Overview
Joseph Lee Galloway (November 13, 1941 – August 18, 2021) was an American newspaper correspondent and columnist. During the Vietnam War, he often worked alongside the American troops he covered and was awarded a Bronze Star Medal in 1998 for having carried a badly wounded man to safety while he was under very heavy enemy fire in 1965.[2] From 2013 until his death, he worked as a special consultant for the Vietnam War 50th anniversary Commemoration project run out of the Office of the Secretary of Defense and has also served as consultant to Ken Burns' production of a documentary history of the Vietnam War broadcast in the fall of 2017 by PBS.
He was also the former Military Affairs consultant for the Knight-Ridder chain of newspapers and was a columnist with McClatchy Newspapers.[3]
Life
Galloway was born in Bryan, Texas, on November 13, 1941.[4][5]
His father, Joseph,[5] fought in the U.S. Army during World War II;[4] his mother was Marian Dewvall.[5] His family relocated to Refugio, Texas, after his father was employed by Humble Oil upon his return from military service.
Galloway initially enrolled in community college in 1959, but dropped out after six weeks to join the Army.[4] His mother convinced him to go into journalism,[4] and he subsequently majored in the subject at Victoria College.[5]
His great-grandfather James Isham Galloway lost his right leg at the Second Battle of Manassas in the American Civil War, and his other great-grandfather James William Reid lost his left leg at the Battle of the Wilderness. They ended up on adjoining farms.