Updated

Robert R. "Bob" Timberg, a Marine Corps veteran who survived horrific injuries in Vietnam and became a Washington reporter for The Baltimore Sun, has died at a hospital in Annapolis. He was 76.

The Hardesty Funeral Home in Annapolis, where he lived, confirmed Wednesday that he had died Tuesday.

Timberg graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and was sent to Vietnam as a Marine. In 1967, the amphibious tractor he was riding hit a land mine, burning him with fuel. He underwent 35 operations to help reconstruct his face.

He joined the Evening Capital in Annapolis in 1970 and later went to work at the Evening Sun in Baltimore, covering the statehouse. He joined The Sun's Washington bureau in 1981.

Timberg's 1995 book, "The Nightingale's Song," told the story of five fellow Naval Academy graduates, including Sen. John McCain.