The "forgotten" vets: Women
Officially, women aren't allowed to serve in combat under current Pentagon rules, but try telling that to the families of the 140 U.S. servicewomen who have died and the 760 servicewomen who have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Continue Reading »The death of "Frenchy"
"60 Minutes" was there when 34-year-old Capt. Patrick "Frenchy" Rapicault joined the list of more than 4,000 U.S. servicemen and women who have died in Iraq since the war began. With an accent that was part France and part Mississippi, "Frenchy" was an unusual Marine -- and a memorable character for the "60 Minutes" crew reporting in Iraq back in 2004.
Continue Reading »Andy Rooney's Memorial Day wish
For Andy Rooney, Memorial Day isn't just another day off. It's the day he remembers Obie Slingerland and Bob O'Conner and Charley Wood. They were good friends of his, boys who died in World War II. But if Andy had his way, Memorial Day wouldn't just be about remembering the dead.
Continue Reading »Pete Rose -- when the news was all good
Legendary "60 Minutes" producer Joe Wershba and Morley Safer produced this profile of Pete Rose mostly because of money. That is, the money Rose got for leaving the Cincinnati Reds and signing a four-year deal with the Philadelphia Phillies: a whopping $800,000 a year. Of course, that kind of money is minor league stuff these days. Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees makes $615,000 a week. Enjoy this peek at Pete, ten years before the gambling scandal brought him down.
It's a signature Wershba piece. Joe passed away this week, at the age of 90. For "60 Minutes Overtime," Morley Safer shares his thoughts on the loss of his long-time friend and producer:
When I described Joe Wershba as an "old school reporter" in the CBS obituary a few days ago, I was harking back to the heyday of CBS News, to the era of the gentleman journalist. Joe embodied that time and that standard set by Edward R. Murrow and the so-called Murrow Boys, a brigade of men including Charles Collingwood, Howard K. Smith, William Shirer and Winston Burdett.
Continue Reading »Woody Allen on "60 Minutes" in the '70s and '80s
Woody Allen's new film "Midnight in Paris" opens the 64th Cannes Film Festival this week. It's a love letter to the French capital, starring Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams, with a cameo by Carla Bruni, first lady of France. As Allen's 42nd film premieres, we thought it was time to take a look back at the young Allen, as captured by "60 Minutes" cameras from the early 1970s to the late 1980s.
Continue Reading »Life with bin Laden: His bodyguard talks
It's one of those "60 Minutes" stories that makes you want to jump through the television: Abu Jandal, a former bodyguard of Osama bin Laden, talking about how much he reveres the man behind 9/11. In this 2006 report, Jandal explains how he served the terror mastermind from 1996 to 2000 in Afghanistan, sharing intimate details of life with Osama bin Laden.
Continue Reading »The failed 2001 mission to kill bin Laden
Just about everyone was surprised to learn that bin Laden had been hiding "in plain sight' for more than five years near the eastern border of Pakistan -- just 40 miles north of the country's capital, Islamabad. For years, conventional wisdom had bin Laden hiding in a cave or small village somewhere far west of there, perhaps in the mountains of Afghanistan.
Continue Reading »This Mother's Day, meet the real mama's boys
A special Mother's Day post from "60 Minutes" producer Shari Finkelstein:
This story was born out of a vacation I spent in Italy years ago, where Italian friends of mine were teasing their older brother for living at home with his parents in his early 40's. I thought it was a little strange that this charming, smart, successful man was living at home, and I loved the word Italians had coined for men like him: "Mammoni." What I was shocked to learn, was that this older brother was no isolated case -- it was the norm in Italy.
Trying to decide who to include in our story we faced an unusual problem: almost every unmarried man we came across fit the bill. My colleague Sabina Castelfranco and I would be discussing the subject in a cab, and the driver would chime in that he too lived at home with his parents; the waiter; the man at the hotel; mammoni were everywhere!
Continue Reading »The secrets of Special Ops
When President Obama made his late-night announcement that a special team of Americans had killed Osama bin Laden, we all wanted to know more about the men behind this operation. "The American people do not see their work, nor know their names," the president said, "But tonight, they feel the satisfaction of their work and the result of their pursuit of justice."
In the end, it was reportedly an elite team of Navy Seals, working with the CIA, who conducted a surgical raid to deliver justice to bin Laden. The names and faces of the men who carried out this operation may never be known, but we do know this: Special Operations takes a special breed of soldier.
Continue Reading »Runaway wives: Have you ever been tempted?
The free-wheeling 1960's had come and gone. There just had to be more to life than doing laundry, raising a family and kissing the husband goodbye every day as he left for work. What's a housewife to do? How about just chuck it all and leave? According to this classic "60 Minutes" report, thousands of women were doing just that. Mike Wallace went to Seattle to visit one family divided, in a report loaded with rap sessions, women's lib, and the notion of just letting it all hang out.
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