A war correspondent and his Press Club card

In the 1945 war movie “Objective Burma!,” a war correspondent named Mark Williams is stuck in the jungle with a platoon of GIs. As they talk about where they most want to be, Williams says, “At the National Press Club bar sipping a bourbon and water."

But the Club is a touchstone for more than just make-believe movie war correspondents.  Many members have taken their Club membership cards around the world as they report from conflict zones.

New York Times correspondent Rod Nordland is one of them.

He has reported from more than 150 countries and has been posted in Bangkok, Beirut, Baghdad, Cairo, Rome, Sarajevo, San Salvador, Islamabad, London and Kabul. His work was so effective that he was banned in Pakistan and Mexico. He has won numerous awards, including being part of a Pulitzer Prize winning team, and the Club’s Edwin Hood Award for international reporting.

His book, “The Lovers: Afghanistan’s Romeo & Juliet,” was published in 2016.

Everywhere he has gone, he has always carried his National Press Club membership card.  Joining the Club in 1988, he was proud of all of the yearly membership stickers he stuck on it.

Eight months ago, Nordland collapsed while walking through a park in Delhi, India.  He was diagnosed with a brain tumor and was so close to dying that a toe tag was attached to him. But he survived and is now in a New York City hospital.

Somewhere along the way, he lost his wallet containing his coveted NPC card. He contacted Club Executive Director Bill McCarren and asked if he could get a new card.

But he didn’t want just a brand-new card. He asked Bill if it would be possible to find some old year stickers to put on it “so I don’t look like a rookie.”

Even though the Club has suspended in-person services because of the coronavirus, executive assistant Joann Booze found the old stickers. 

Sticking them all over the card, McCarren sent it to Nordland.

“He loved it,” McCarren said.

And with that, Rod Nordland and National Press Club member #2540 are back in business.