Joseph L. Galloway – War Correspondent and Journalist

We are sad to announce the passing of Joseph L. Galloway, one of America’s premier war and foreign correspondents for half a century. Joe was 79 when he died today at a hospital in Concord, N.C. ⁠

Biography

Joseph L. Galloway, one of America’s premier war and foreign correspondents for half a century, recently retired as the senior military correspondent for Knight Ridder Newspapers. Before that he held an assignment as a special consultant to General Colin Powell at the State Department.

Early in 2013 he was sworn into service as a special consultant to the Vietnam War 50th Anniversary Commemoration project run by the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He was also consultant to Ken Burns’ Florentine Films project to make a documentary history of the Vietnam War for broadcast in 2016 on PBS. Galloway, a native of Refugio, Texas, spent 22 years as a foreign and war correspondent and bureau chief for United Press International, and 20 years as a senior editor and senior writer for U.S. News & World Report magazine. He joined Knight Ridder in the fall of 2002.

During the course of 15 years of foreign postings—including assignments in Japan, Indonesia, India, Singapore and three years as UPI bureau chief in Moscow in the former Soviet Union--Galloway served four tours as a war correspondent in Vietnam and also covered the 1971 India-Pakistan War and half a dozen other combat operations.

In 1990-1991 Galloway covered Desert Shield/Desert Storm, riding with the 24th Infantry Division (Mech) in the assault into Iraq. Galloway also covered the Haiti incursion and made trips to Iraq to cover the war there in 2003 and 2005-2006.

The late Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf who first met Galloway in South Vietnam when he was a brand-new Army major, called the Texan “the finest combat correspondent of our generation---a soldier’s reporter and a soldier’s friend.”

He is co-author, with Lt. Gen. (ret) Hal Moore, of the national bestseller “We Were Soldiers Once-And Young” which has been made into a critically acclaimed movie, “We Were Soldiers”, starring Mel Gibson. “We Were Soldiers Once-And Young” is presently in print in six different languages and more than 1.2 million copies have been sold.

Galloway also co-authored “Triumph Without Victory: The History of the Persian Gulf War” for Times Books--- and he and Gen. Moore in 2008 published their sequel to We Were Soldiers, a work titled: “We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam.”

Military History magazine polled 50 leading historians to choose the Ten Greatest Books Ever Written on War. We Were Soldiers Once…and Young was among those ten books.

On May 1, 1998, Galloway was decorated with a Bronze Star Medal with V for rescuing wounded soldiers under fire in the Ia Drang Valley, in November 1965. His is the only medal of valor the U.S. Army awarded to a civilian for actions in combat during the entire Vietnam War.

Galloway received the National Magazine Award in 1991 for a U.S. News cover article on the 25th anniversary of the Ia Drang Battles, and the National News Media Award of the U.S. Veterans of Foreign Wars in 1992 for coverage of the Gulf War. In 2000, he received the President’s Award for the Arts of the Vietnam Veterans Association of America. In 2001, he received the BG Robert L. Denig Award for Distinguished Service presented by the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association. In 2005, he received the Abraham Lincoln Award of the Union League Club of Philadelphia, and the John Reagan (Tex) McCrary Award of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

Galloway was awarded the 2011 Doughboy Award, the highest honor the Army’s Infantry can bestow on an individual. Few civilians have ever received a Doughboy. On Veterans Day, 2011, he received the Legacy of Service Award of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.

Galloway was a member of the boards or advisory boards of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, the 1st Cavalry Division Association, the National Infantry Museum, the School of Social Studies of The Citadel in Charleston, S.C., the Museum of America’s Wars, and the Military Reporters and Editors Association.

Galloway is the recipient of honorary doctorate degrees from Norwich University and Mount St. Mary’s College of Newburgh, N.Y. At the time of his death (August 18, 2021) he resided in Concord, N.C., with his wife, Dr. Grace Liem Galloway.

As a Vietnam War 50th Anniversary Commemoration partner, Hospice of the North Coast honors Vietnam Veterans at its annual “Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day Celebration.” For information about our 2022 event, contact Shelly Dew at sdew@hospicenorthcoast.org.⁠