February 29, 2008 --
Nathaniel R. Helms, Contributing Editor at
Defend Our Marines, will cover the upcoming Haditha Marine trials for NewsMax.
“Nat Helms is without a doubt one of the
most talented, thorough and hard working journalists working today,”
Phil Brennan says. “We've been sharing information and working
together for some time now, and I never cease to be astounded by the
extent to which he'll go to pin down every detail of the story. He
doesn't merely report, he educates. We've been something of an
unofficial team for some time and now and as he heads out west to
cover the Haditha courts-martial at Camp Pendleton, we'll be on the
same NewsMax team.”
Helms’ unique range of experiences has made him a
shrewd observer and analyst of the Haditha case. The bare facts of his
bio read like the outline for an adventure novel. A target acquisition
specialist on the DMZ, Nat served three tours in Vietnam.
"The tour that
really matters," Nat recalls, "is the 14 months I was a door gunner in
the 282nd Assault Helicopter Company, the 'Blackcats', out of Marble
Mountain, Hue, and Quang Tri in 1968-1969. Unsung, unheard of, and a
remarkably brave bunch of guys who flew special ops for MAGSOG,
Phoenix and CORDS as well as supporting the 1st ARVN Division. We were
so good we were the featured aviation company at the Fort Rucker
Aviation Museum in Alabama as well as the decorated guard at the main
gate."
Nat then moved
into military law enforcement, chasing deserters in Japan and Germany.
Among other occupations, Helms has been a police sergeant, an
investigative reporter, the editor of David Hackworth’s Defense
Watch, and a feature writer for Soldier of Fortune. As a war
correspondent in Bosnia, Helms saw real war atrocities first-hand. But
despite his two-fisted resume, Nat is a gentle, funny, guy who lives
outside St. Louis with a charming wife and a couple of adorable
Chihuahua puppies. Life is good, so why bother about other people’s
troubles from Haditha?
“The opportunity
to once again brush against history is too enticing to ignore,” Nat
says. “Working with fellows like Phil Brennan and Christopher Ruddy at
NewsMax while competing against the arrogant, powerful dailies
is about the most intense emotional and professional experience
a person like me can savor short
of combat.”
A regular on
Defend Our Marines and Defend Our Troops
Like Phil
Brennan, I know Nat as a consummate journalist. Of the
twenty-two news stories that Defend Our Marines (and its sister
site, Defend Our Troops) was
first to report,
Nat wrote twenty of them. Helms will be missed as a regular reporter
during the trials, but our sites will link to his NewsMax
stories and I look forward to his future reports as a Contributing
Editor.
“It was a breath of fresh air when Nat Helms
started covering the hearings of the Haditha Marines,” says Defend
Our Marines reader, Jere Moody (a retired firefighter in
Washington state). “He writes without the slanted bias of most of the
MSM reporters, even the ones that are more sympathetic to these
Marines. Nat does his homework and presents facts instead of repeating
some of the garbage that has been written so many times that MSM
reporters include it in their articles without even thinking, which
may be unintentional but maybe not.
“Nat supports these Marines while at
the same time not writing falsehoods either for or against their
actions,” Moody, who also follows Helms’ reports on the Free Republic
news forum, continues. “Most writers tend to amplify the negative
instead of giving these Marines the benefit of the doubt, Nat gives
them the presumption of innocence which is as it should be.”
Well done, NewsMax
NewsMax has been a tireless champion for
justice in the Haditha Marine case.
“I had two brothers in the Marines so there's a family connection,”
Chris Ruddy says. “Then there is Phil who, according to legend,
turned the tide of the war in the Pacific.” Phil Brennan, a former
BAR-toting Marine, adds, "By spending a
mere four months there--not enough time for me to mess things up."
The
current
NewsMax fund drive for the defense of SSgt Wuterich and
LCpl Tatum has just surpassed the $175,000 mark.
“NewsMax
is proof that there is a need and place for an alternative voice for
folks to turn to at a time when it is once again fashionable for high
profile reporters to kick around our country like a football merely
because they can,” Helms says. “The very fact that the Marines on
trial at Camp Pendleton are afforded the protections offered by a free
press is proof of how great our country is and why our brave young men
and women are willing to risk their lives to protect it. Often that
fact is lost in the cacophony of criticism that sometimes passes
for news. Being part of the effort to stem the tide is indeed a rare
privilege. It is folks like Brennan and Ruddy -- as well as
the thousands of people who have donated their time, money and effort
-- that ensures our noble warriors aren't thrown under the bus in the
name of political expediency.”
__________________________________________
David Allender
Defend Our Marines
29 February 2008