And that dear friends is why you should not believe your own P.R. and why you shoud not tweak the nose of the dragon!

What a putz!

A post filled with nothing but stories of the Drive Bys (I include small furry animals in that epithet on occasions such as this) getting their comeuppance from our boys with the M16s would be fabulous. I could read those all day long.

I'm certain that you're right about the fabulous babe sitting there looking hot is basically what kept Mr. Ignorant from munching sand. He got lucky, and yes they probably were laughing at the twit. I was an SP and once saw a master sergeant butt stroke a major who was trying to take a short cut and tried to bull through us. The major was the one who got in trouble.

Chip

Hawk - great post. unfortunamente, i suspect that there are MANY more examples of the type of behavior you describe, i.e reporters around the world getting themselves in trouble with the local doggies and then going home to write how "all the troops are warmongering bloodthirsty triggerhappy kids with no job prospects and gee isnt Bush a total war criminal?"

i cant help but observe, though that even as you do the honorable thing and not rat out the offending reporter by name, there are lots and lots of people in the intertubesnet, and somehow i dont think that you will have to do anything but sit back and watch as this buffoonish witless dolt (who should have been more concerned about the safety of his talent babe than he was about mouthing off to a trooper)is properly exposed, tarred and feathered.

well done, though, and thanks for your service.

What's interesting to me is that literally *all* the defenses of these morons (Calvan, Rrrrrrrobert Aguilar, whoever) fall into a single category: "This is the way we ('journalists') do it" *as if* that makes such behavior okay. They apparently simply don't see that such behavior (which they would probably not approve at, say, one of their award gatherings) is in any way wrong. They also do not see that behavior like this is now incredibly easy to see and report and be disseminated and that their 'readers' mostly really don't like it.

And they probably don't understand why their readership/viewership is declining.

Very entertaining, but at least that hood ornament didn't write blag about how he served his country by telling a thing or two to the helpless soldier who knew nothing of proper etiquette .

Over the course of my career I've been involved with many, many situations like the one you describe (never in hostile territory, but frequently on military bases and other secure areas.)

I've found that threatening, bullying and blustering doesn't work nearly so well as abject begging.

"If I don't make that deadline, I'll miss my flight and my daughter is playing in her league championships tomorrow."

"Please, it's my anniversary and my wife has a whole big dinner planned."

"I'm sorry, I've had a really crappy day and it's going to go down hill from here no matter what. I know it's not your problem, but if you could just XXX I'd really appreciate it."

Of course, you have to work the contact. If he bends for you once, return the next time you see him with a good thank-you bribe. In Iraq you can't use good beer - an almost universal bribe. But homemade cookies are a good bet. If he accepts those, you're set for any future encounter.

I'd like the story better if Mr big shot wound up eating sand. Can we get a re-do?

Sir, you are one of the FUNNIEST writers around. LOL. Thank you!

One of the reasons cops process you slooowly after you get a speeding ticket is to impress upon you, that if you had just followed the rules you'd be where you were going by now. If I was said GI, I'd politely remind the 'shotgun' of that fact and ask how long he thought the long way around the airfield would take: if the answer was 20 minutes, then I'd say, 'well we got a wait here for 21 minutes don't we', and then I'd still make 'em go back the long way around. Case closed, lesson learned, jerk punked.

Never ever pull the demanding DYKWIA routine if you haven't actually got the swing. And if you DO have the swing, you'll get a LOT farther a lot faster just being nice and polite anyway.

That was probably the delectable Jennifer Eccleston.

Wait, wait...I've got it! It was Christiana Amanpour at CNN? No?! OK, Howz about a PBS Frontline reporter?!!!

Argh, I give up.

Heh.

I believe that may have been Jennifer Eccelstone who now works for a (small furry animal)'s competitor.

Hah! Some of you are trying to trick me into saying which network it was! I ain't falling for it, I'm wise to your SLY approaches...

You know, I've been racking my brains trying to remember if I ever pulled this when I was a reporter way back when -- and I can't recall ever having done it. I think I'd remember.

The closest I ever came was when I was covering a fire at a local high school and the fire chief asked me if I thought I ought to get back to my classroom. My response was to introduce myself as: "Matt Hoy, reporter, Lompoc Record" and offer a handshake.

Never argue with anyone who enters the battle of wits unarmed. The 'trooper' should have taken the unarmed (ahole) reporters to a small dark room to think about it for a couple of hours. Being late is better than being dead, at least I think so, have been late but never been dead. I heard a general tell an SP that if 'you don't reconize someone, including me, you had better shoot them first and ask questions later'. Never try to force entry to a nuclear loaded aircraft alert facility. Old time B-47/B-52 Crew chief.

Don't know the "babe" but the guy sounds like Geraldo. Is there a bigger jerk on any network or cable news channel, I can't think of one. The MSM types (Williams, Couric, Blitzer, et.al.) are partisan and willingly ignorant of facts but I don't take them for egoists. It has to be Geraldo. [At least, I want it to be].

"Aha! (He slashes his sword on a tree.) Do you know what that is?" "Si, Senor, it is a 2." "No, it's a 'Z'." "No, Senor. That is how they teach my grandaughter in school to write a 2." "It's a 'Z'. I am Zorro." "Zorro! Zorro is back."

My personal rule for such bullies is to always call their bluff. Generally, whatever they are threatening you with is the scariest thing to them. If their scariest thing is calling their boss, you're probably dealing with a particularly weak wimp. Stay calm and polite and insist they make good on their threat. That's the last thing they expect and it's the last thing they want to do. It's particularly good if you act a little bored by it all because getting a reaction out of you is part of the thrill for them.

People who bully their way through everything have a short life span because sooner or later they run into somebody who will kick their ass but good. That's why bullies tend to be young and stupid and don't know how to handle themselves. Wise old operators are smooth and positive and charm you into conspiring with them to beat the bureaucracy.

I ran into this once while manning a road post in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. I had been instructed personally by the Chief of the Fire Dept that NOBODY was supposed to go into this particular area (I believe they were doing body recoveries).

I caught a lot of flack for this from a rather imperious woman in Donna Karan sunglasses who worked for a name-brand network I CaNNot name but which is fairly big in Atlanta. I bet she bitched endlessly about the halfwit cop, but she didn't get through.