Bill Glauber talks about what's its like to be a foreign correspondent

Exciting life - But is it for you?

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Video courtesy of Bob Stewart
Bill Glauber who worked as a foreign correspondent for both the Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun spoke to Ohio University students about the horrors of war and the challenges of doing foreign reporting.

Bill told how he had covered four wars and eight Olympics and reported stories in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

After spending the first half of his career as a sports reporter before switching to news. He was the London correspondent for The Baltimore Sun from 1995 to 2002, concentrating on Northern Ireland’s peace process, British politics, and the crisis of the Balkans. He reported on the initial U.S. air strikes against Afghanistan as an embedded reporter with the U.S. military.

Asked what the food was like Glauber said it was terrible. He ate MRE's - meals ready to eat - with the troops in the trenches.

"A meal in a box. They tell it is chicken ala king - you just add water." Are they like Stouffers? "Yeah, like bad Stouffers," he said. "Because they are meant to be eaten in the field, they tend to constipate you."

Glauber said the life was particular harsh for women. "Many are single and well I get the feeling they are lonely. It is a very hard life. The guys tend to be married and have families."

One student asked if Glauber had become more religious after seeing bodies blown to bits. "I am actually less religious," he said. "It was surreal - you see pieces of flesh on trees."

During his career, Glauber has reported widely on European cultural and social issues. He joined The Chicago Tribune in 2002 and covered local, national, and international news -- including the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq -- and wrote editorials.

In 2006, he joined he Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, where he covers aging and demographics

Geraldine Brooks uses reporting to write another novel

We read former Wall Street Journal reporter Tony Horwitz's work in class. But his spouse, Geraldine Brooks is just as prolific when it comes to penning books based on foreign correspondence. She has written a number of books, including March, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize. Brooks got the idea for her latest book, People of the Book: A Novel, while covering the Bosnian war as a foreign correspondent. The book is a fictional account of the Sarajevo Haggadah, a centuries-old manuscript.

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