Before he joined the United States Marine Corps , Pottinger worked as a journalist for Reuters between 1998 and 2001 . Then he moved to '' The Wall Street Journal '' until his retirement from journalism in 2005 . His stories won awards from the Society of Publishers in Asia and were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize . He covered a variety of topics , including the SARS epidemic and the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami ; in the latter assignment , he met United States Marines and was inspired by their courageousness . He spent seven years reporting in China . While interviewing Chinese workers in Beijing about their claims of government corruption , Pottinger was attacked by a government thug
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
Matthew Pottinger