FORT BENNING, Ga. (June 12, 2013) -- Military historian and author Rick Atkinson will make a visit to Marshall Auditorium at 1:30 p.m. Thursday for the latest installment of the Combat Leader Speaker Program.
Atkinson has written six books, including his latest work, The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945. The book is the final installment of Atkinson's "Liberation Trilogy," a narrative history of the U.S. military's role in the liberation of Europe in World War II.
Atkinson has also won three Pulitzer Prizes -- in 1982 for national reporting, in 1999 for public service and in 2003 for history.
Frank Miranda, training specialist with the Directorate of Training, said Atkinson's speech will be a good opportunity for Soldiers to supplement their formal training with an informal discussion.
"The Combat Leader Speaker Program provides the attendees an opportunity to enhance their professional development and learn valuable lessons based on firsthand experiences of the guest speakers," Miranda said.
"Guest speakers are not just current or prior military service members, but also civilian representatives of various organizations. These CLSP events are informal and very interactive discussions. This format allows both the attendees and the speaker the opportunity to gain insights of the topic from one another in a true, shared-learning experience."
Atkinson was born in Munich in 1962. His father was an Army officer, and Atkinson grew up on military posts around the world.
He began his career as a journalist in Pittsburg, Kan., in 1975 before eventually landing a job at The Kansas City Times in 1977. In 1981, he joined the newspaper's Washington, D.C., bureau and went on to win his first Pulitzer Prize for a body of work that included a series about the West Point class of 1966, which lost more Soldiers in Vietnam than any other U.S. Military Academy Class.
Atkinson joined The Washington Post in 1983. He served as a reporter, foreign correspondent and senior editor for the Post for 25 years.
During that time, he won his second Pulitzer Prize for Deadly Force, a series of articles that scrutinized shootings by the District of Columbia police department.
He began his "Liberation Trilogy" in 2002 with An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, which earned him the Pulitzer Prize for history in 2003. The trilogy's second volume, The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943--1944, was released in 2007.
Atkinson's other books include The Long Gray Line, Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War and In the Company of Soldiers: A Chronicle of Combat.
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