About David Tate
Jul 25 at 11:11pm by admin
I was born and raised in Keego Harbor, Michigan and have been an avid history buff my entire life. I joined the US Marine Corps at 17 (1985) and spent three years as a member of 1st FSSG, I MEF. I attended Indiana University-Bloomington from 1989 – 1994, studying Political Science and Public and Environmental Affairs.
In 1996, I began my career as a videojournalist, working at WSLS-TV (NBC) in Roanoke, Va. as a reporter/photographer. Following the 9/11 attacks on America, I began working as a freelance international journalist.
In February 2003, I began my milblog, A Battlefield Tourist, which essentialy was a journal documenting my trip to southeastern Turkey and pre-war northern Iraq. While there, I was one of about 300 unilateral journalists to cross the Turkish-Iraqi border for the final opposition conference held near Arbil, Iraq.
In 2004, I spent seven months in Afghanistan, a majority of it in the local population acting as bureau chief for the Turkish news agency IHA. During that time, I completed more than a dozen embeds with US, Afghan, Romanian and Canadian forces. In August of that year, I participated in the first independent embedment in the history of the fledgling Afghan National Army. I also reported on the historic presidential election from Kandahar and was with strongman Ismail Khan when he was overthrown in Herat.
In 2005, I signed two long term contracts with Getty Images, in regards to my war footage, and returned to WSLS-TV as a videojournalist.
In 2007, I joined the independent journalist non-profit cooperative, Public Multimedia, Inc. I then embedded for nearly three weeks, on their behalf, in several areas just south of Baghdad: Mahmudiyah, Haswa (Lutifiyah), Arab Jabour and Doura.
In February 2009, I embedded with USMC 3/8 in Farah and Helmand Provinces in southern Afghanistan.
In April 2009, I signed a three year contract with WSET(ABC) as the Roanoke (Va.) bureau reporter for the main station in Lynchburg, Va..
My major awards include team efforts resulting in two national Emmy Awards(2001, 2007), a national Edward R. Murrow Award (2007) and the prestigious Peabody Award (2007) for coverage of the massacre at Virginia Tech.
The inspiration for my trips is motivated by educational purposes and my reports are apolitical. My goal is to report what I see, which is just a slice of life out of a very complicated pie.
Contact me: newsmanpm@yahoo.com
If you have PayPal, you can donate online using the email address above. Why? Well… if you enjoyed the videos, pictures and musings… than a couple bucks would be nice.
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