War journalist speaks at IU

Rapid snowfall and campus bus closures didn’t stop more than 100 students and community members from attending Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Finkel’s speech Tuesday evening.

Attendees shuffled into Alumni Hall at the Indiana Memorial Union at 7:30 p.m. to listen to Finkel’s war stories, which he reported during the Iraq war in 2007.

Tom French, IU journalism professor and Pulitzer Prize winner, introduced Finkel as an old friend who taught him much about the art of reporting.

“One of the most important lessons was cultivating quiet when reporting a huge news story,” French said. “That kind of quiet grace has been a hallmark of his work.”

French also spoke about enviable intelligence, beautiful writing and worldly empathy French said defines Finkel as “the best of the best.”

Finkel spent most of his lecture telling stories from his book “the Good Soldiers,” in which he wrote of soldiers’ experiences on the front lines of the war with a battalion from Fort Riley, Kan.

“It’s a piece of journalism, but its not about war,” Finkel said. “It’s a book illuminated by the question — what is it like to be a young man sent into war at such a tragic moment in history?”

Finkel said he used this question to drive his reporting and to tell the stories of the young men he met. He told the stories of six soldiers during his lecture.

He said they were soldiers who wrestled with the morality of war, whose families experienced insensitivity from President George W. Bush, who silently fought the mental stress of war, who lost limbs and who saw friends die.

From the beginning to end of his time in Iraq, Finkel said he saw the soldiers change.

“Over time, they began to change. That’s what happens, isn’t it?” Finkel said. “War does what war does and that’s what happens to these guys, and when they went they didn’t know what was going to happen.”

One soldier, Nate Showman, attended IU. He saw a fellow soldier die, causing him so
much grief he could not tell his superior what had happened.

Finkel plans to tell more of Showman’s story during his lecture Thursday, when he will discuss his book “Thank You for Your Service.” The lecture begins at 7:30 p.m. in Alumni Hall.

During the question and answer following the lecture, Finkel reflected on whether his book and the stories within accurately depicted the war.

He said he has received emails from soldiers in the war confiding that instead of having to talk about the war, they give people Finkel’s book and say it’s an accurate depiction of what they went through.

“You hope you do it right,” Finkel said. “When you get enough emails like that enough times, you begin to get confident.”

Follow reporter Suzanne Grossman on Twitter @suzannepaige6.