In addition to corresponding for this newspaper, some of Mr. Rosebrock’s seminal pieces on the tragic plight of military veterans and the perceived decline of their flagship institution in Los Angeles, the Veterans Administration complex, appeared in monthly publications.
A modest-by-nature and late-blooming activist, his work began to emerge a year ago when a West Los Angeles homeowners group committed what many military veterans regarded as an abominable sin against their sacred tradition.
How It Started
At the Westwood/Brentwood entry to the 120-year-old V.A. grounds, the historic motto, “Duty, Honor, Country,” was amended by the environmentally-minded homeowners group.
The new plaza wall at the National Veterans Home in West Los Angeles is at one of the community’s busiest intersections, on Wilshire Boulevard.
Addressing the turf, literally, instead of America’s military heroes, the reconfigured language read:
A dignified gentleman of the retirement generation, Mr. Rosebrock, who served in the military 42 years ago, during the Vietnam War years, was aroused as he had not been for a long time.
His beloved military family, the spine of his country, he felt, had been denigrated.
How to Draw Attention
In a city as diverse as Los Angeles, where a thousand spider-sized issues daily distract the populace from keeping their eyes on the road, he knew he had to mount an extraordinary campaign to attract a whisker of attention.
That meant pouring not only his heart but the fullness of his mind into the lonely campaign to right the most immediate of numerous wrongs he said he has spotted within the Veterans Administration structure.
Starting Out
Lowering his shoulder while elevating his sights and his expectations, the zealous citizen journalist stepped onto the trail. He began writing as hard as he could.
What he sought, he wrought:
Restoring the first word to its original form.
In his January letter to the Pulitzer Prize Board in New York, Mr. Rosebrock set the scene:
“That is certainly a flattering comparison. But the mission never could have been accomplished without the support of the Greater West Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, which gave me unfettered liberty to write the commentaries in their ‘Greater West Los Angeles Area Business Monthly.’ It was not until after the first two commentaries appeared in their publication that the Los Angeles Times considered this battle over a single word to be newsworthy for their daily publication. This caused others in the media to follow suit, and the mission of defending ‘Duty, Honor, Country’ was ultimately a success.
In addition to Jay Handal’s West L.A. Business Monthly, Mr. Rosebrock’s veterans campaign commentaries also appeared in the monthly Brentwood News.
Westside friends soon began suggesting that Mr. Rosebrock submit his hard-hitting essays to the prestigious Pulitzer Prize Board at Columbia University.
No Exceptions
When the journalist researched the entry rules, he discovered the Pulitzer committee only accepted submissions that had been published in daily, weekly or Sunday publications — no apparent exceptions. Monthly newspapers were excluded.
“This did not seem fair to me,” said Mr. Rosebrock, who identifies himself as a “citizen journalist.”
In Warm Pursuit of Justice
For months, Mr. Rosebrock carried his crusade across the Westside, etching his moving pleas for justice in clear, clean, crisp language, eschewing emotion.
He banked instead on the purity of the rationale — underserved, plain-faced veterans vs. decidedly upscale, politically influential residents for whom military life appeared to be peripheral at best.
Patriotism vs. the latest hot trend sweeping the country at surface level.
Sounding a Theme
“This was the theme of my stories,” Mr. Rosebrock said. “Because of ‘Duty. Honor, Country,’ you and I are having this freedom-of-the-press exchange, as does everybody. All of our freedoms come from those 3 words, and they rest upon them.”
In the most hallowed tradition of American journalism and the free press, his stirring written words resonated.
They led directly to action, to “correction,” he would say. After a period, the faux term “Beauty” was replaced by the “correct” term, “Duty.”
Company Was Sparse
Gallantly and practically alone, Mr. Rosebrock rode to the rescue of the fragile and precious honor of America’s veterans.
The eloquent gesture was regarded as extraordinary by veterans because the landscape was uncrowded with competing rescuers.
The Usual Suspects
Returning to Pulitzer eligibility, Mr. Rosebrock quickly concluded that “it is not right someone can accomplish something through a monthly newspaper, cause change, and not be regarded — by the Pulitzer people — as a legitimate journalist.
“The Pulitzer is all about big newspapers and politics,” he said.
True to the mold of soldiers who will not be denied, Mr. Rosebrock reached an easy decision.
Pushing Back
“I decided I was going to submit my stories anyway,” he said. “Let them tell me ‘no.’
“I was not going to accept their word. That is not the way we make progress in this country.”
Doubling his efforts, Mr. Rosebrock, who did his own camera work, decided to enter in the photo category, too, because of one particular shot.
The Letter ‘D’ Returns
At the height of last year’s controversy, a creative partisan of the veterans’ cause provided a huge letter “D” that was big enough to cover the first 3 letters in “Beauty.” Thus, he made it read, seamlessly, as “Duty.”
Mr. Rosebrock is “quite sure this happpened because of the first articles” he crafted.
He cast the photo in the genre of famous military heroic scenes of the recent past.
An Answer Arrives
When Mr. Rosebrock received his letter of rejection from the Pulitzer committee, the handwritten message was suitably terse:
Said the disheartened Mr. Rosebrock, with equivalent succinctness:
