World War II U.S. Army veteran Ceo Bauer, 101, downs a shot of a local spirit with reenactors in Saint-Avold, France, Nov. 24, 2024, in this image taken by Stars and Stripes reporter Phillip Walter Wellman. The photo earned Wellman an honorable mention in the latest Military Reporters and Editors journalism contest. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)
Two veteran Stars and Stripes reporters earned recognition this week from a professional group that aims to highlight the best military journalism from last year and the first half of this year.
Rose Thayer and Phillip Walter Wellman each was awarded an honorable mention in the annual Military Reporters and Editors contest, the organization announced Monday.
Wellman received the accolade in the photojournalism category for his portrait of World War II veteran Ceo Bauer.
Stars and Stripes reporter Phillip Walter Wellman earned an honorable mention in photojournalism Oct. 13, 2025, from Military Reporters and Editors. The recognition was for a photo of a 101-year-old American veteran of World War II who returned to France to mark 80 years since he fought there. (Stars and Stripes)
The 101-year-old Bauer was the only American soldier who had fought in World War II to make it to Metz, France, to attend commemorative ceremonies marking the city’s liberation from Nazi occupation 80 years ago.
Wellman captured Bauer downing a shot of a local spirit with World War II reenactors in Saint-Avold, France, on Nov. 24, 2024.
Judges said Bauer’s personality in the image shines through: “proud, personable, fun, and a staunch believer in the trans-Atlantic alliance his generation helped forge.”
Wellman is now based at the Stars and Stripes office in Kaiserslautern, Germany. From 2016 to 2021, he covered the war in Afghanistan from the newspaper’s Kabul bureau.
Thayer’s honorable mention came in the enterprise and feature reporting category for her March 24, 2024, story headlined “‘Proving your innocence’: Veterans fight to clear their names for military crimes they did not commit.”
It documented the experiences of service members whose records are improperly flagged for military crimes they did not commit and the difficulty they face, sometimes years later, in trying to clear their names.
Stars and Stripes reporter Rose Thayer received an honorable mention in enterprise and feature reporting Oct. 13, 2025, in the Military Reporters and Editors journalism contest. Thayer earned top honors in the same category last year. (Stars and Stripes)
The honorable mention marks the second year in a row Thayer’s work was singled out in the Military Reporters and Editors contest.
Last year, she won the award for enterprise reporting for her story about an Air Force Academy family whose trauma represents the intersection of two crises for the military: suicide and sexual assault.
Based in Austin, Texas, Thayer has been covering the western region of the continental U.S. for Stars and Stripes since 2018. She is married to an Army veteran, and her list of honors also includes the Washington Dateline Award given in 2021 by the Society of Professional Journalists.
This year’s contest for the first time accepted entries from a period of 18 months instead of 12. Items published between Jan. 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025, were eligible for awards consideration.
The organization helps promote the work of journalists covering the military, national security and defense.
