Former war correspondent and BGS Old Boy Michael Ware '86 became the voice of the Iraq war for Americans, as he made the world's deadliest war zones his home through the 2000s. Working for Time magazine and CNN in Afghanistan and Iraq, Ware witnessed the birth of ISIS and endured three kidnappings, including an attack that saw him moments from execution.
During his most recent project last year, he rode with The Night Wolves, a pro-Putin motorcycle gang; explored witchcraft in PNG; and interviewed Iranian spies as part of an eight-episode National Geographic series. Uncensored with Michael Ware appeared on television screens in 171 countries and in 45 languages.
Having earned an academic scholarship to attend the School in 1982, it took some time to find his place. He credited team sport, and BGS rugby in particular, with giving him a sense of belonging and lasting camaraderie. He recalled being introduced in Modern History to the concept of the Renaissance man, "the sort of guy that is well-rounded with a poet's heart and a warrior's physicality and sense of adventure", an idea he said had a deep impact on him at BGS.
After graduating from BGS, Ware went on to gain Law and Political Science degrees at The University of Queensland and play rugby for the Queensland Reds. A major car accident interrupted his rugby career and led to years of surgeries and physiotherapy, but he fought his way back into the Reds team, only to retire after three games. An accidental journalist, he first worked as a clerk for Justice Tony Fitzgerald, before a chat between his mum and The Courier-Mail chief of staff led Ware to a year-long trial as a journalist. After just five years and a key assignment in East Timor, he was offered a job at Time magazine.
The September 11 terror attack changed Ware's life as he went on to spend almost a decade in the Middle East, working for Time and then CNN. In September 2004 he was kidnapped by Islamic State, positioned underneath an execution banner, and was saved when a local Iraqi insurgent group intervened, declaring him their guest. The scars of war are permanent for Ware, who developed post-traumatic stress disorder. Reflecting on it he said: "You can't un-see what you've seen and you can't un-live what you've lived. In war when you are facing life or death everything becomes crystal clear; what really matters and what does not and who really matters and who does not. You find out who you really are."
Source: Grammar News Winter 2018. Read the original edition