A Hearty Round Of Applause For J. A. Jance
Bestselling mystery novelist J. A. Jance deserves a really big round of applause. When she read about First Lieutenant Walter Bryan Jackson being awarded the Distinguished Service Cross - and the conspicuous absence of major media attention about it - she took matters into her own hands. She contacted both the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Seattle Times inquiring as to why they were not covering the story of a local hero. (Jackson is originally from Oak Harbor, Washington.)
The Seattle P-I has now written an article on Lieutenant Jackson and the Seattle Times has answered her email saying they are working on something. (Ms. Jance copied me on both emails.)
Second Lt. Bryan Jackson was eight months into his first tour of duty in Iraq and out on patrol in Anbar Province in September 2006 when the Humvee he was towing behind a Bradley Fighting Vehicle got stuck in the mud.
It was a mundane mishap, but it made Jackson and his crew nervous. Not only did they fear the Humvee would roll over, but they also knew the stall made them a naked target for insurgent fire. Just a month earlier, a comrade had been seriously wounded at the same spot near the town of Hit.
What happened next would earn Jackson, now a first lieutenant, the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism in action — making him only the seventh soldier since the Vietnam War to receive the nation's second-highest military honor. Jackson, a West Point graduate, is from Oak Harbor where his father, now based in Washington, D.C., commanded a Navy P3 Orion squadron on Whidbey Island.
On Sept. 27, 2006, Jackson and his crew climbed down and began working quickly to try to free the mired Humvee. In almost the same instant, Jackson heard the cracks of multiple machine guns opening up on them.
Jackson looked over to see two fellow soldiers downed under fire. Instinctively he headed toward 1st Sgt. David Sapp, whose head was bleeding. On the ground nearby lay company commander Eric Stainbrook, also gravely wounded.
As Jackson worked frantically to apply pressure to Sapp's wounds, bullets ripped through his own body — first his thigh, then his left hand. Stunned and disoriented, he slumped over.
It is a nicely done article, well worth taking the time to read. Again, J. A. Jance deserves the credit and a hearty round of thanks for her work on this.
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Blue Crab Boulevard » More Media Coverage — Friday, 16 November , 2007 @ 4:55 pm
By John in Dublin CA, Thursday, 15 November , 2007 @ 8:29 pm
This is the second mention in recent months of J.A. Jance. She has been one of my favorite writers for a number of years now and it just delights me to know she’s a patriot too. You seem to have some contact with her, so if you correspond or speak with her, express my gratitude for her efforts as well. And I’ll keep reading her books.
OT, you new page setup includes a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge. Are you local to the area, as I am? If so, always nice to know another patriot in the Bay Area.
Read your blog every day.
By Gaius, Thursday, 15 November , 2007 @ 8:40 pm
She’s a regular reader and we exchange emails often. Wonderful person. Great novelist, too. And no, the picture came with the template - it is rather nice, so I kept it. May change it in the future - and I always decorate for the holidays as I did for Halloween.
Thanks for the kind words.
By Sylvia, Friday, 16 November , 2007 @ 11:11 am
Thank Mrs. Jance for me, too, please, and John, take heart, Gaius may be significantly east of us, but there are other patriots here on the western edge. I’m due north of the bridge.