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Stars and Stripes will fly in FL-S

December 17, 2008 12:36 am

UNION TROOPS from Illinois dis- covered an empty newspaper office in Bloomfield, Mo., in November of 1861 after pushing Confederate forces out of the town.

Sensing an opportunity, the Yankees decided to start their own newspaper. They called it Stars and Stripes.

Thus began a unique institution--an independent newspaper within America's military that would serve U.S. forces in both world wars and through many other conflicts, and which continues that service today at bases and battlefronts around the globe.

In the years since the Civil War, Stars and Stripes has been distributed exclusively overseas--until now. The first domestic print edition of the paper in almost a century and a half will be inserted into Friday's Free Lance-Star.

We will be the first newspaper in the United States to offer the new U.S. edition of Stars and Stripes. Friday's debut will be followed by a second edition in January.

Then, in February, we hope to begin weekly publication of the U.S. edition of Stars and Stripes--a 16-page, full-color tabloid that will be put together at Stars and Stripes' Washington headquarters and printed at our Fredericksburg facility.

What will our readers gain from this new product?

For the significant chunk of our audience with military ties, as well as for others, the U.S. edition of Stars and Stripes will provide the most compelling articles from the paper's five international editions, along with stateside reporting of interest to the military.

That news will come from an organization that has been heralded over the decades for solid journalism. Onetime staff members include Harold Ross, who founded The New Yorker magazine, drama critic Alexander Woollcott, and Andy Rooney of TV's "60 Minutes." Bill Mauldin's "Willie and Joe" cartoons became a beloved feature of the paper during World War II.

Today, Terry Leonard, who served as an Associated Press foreign correspondent for most of his career, oversees the continuing tradition of journalistic excellence at Stars and Stripes.

Though owned by the Department of Defense, Stars and Stripes has a mandate from Congress to provide independent news and information to U.S. servicemen and women and to Department of Defense civilians. Leonard noted in an e-mail to me that his paper's independence "is something we guard jealously."

"I interpret the congressional mandate as an instruction for us to provide the kind of independent news and information that a serviceman or woman needs to be an informed member of a democratic society," says Leonard. "That means a broad cross section of news and opinion, including political opinion from across the spectrum.

"That means at times writing stories about the military, or analysis about the conduct of wars, that would be seen by the majority as critical of the military and its actions."

In any given edition of Stars and Stripes, you might find a story about the dangers posed in Iraq by female suicide bombers, or a column aimed at the needs of military spouses, or a history feature about a bomber shot down over Hiroshima in 1945.

To deliver Stars and Stripes to its overseas audiences, the paper has to arrange for distribution through battle zones in Iraq and over primitive roads in Afghanistan. The five daily editions range from Europe to Japan, Korea, Okinawa and the Middle East.

We are proud to offer the fruits of these journalistic labors as part of the Friday Free Lance-Star.

It's ironic and comforting that a paper born behind Union lines in 1861 is about to be reborn in a onetime citadel of the Confederacy.

Ed Jones: 540/374-5401
Email: edjones@freelancestar.com