Marine Corps League of Naples
E.T. Brisson Detachment #063, Naples, FL
"Honor the Free Press" Day
The Marine Corps League of Naples annually honors a journalist as a way to emphasize the importance
of a free press in America, something U.S. Marines have fought to preserve for more than 200 years.
The annual observance was the idea of Michael Trephan, a member and former Public Information Officer
of the Marine Corps League of Naples, ET Brisson Detachment #063. Trephan is a former member
of the working press and a current member of the Naples Press Club.
Trephan: “One of the most important parts of our country and who we are as a democracy, is a free press.”
Previous honorees of the E.T. Brisson Detachment of the Marine Corps League of Naples are:
2005--Ernie Pyle, Scripps reporter, the voice of GI Joe during World War II
2006--Eddie Adams, another Scripps journalist and Marine veteran whose photographs have been
published worldwide
2007 -- Lou Reda, a Seabee during World War II, who has produced documentaries for the
History Channel and PBS
2008 – James Brady, author, journalist, celebrity columnist for Parade magazine
and decorated Korean Marine
2009 – William C (Bill) Gallo, noted cartoonist, nationally known senior sports journalist and cartoonist for the New York Daily News; WWII Marine who fought in the Pacific campaigns
2010 – Jim Leherer, a newspaperman, a television news anchor and an author of 19 novels; perhaps best known as the executive editor and anchor of the evening news featured each weekday on Public Broadcasting Service channels, Marine Veteran
2011 -- Mark Russell, political satirist, social commentator, newspaper columnist, entertainer, author, PBS Veteran, Marine Veteran
Honor the Free Press Day
14 March 2012
Guest of Honor is Francis J. "Bing" West, US Marine Veteran
Having led over 100 combat patrols in Vietnam, he was inspired to write The Village, a classic story about counter-insurgency and is on the required reading list of Commandants for forty years.
The Marine Corp called upon West to write their training manual Small Unit Action in Vietnam.
Later as Assistant Secretary of Defense, he dealt with insurgencies in El Salvador
during the Regan administration.
Bestowed with numerous awards, Bing West is a brilliant chronicler of America's post 9/11 wars.
His works include: The March Up, No Time Glory, The Strongest Tribe and the Pepperdogs.
The strength of West's books on Iraq and Afghanistan is the legwork he's done.
He didn't write in the comfort of home or office, he made many trips and was in the dirt with the troops.
Now 70, West went on patrol with grunts, waded through canals, ran through fire fights
and humped up mountains.
His remarkable new book, The Wrong War, amounts to a crushing and seemingly irrefutable critique
of the American Plan in Afghanistan.
