Owen West

Owen West, who trades natural gas on Wall Street for Goldman, Sachs, is "an author, Marine Corps veteran, and adventure racer. He has competed in three Eco-Challenges and was the lonely male on Team Playboy Extreme." [1]

In October 2007, West was named as a member of the foreign policy advisory team for Republican 2008 presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani.

West served from 1991-1996 and in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 as a Marine infantry officer. [2] West previously served as Vice Chairman and was the original founder of Vets for Freedom (VFF). [3]

West has been to Iraq on at least four occasions, three of which as a Marine (in 2003 and twice in 2007) [4][5] and as a reporter in 2004.

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No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah

In "Iraq War: Fodder for a New Movie," Dilshad D. Ali wrote February 7, 2005, for Islam Online: "Though war movies usually follow the tradition of appearing years after the actual war is concluded, a new film being developed from Universal Pictures in California will take on the war in Iraq and the battle for Falluja as combat continues.

"Weeks ago, the studio announced that veteran Hollywood actor Harrison Ford (of the famed Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogies) is ready to portray US Major General James Mattis in a new film. This film will tackle the story of how the US Marine commander led an assault on Falluja following the murder and mutilation of four American contractors in March 2004. ...

"Double Features, a Universal Pictures production company optioned the rights to No True Glory, a book written by Marine veteran Bing West and his son Owen that is due out in May from Random House Publishing. Owen West, also a Marine, is a rifleman in Iraq. Bing West, a former US assistant defense secretary, is now covering the war as a foreign correspondent, according to studio literature."

Profiles

• Vets for Freedom profile: West is "a major in the Marine Reserves who served in Force Reconnaissance during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. He returned to Iraq in 2004 as a free-lance reporter. He is also the author of Four Days to Veracruz (Simon & Schuster, 2003) [ISBN 0743229827] and Sharkman Six (Simon and Schuster, 2001) [ISBN 0743448162]. He lives in New York City with his wife and two children."

• WestWrite.com profile: West is "a graduate of Harvard College and Stanford Business School. He served as a Marine infantry officer for six years, including a tour in Iraq, and is currently in the reserves. A former heavyweight rower, he has completed 100-mile marathons, attempted Mount Everest and finished as high as 2nd in the Eco Challenge. His first novel won the Boyd Literary Award for best military novel. He has written several articles on the military and outdoor adventures and recently won the 2005 Marine Corps Essay Contest. He trades commodities for Goldman, Sachs."

• palm eBook Store (2005) profile:

"Owen West attended Harvard on an ROTC scholarship and rowed heavyweight varsity crew. After graduation, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the Marine Corps and commanded an infantry platoon, an infantry company, and a reconnaissance platoon, the Marine Corps special-ops unit. He was the honor graduate of his reconnaissance school, combat diver school, and long-range navigation school classes.

"After his service, he attended Stanford Business School, where he was elected co-president of his class and served as the CEO for the largest business school nonprofit in the nation. He is now a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a commodities trader for Goldman Sachs & Co., and recently took a leave of absence to return to the active Marine infantry forces. In September 2000 he completed his fifth Eco-Challenge, the world's most difficult adventure race, navigating three Playboy Playmates to the finish line. In May 2001 he reached 28,000 feet on Mount Everest's north face before turning back. His novel Sharkman Six won the 2002 Boyd literary award for best military novel."

• Stanford University Spreadsheet, November 2001, Volume 70, Number 1, "A Novel Look at a New Military":

"MARINES PREFER military to humanitarian missions, according to Owen West, MBA ’98, in his first novel, Sharkman Six, set in Somalia during Operation Restore Hope.

"West, a former Marine captain who came to the Business School rather than serve a required turn at stateside duty, now takes his risks as an energy futures trader for Goldman Sachs by day and as a writer by night. It isn’t enough. He also climbed the north face of Mt. Everest last spring, wisely turning around at 28,000 feet, and in 2000 completed his fifth Eco Challenge, arguably the world’s toughest expedition race, with three Playboy Playmates as teammates. 'I’m a restless person, and it’s hard to find out who you are when you sit in front of a computer screen all day,' he says.

"The risk-seeking Marines in West’s book, just released by Simon & Schuster, are sent to Somalia with orders that force them to stand by and merely watch mayhem unless their own lives are threatened. Their adventures provide insight into the problems of using the modern military to carry out humanitarian policy."

Articles by Owen West

• "Dispatches from Fallujah", Slate: "How Does a Civilian Get to Fallujah?", July 26, 2004; "Turn Off the TV and Fight," July 27, 2004; "A Ghost Is Born," July 28, 2004; "Private Contractors Aren't the Answer to the Army's Problems," July 29, 2004; and "Why Would Anyone Volunteer To Be an Infantryman?", July 30, 2004.
• Behind Enemy Lines: "An Iraqi Freedom vet meets the war protestors," Slate, August 30, 2004.
• "Who Really Deserves a Silver Star? The military's unfair awards system," Slate, September 29, 2004.
• With Bing West, "A Thin Blue Line. Why Iraqi cops are struggling," Slate, October 7, 2004.
• With Phillip Carter, "What the Marine Did. The shooting of an unarmed Iraqi was a tragedy. But was it a war crime?" Slate, November 18, 2004.
• With Phillip Carter, "Iraq 2004 Looks Like Vietnam 1966. Adjusting body counts for medical and military changes," Slate, December 27, 2004.
• With Bing West, "Hailing Our Heroes. The press should make a real effort to show the tough guys who fight for us," National Review Online, April 7, 2005.
• With Phillip Carter, "Dismissed! We won't solve the military manpower crisis by retaining our worst soldiers," Slate, June 2, 2005.
• With Bing West, "Lessons From Iraq, Part II," Popular Mechanics.com, August 2005: "It's a brutal schooling, but American forces are learning how to combine new technology and old-fashioned combat skills to root out a tenacious insurgency. Former Marines Owen West and his father Bing West, who was a front-line witness to Iraq's fiercest urban battle, detail the key concept: adaptability."
• Opinion: "The Troops Have Moved On," New York Times (International Herald Tribune), May 28, 2006.
• With David Bellavia and Wade Zirkle, "Birth of an Army. With the Iraqi forces in Ramadi," The Weekly Standard, July 24, 2006 (issue).
• With Bing West, "Iraq's Real 'Civil War'. Sunni tribes battle al Qaeda terrorists in the insurgency's stronghold," WSJ's OpinionJournal, April 5, 2007.

Contact information

Website: http://www.westwrite.com/
Email: owen.west AT gs.com

Resources

Related SourceWatch articles

• Wade Zirkle

Profiles

• Vets for Freedom Founders: Owen West, Vets for Freedom website.
• "Above and Beyond. Former Marines Conquer the Civilian World" (Book) includes profile of both Owen and Bing West.

External articles

• Porter Anderson, "Owen West's other career: Eco-Challenge," CNN, April 1, 2001.
• Chris Warner, "Who's who on the expedition. Find out who is joining Oella resident Chris Warner on the climb," The Baltimore Sun, April 5, 2001.
• Geoff Metcalf, "The New 'New Breed'," NewsMax, April 26, 2004; Accuracy in Media, April 27, 2004.
• Noah Adams, "Slate's Dispatches: A Private Security Paycheck," NPR, August 3, 2004.
• Paul, "Back to the (Adjusted) Future," Power Line Blog, December 28, 2004.
• Geoff Metcalf, "A Flocking of Eagles," Accuracy in Media, December 22, 2005.
• David Forsmark, "No True Glory," FrontPageMag.com, February 16, 2006.
• Paul, "Distortions on top of contortions," Power Line Blog, December 30, 2004.
• "The Steady Horror That Is Iraq" (6 Letters), New York Times, May 31, 2006.
• Daniel Henniger, "The Snake Eater," The Wall Street Journal, February 8, 2007. Subscription required.