The 24-hour news cycle started in the early 1990’s during the Gulf War. The world (me, especially) were glued to their television sets viewing live 24-hour news coverage. Gone were the days of the 6:00 and 10:00 p.m. evening news. Watching what was transpiring halfway around the world, I quickly became impressed with the bravery of war correspondents putting their lives on the line to report the war. Despite safety protocols, however, dangers surrounded these journalists as accidents occurred.
Benjamin Hall is a British-American journalist who serves as a State Department correspondent for Fox News Channel. He began his career as a journalist focusing on the Middle East and has traveled to Syria and Iraq, repeatedly filing reports for BBC and Agence France Presse, often from behind enemy lines while embedded with rebel and regime troops.
The day started out like any other on March 14, 2022. Hall and his two colleagues were being driven by soldiers while on assignment in Ukraine outside of Kyiv. As they approached an abandoned checkpoint, a familiar whistling sound pierced the air and a missile landed about 30 feet in front of their vehicle. Despite attempts to reverse the car, another missile hit alongside the car, sending Hall to “another place,” shrouded in darkness and silence. He remembers a vision of his eldest daughter, Honor, telling him: “Daddy, you’ve got to get out of the car. You’ve got to get out of the car.” As he set one foot out the door, a third missile hit the car itself. When he regained consciousness, he realized he was on fire. His right leg was hanging on by the skin. His left foot had a “baseball-sized hole right through it.” He later learned he had a fractured skull and his left eye was sliced in half. Most of his left hand was decimated. Despite his critical injuries, Hall said death never crossed his mind. “I just knew that I was going to go home,” he says. Unfortunately, his two companions were killed in the attacks. Benjamin Hall was faced with a huge mountain to overcome.
