Gail and Len Ware, parents of CNN foreign
correspondent Michael Ware (inset), at their home in
Ferny Grove, Brisbane.
Photo: Michelle Smith
Gail and Len Ware often spoke to their war
correspondent son, Michael, as battles raged around
him.
Their
son, now 41, made a name for himself in major war
zones around the world after leaving suburban
Brisbane for big-time news reporting with Time
magazine and the television network
CNN.
But
for his parents, of the outer-Brisbane suburb of
Ferny Grove, his rise to stardom gave them many
sleepless nights.
‘‘Our
nightmare was Michael’s dream,’’ Mrs Ware
said.
‘‘Thankfully
we didn’t hear about a lot of what he’d been through
until after he was safe. We didn’t hear about his
kidnapping or that he was to be sold to the Taliban
until after his release.
‘‘But
often when he’d call, you could hear the gunfire and
he’d say ‘just hang on I have to jump into a trench’
and that was unsettling.’’
His
family and friends are helping him readjust once
again to Brisbane life, since his return in
December.
Like
so many soldiers and reporters after a long stint in
a war zone, Mr Ware is suffering post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD). Any psychological trauma can
lead to the anxiety disorder but in Mr Ware’s case
the cause was reporting for 10 years from the front
line of wars including Iraq and Afghanistan.
His
symptoms have included nightmares, flashbacks,
insomnia and mood swings.
Helping
in his rehabilitation is his son, Jack, aged 7 who
didn’t see a lot of his dad until this year.
Mr
Ware was present at his son’s birth but split with
Jack’s mother, also from Brisbane, when he returned
to Afghanistan. He was able to visit his son every
six to 12 months.
After
leaving Brisbane Grammar School, Mr Ware completed a
law degree at the University of Queensland and spent
a year as an associate to then-president of the
Queensland Court of Appeals, Tony Fitzgerald who
presided over the Fitzgerald Inquiry into corruption
in the Queensland government in the
1980s.
A
stint as a journalist in Brisbane primed him for the
need to protect his sources that later became a
matter of life-and-death in war
zones.
Mr
Ware’s graphic and unbiased reports made him a
house-hold name overseas but he’s still a fairly
well-kept secret at home.
He
covered the Afghanistan war from 2001 and the Iraq
war from 2003 for
Time magazine
before joining CNN in 2006.
In
2004, he was dragged from a car that was forced to
stop after militant Islamist al-Qaeda fighters in
Iraq pulled the pin on a grenade and held it to his
head. He was placed under a banner and readied for
his execution.
“They
were going to film my death with my own camera,” he
said.
Luckily
a commander he knew told them he was his guest and
under his protection so his life was spared. He was
kidnapped on two other occasions in Iraq and is the
only westerner to survive capture.
He
has experienced the horrors of war from both sides as
an embedded journalist with US and British troops as
well as dressing and behaving like a local to try to
understand the Taliban in
Afghanistan.
“For
better or for ill, everyone spoke to me and it took a
lot of earning but everyone trusted me and I tried to
live up to those trusts,” he said.
Mr
Ware witnessed his first suicide bomb attack in Iraq
when Australian ABC cameraman, Paul Moran was killed
and reporter, Eric Campbell was wounded in
2003.
He
carried a badly-wounded survivor of a landmine
explosion to a hospital that had no medication. The
boy’s wailing before he died still haunt his would-be
saviour.
His
exciting but disturbing lifestyle will feature on the
ABC program,
Australian Story tomorrow.
Australian
Story is on ABC1 at 8pm
tomorrow.