Life Member Eric Carlson never took off his pack

Chief Warrant Officer Eric Carlson, Public Affairs Officer, 1st Marine Division, with fellow combat correspondents at Kuwait International Airport the day it was siezed from Iraqi forces, 27 February 1991.

Eric Carlson

Eric Carlson retired from the Marines in 1998 and has been working as a reporter for the weekly Leelanau Enterprise newspaper continuously since then, mostly from his home office as a part-timer.

When he retired from the Marines, Eric was the father of a three-year-old girl and a one-year-old boy, and considered parenting his primary occupation. His daughter is a recent graduate of Michigan State University and his son is in his final year as a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point. His wife works as a registered nurse at a regional medical center.

The Enterprise serves a mostly rural community in the northwestern corner of Michigan’s lower peninsula. Since Eric has worked at the Enterprise, the newspaper has twice been named “Newspaper of the Year” by the Michigan Press Association. Eric has also won numerous individual awards from the association for writing and photography, and two first place awards from the National Newspaper Association for his personal column.

“As a journalist in a small community, everybody knows my background as a Marine combat correspondent and appreciates the role I play in covering local government and politics,” Eric said. “Frankly, I get a lot more respect for who I am and what I do now than I ever did when I was on active duty.”

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