Mark Thompson (reporter)

Mark Thompson
Thompson addressing a gathering at Boston University in 2005
Born	c. 1953 New Haven, Connecticut
Residence	Kensington, Maryland
Alma mater	Boston University
Occupation	National security correspondent, TIME magazine
Spouse	Diane
Children	Jonathan & Geoffrey

Mark Thompson (born c. 1953) is an investigative reporter whose five-part series for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which ran in March 1984, on a design flaw in Bell helicopters that went uncorrected for a decade, killing 250 U.S. servicemen, led to 600 Huey helicopters being grounded and modified, and won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in journalism in 1985.^[1][2]

The Pulitzer Prize gold medal award.

Thompson graduated from Boston University in 1975 and began his career where he grew up, at the Pendulum, in East Greenwich, Rhode Island.^[3] After a spell in Pontiac, Michigan, he moved to Washington in 1979, where he joined the Washington bureau of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and in 1985, won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in journalism.^[3] He joined Knight-Ridder Newspapers in 1986, where he reported extensively on the Persian Gulf War and the U.S. invasion of Panama.^[3] In 1994, he joined TIME magazine as defense correspondent,^[4] where he has written or co-written cover stories on the Army's use of prescription drugs on soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan,^[a] the Marines' V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft,^[b] the Army at the breaking point,^[c] the wisdom of restarting the military draft,^[d] and profiles of then-United States Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld,^[e] and then-General Tommy Franks.^[f]

Thompson also reported extensively from Afghanistan and Iraq, reporting on the progress of the conflicts there and the unexpected lack of armor for the U.S. military,^[g] and has written four major pieces on the true costs of the Iraq war -- an early look at the war's wounded,^[h] a study of the U.S. troops killed in a single week,^[i] the lonely vigil of an Ohio family whose son was the first American soldier in this war to be listed as missing in action,^[j] whose remains were ultimately recovered in March, 2008,^[5] and the death of a GI at the hands of Army medicine a year after he was slightly wounded in Iraq.^[k]

Selected work

^[a] Thompson, Mark (June 5, 2008). "America's Medicated Army". Time Magazine (Time Inc). http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1811858,00.html/. Retrieved 2009-01-10. 
^[b] Thompson, Mark (September 26, 2007). "V-22 Osprey: A Flying Shame". Time Magazine (Time Inc). http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1665835,00.html/. Retrieved 2009-01-10. 
^[c] Thompson, Mark (April 5, 2007). "America's Broken-Down Army". Time Magazine (Time Inc). http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1606888,00.html/. Retrieved 2009-01-10. 
^[d] Thompson, Mark; Michael Duffy (September 1, 2003). "Is The Army Stretched Too Thin?". Time Magazine (Time Inc). http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1005557,00.html/. Retrieved 2009-01-10. 
^[e] Thompson, Mark; Michael Duffy (April 14, 2006). "Pentagon Warlord". Time Magazine (Time Inc). http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1004099,00.html/. Retrieved 2009-01-10. 
^[f] Duffy, Michael; Mark Thompson (March 17, 2003). "Straight Shooter". Time Magazine (Time Inc). http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1004406,00.html/. Retrieved 2009-01-10. 
^[f] Thompson, Mark (December 17, 2004). "How Safe Are Our Troops?". Time Magazine (Time Inc). http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1009760,00.html/. Retrieved 2009-01-10. 
^[h] Thompson, Mark; Romesh Ratnesar (November 10, 2003). "The Wounded Come Home". Time Magazine (Time Inc). http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1006092,00.html/. Retrieved 2009-01-10. 
^[i] Gibbs, Nancy; Mark Thompson, Amanda Bower, Nathan Thornburgh, Simon Robinson (July 21, 2003). "A Soldier's Life". Time Magazine (Time Inc). http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1005237,00.html/. Retrieved 2009-01-10. 
^[j] Thompson, Mark (February 14, 2005). "What Happened to Matt Maupin?". Time Magazine (Time Inc). http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1027512,00.html/. Retrieved 2009-01-10. 
^[k] Thompson, Mark (February 14, 2008). "Dying Under the Army's Care". Time Magazine (Time Inc). http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1713485,00.html/. Retrieved 2009-01-10. 

References

1. ^ James Kelly;Joseph J. Kane/Atlanta, with other bureaus (May 6, 1985). "Local Angle". Time Magazine (Time Inc.). http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,967562,00.html. Retrieved 2009-01-10. 
2. ^ Holloway, Karel (April 25, 1985). "FW paper sees Pulitzer as vindication". The Dallas Morning News (The Dallas Morning News Co.). http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=DM&p_theme=dm&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0ED3CD590538D881&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved 2009-01-10. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} "Mark Thompson: Bio". CNN. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. 1996. http://www-cgi.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/analysis/bios/frames/time/dc.bureau/thompson.html. Retrieved 2009-01-11. 
4. ^ President, Elizabeth Valk Long (June 13, 1994). "To Our Readers". Time Magazine (Time Inc.). http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,980904,00.html. Retrieved 2009-01-10. 
5. ^ Associated Press (March 31, 2008). "Remains of Soldier Missing Since ’04 Are Found in Iraq". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/31/us/31soldier.html?ref=todayspaper. Retrieved 2009-01-11. 

External links

• The Pulitzer Prizes|Public Service: winners and finalists

Persondata
Name	Thompson, Mark
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1953
Place of birth	New Haven, Connecticut
Date of death
Place of death