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APAAM Member and WWII Veteran – NADIM MAKDISI dies at age 86
Nadim Makdisi, 86, renowned journalist and co-founder of the the Anis Makdisi program at the American University of Beirut, died in his home in Washington on September 1. Born in 1921 in New York, Makdisi was the son of late AUB Professor Anis Makdisi and Selma Khoury. Makdisi, who was an AUB student, completed his education at Columbia University and American University, obtaining a PhD in mass communications. During his long and prolific career, he worked for the Christian Science Monitor, BBC and TeleLiban in Lebanon. He also created the magazine, Alam Attijara, one of the first business and economy magazines covering the Arab region. Both the Lebanese Press Federation and the Anis Makdisi program at AUB mourned the death of Makdisi, who co-founded the program with his brother, AUB Economics Professor and former Minister Samir Makdisi. Memorial services will be held at Saint Alban's Church in Washington at 1 p.m. on September 8, 2007. Courtesy Daily Star Lebanon - Saturday, September 08, 2007. World War II Veteran, Journalist Tours GTMO By Senior Airman Jon Ortiz-Torres When Nadim Makdisi left the Army in 1946, it would be nearly 60 years before he set foot on an American military base again. That day came last week when Makdisi and five other Arab journalists visited Guantanamo Bay during a media tour here. “It was exciting to be back in a base and being around [Troopers],” said Makdisi in his soft-spoken, foreign accent. “I wondered if I could be drafted again.”
During the
tour, the 83-year-old veteran visited the Joint Task Force Public Affairs
Office, and he didn’t hesitate to sit down with fellow military journalists and
talk about how he became an Army journalist during World War II.
During
that time, the war effort drafted young American men across the globe and the
then 21-year-old Makdisi, a journalism student and United States citizen living
in Beirut, Lebanon, was no exception. One day while serving food to a female officer (at the time called Women’s Army Corps), he spilled soup on her by accident.
“At first,
she shouted at me, but then we had a fairly good conversation,” he said. “The
captain said to me, ‘You have an accent’ and I said, ‘I’ve lived in Lebanon most
of my life.’ Then she asked me, ‘Do you speak Egyptian?’
When the
captain learned he was a journalist, she quickly offered him a job with the
camp’s weekly publication, the Sand Script. She was in charge of special
services, which included the publication.
“I loved
my job,” he said. “I had my own jeep with a sign that read Sand Script
and, unlike many Soldiers then, I could go to town as I pleased without having
to get a permit.”
While
heading to town one night, an Army major jumped in his jeep to catch a ride.
Halfway through the trip, a horde of sheep and their shepherd obstructed their
path. The major told me that when he enlisted, he wrote that he could speak seven different languages,” he said. “He spoke Syrian, Lebanese, Egyptian, etc … all one language, Arabic; so they sent him to officer training school for that. That goes to show you how ignorant some things can get; he couldn’t even speak Arabic,” Makdisi said. For Makdisi and other members of the press, touring the detainee facilities here gives them a better understanding of the work being done. “Some leaders in the Arab world have a big criticism on the treatment of detainees here,” said Makdisi, who is also editor in chief of an Arabic monthly magazine. “I’m glad we got to see and tour the facilities. I was very much impressed.” Makdisi has also worked as a correspondent for the British Broadcasting Corporation and the Washington Evening Star. Several years after his honorable discharge, he moved back to the United States, where he used the Montgomery G.I. Bill to finish school and later received his doctorate. He now works out of Washington D.C.
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