Evan Wright, Gone
Embedded with fast-moving but lightly armored Marine 1st Reconnaissance Battalion’s Bravo Company during the invasion of Iraq in 2003–typically in the lead Humvee– was a 30-year-old Rolling Stone reporter who would pen a series of articles on the experience titled “The Killer Elite” which, in 2004, received the National Magazine Award for Reporting, the top prize in magazine writing.
He then spun that up into the book and later HBO series, Generation Kill, which probably best captured the very pear-shaped pre-Fallujah American experience in Iraq during the Second Gulf War.
Of course, Wright had already been to Afghanistan, would go back to Iraq in 2007, and profile figures as diverse as Quentin Tarantino and Shakira then picked up a second National Magazine Award for his Vanity Fair profile titled “Pat Dollard’s War on Hollywood.” He also worked on Homeland and The Man in High Castle.
Hey, what is a guy with a degree in medieval history from Vassar to do, right?
Wright died by suicide on July 12, 2024, at the age of 59.
Check-in with your friends, guys. Some are hurting and don’t know it.