Tales from the (radio) crypt: Happy Halloween from Fort Benning, GA - Reporter's Notebook

A then-newbie NPR affiliate bureau chief in southwestern Georgia on a hiatus from life in Israel, I got a "money shot" at a famous annual protest against the School of the Americas at Fort Benning

Backstory? I shot this at an anti-School of the Americas (now known as The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), protestapalooza outside the gates of Fort Benning, Ga, during a feature report I produced as then-bureau chief at WJSP 88.1 FM, in Columbus for Georgia Public Broadcasting/NPR.

The group of slowly marching protestors, faces painted deathly white and garbed in black in mourning, carried a mock coffin in protest against what they charged were US-trained military death squads in Latin and South America.

The little girl on the left couldn’t help but grin for the camera, which was the ghoulishly perfect expression as a co-marcher looked on approvingly. Years later, I added the word bubbles; I was then new at editorial photography and the shot wasn’t the best-made effort, due to my usual attempt to record audio for the feature or radio news spot AND photograph the story:

(The author at a masterclass with jazz trumpeter, Marcus Printup, held at an Atlanta-area school, circa 2008)

After decades of living in Israel, and having just arrived back in the States on a three-year working-reporter journalistic sojourn, I was unfamiliar with the facility’s entire backstory, and what it represented to its opponents and detractors. I soon found out, and duly reported on the event, but, regretfully, the audio of the feature report is long gone from the airwaves and even the interwebz’.

Brittanica:
”In 2000 the SOA was closed, and WHINSEC opened the following year. According to the law that established WHINSEC, its purpose was “fostering mutual knowledge, transparency, confidence, and cooperation among the participating nations” of the Western Hemisphere and “promoting democratic values, respect for human rights, and knowledge and understanding of United States customs and traditions” among its students. The U.S. Department of Defense designated WHINSEC a successor to the SOA, whereas critics understood WHINSEC to be the SOA with only its name changed.”

Meanwhile, I did manage to dig up a video from what I believe was the same mass protest:

FWIW, a few of my archival news radio and morning DJ recordings, voiceover work, and assorted interviews and soundchecks from back in the day are hosted on my website.

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