Chip Reid’s ‘Battle Scars’ Talk at City Tavern on Jan. 25
By • January 18, 2024 0 575
Georgetown neighbor and retired journalist Chip Reid has authored an intense war book of action and remembrance. The urgency of “Battle Scars: Twenty Years Later: 3d Battalion 5th Marines Looks Back at the Iraq War and How it Changed Their Lives” does not let up.
Having reported from around the world, Reid worked for ABC News, NBC News and most recently was CBS News National Correspondent and Chief White House Correspondent. He began his journalism career at WTTG in Washington, D.C., where lives with his wife Nina Black.
On Jan. 25, the author will meet friends and neighbors — 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. — for a fireside reception, book talk and signing, featuring “Battle Scars” at the City Tavern, 3206 M St. NW. The free event is presented by the City Tavern Preservation Foundation.
Reid was an embedded reporter with 3d Battalion 5th Marines as they fought their way from Kuwait to Baghdad in 2003, interviewing the young Marines within hours of brutal combat actions.
According to the book’s publisher, Casemate: “The most eye-opening, and terrifying, story in Chip Reid’s career as a journalist was the six weeks he spent with 3d Battalion, 5th Marines, during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, as a correspondent for NBC News. Traveling shoulder-to-shoulder with the young Marines, he had unparalleled access, witnessing them in combat, and interviewing as many as he could persuade his bosses to put on air, allowing them to tell their war stories in their own words.
“It took only 22 days for the Marines of 3/5 to fight their way to Baghdad, but the effects on those who fought have lasted a lifetime. They lost a number of their own in battle, and others suffered life-threatening injuries. Of those who returned – even if they avoided physical scars – many have had to find their own way through survivor’s guilt and the nightmare of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, with all its attendant miseries.
“Twenty years on, Chip sat down with the Marines of 3/5 once more. They told Chip inspiring stories of heroism in battle, of camaraderie and comrades lost, of patriotism and belief in mission, of recovery and success in both military and civilian life, and of the new appreciation for life that results from Post-Traumatic Growth. Visceral and searingly honest, this book is a tribute to the Marines for their service, and for the many sacrifices they made then, and that many still make today.”
Chip Reid at home with his pets. Courtesy Casemate Publishers.
