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Ex-Media General Military Reporter Dies From Cancer
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Published: April 26, 2008
RICHMOND, Va. - James Walter Crawley II was a journalist who climbed ropes, crawled on his belly, lifted weights, marched for miles, learned to use a gas mask and came under gunfire for the privilege of filing his military stories.
Crawley, who from October 2004 until recently covered national security and veterans affairs for Media General News Service, died Tuesday at 51.
The Tulsa, Okla., native, who lost a kidney to cancer in early 2007, succumbed in a Rockville, Md., hospital, near his home, to kidney cancer that metastasized to his brain.
He served as national president and webmaster of the Military Reporters and Editors organization. He had been the chief military reporter, from 1994 until October 2004, for the San Diego Union-Tribune, where he specialized in covering the Navy and the Marine Corps.
During Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, he was embedded with the Marines' 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. He covered the invasion from the border to Baghdad. He was among the first group of American journalists the government trained prior to a military action.
"He would do anything for a story," said his wife, Melba Crawley.
At first, he weighed too much to go with the Marines to Iraq, and was unable to lose enough on his own. "He had a gastric bypass and lost 130 pounds," she said.
He also reported on Operation Enduring Freedom, the American action in Afghanistan, from naval warships in the Arabian Sea and from Bahrain.
"He brought to the job encyclopedic knowledge," said Peter Hardin, former Washington correspondent for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. "Jim never was too busy to explain kindly to an inquiring colleague a military acronym, technical terms involved in writing about a missile or a military firearm or the location of a city in Iraq."
Media General, which owns The Tampa Tribune and Richmond Times-Dispatch among other news media outlets, operates the news service in Washington where Crawley was recently based.
Crawley grew up in Oklahoma City and moved to Dallas his junior year in high school, where he joined the newspaper staff. He was in a pre-medical program at Texas A&M University, on the way to becoming an emergency room doctor, when he discovered a medical-school executive was taking kickbacks from a supplier, his wife said.
Deciding to write a newspaper story about it, he went to the executive for comment, she said. "The man looked over his glasses and said, 'You're a second-year pre-med student and I can keep you from being able to get into a good medical school.'
"The next day, Jim changed his major to journalism and printed the story," his wife said.
Crawley also had a master's degree in journalism from American University.
His reporting awards included the San Diego Press Club's Drew Silvern Award for Courage in Journalism and the Navy League of the United States' Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Literary Achievement.
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Reader Comments
Posted by ( Reality ) on April 26, 2008 at 9:38 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Sad. But why is this a Tampa story?
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Posted by ( SaveFerris ) on April 26, 2008 at 11:21 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Reality it's a Tampa story because Crawley worked for Media General News Service, which owns The Tampa Tribune. This article is going to appear in every media outlet the company owns.
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Posted by ( Reality ) on April 26, 2008 at 5:24 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
SaveFerris: I know that Media General owns the Tribune and I saw that Mr. Crawley works for a sister paper, but my question, actually directed to the Tribune, is why run this story? It has nothing whatsoever to do with Tampa.
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Posted by ( PunchPrincess ) on May 9, 2008 at 10:32 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Reality, Tampa is affected just as every other city in the US is affected when someone who is skilled in reporting on military matters leaves us. We are mired in the muck of an un-winable war, led by jerks who view war as a money making venture. Lastly, I refer you to Hemingway who said, "no man is an island".
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