 2007, when Sgt. Montgomery’s body was being flown from Dover to Seymour, Chaplain Tobin led a memorial service for him back at Falcon. They held it outside at night, a warrior’s memorial. Under spotlights, they placed a helmet on top of a gun between a pair of boots with spurs on them. There was a photograph of Sgt. Montgomery there, too.

“Everybody loved Monty,” Chaplain Tobin says. “We all love each other, this is a tight-knit band of brothers, but he was a center of gravity -- not just for the platoon, but for the troop. He was really well loved. It was a very tough time.”

The troop stood in rows, at attention, when the ceremony began with bagpipes, the opening bars of “We Were Soldiers Once... And Young.” Lay me down, in the cold, cold ground... SFC Leland and PFC Ross each told stories of their friend, how he liked to listen to music and drink beer, Moosehead was his favorite, and how he always wore his helmet crooked, and how he would clean out the truck before anybody else got up, he would do the ugly work, because he wanted them to get their sleep, and how his life had never been easy, he had been homeless and aimless once, but he had found his place and his purpose.

“As we continue on with our lives,” Chaplain Tobin told the men, “may we honor his memory by taking seriously this idea that we don’t always get a vote in the things that influence our lives, but when it comes to the mind and the soul, you get a vote. The question is, What are you going to do with it?”

And then they called out one last roll. One soldier’s name was called out, and he said, “Here, sir.” And then another soldier’s name was called out, and he said, “Here, sir.” And then Sgt. Montgomery’s name was called out, three times, like this:

“Sgt. Montgomery.”

“Sgt. Robert Montgomery.”

“Sgt. Robert Joe Montgomery.”

There was only silence in reply each time, a long silence, before Taps played over the speakers, two days before a bugler named Spc. Leatherbee would play his trumpet at Scottsburg Cemetery. The men approached the memorial then, the helmet and gun and boots. Most of them left something in tribute, a coin or a cigarette or a photograph, and they dropped to their knees and they prayed, and they cried on each other’s shoulders, and at last they stood up and fell back and saluted, and they walked out into the night and some of them tried to remember and some of them tried to forget.

 

Is there a link to the NPR interview?

 

Jones, I know you've mentioned some of the feedback you've gotten. Have you heard from any of the people in the story?

 

'beat, there's a link earlier in the thread.

Inky, I've only heard from a few so far, but they were some of the ones I wanted most. Lt. Rudberg sent a nice email that made me feel really good. I really, really liked him. There's a line about him, that he's the sort of guy you would follow into battle, and that's how I felt about him. So it was important to me that he liked the story, and he did.

Gail, Joey's mom, we've kept in constant touch. She had me over for dinner a few times, and we've become close. She's an amazing woman. I doubt she will read the story. I warned her several times that it would be very hard to read -- there are parts of the story that she doesn't know about, even today. We agreed, though, that we would tell all of the story, and I really did spend a lot of time with her beforehand, making sure she was up for this.

Aunt Vicki emailed me today, very kind. She said that the story was very hard for her to read, but that she was proud of it. She was great, too, so I'm glad about that. We had lunch in a Cracker Barrel, and we were sitting in this crowded room eating hamburgers and crying at each other, everybody looking. She was the first one to tell me of the glove folding in on itself, so you can imagine that moment. I think the waitress thought we were crazy.

I feel really tightly bonded to a lot of the people in the story. So many of them were just such good people. It was a hard story in a lot of ways, but it was life-affirming in others. The people at Dover, who work with the bodies, they know what life is all about. You can't come away from that place unchanged. Every day is a gift.

 

here's the npr link:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/talk/2008/04/honorable_transfers_1.html

 

Excellent, big time work.

 

Jones - Did you ever read much J. Anthony Lukas as you were developing as a writer/reporter? The meticulousness of your reporting reminds me very much of "Common Ground." And, of course, Truman Capote.

 

Just curious, anyone know if this story is getting widespread reaction? I know everyone here who has read it has been blown away, but I'm just wondering if it's reached the masses at any level. I don't subscribe to Esquire or listen to NPR and I haven't heard about the story anywhere else besides here. Without this site there's a chance I never would have found out about it. While this story will certainly will receive plenty of recognition, I'm wondering if its popularity is equal to how great of a story this is.

 

Might still be early for that, Boobie. Around here, at least, this issue isn't even on the newsstand yet. (Aside: as I was dropping the Clooney issue back into the rack, I noticed John McCain's name on the cover. Yup, our man Jones again. That's when I made the decision to subscribe, even though I don't exactly fit the "men's magazine" demographic. Don't forget to ask for your cut of the profits, Chris... should keep you in Timbits for a day or two, anyhow.)

There wasn't much discussion when I posted the link on our site, but several veterans sent PMs thanking me for bringing it to their attention. I think any groundswell of support for the story will begin in their ranks.

Hazy or not, glad to see you back among us, Mr. Jones.

 

Jones:

I read your story on my flight home, weeping openly at times.

You both honored the people in the story and you honored the profession. Doing one is rare, doing both is unheard of.

It was one of the best things I've read in a long, long time, combining a riveting story with an amazing eye for detail.

My hat's off. I can't even fathom the amount of work that went into that story or the sleepless nights it caused.

Great job!