Appearing on Alamanac this Friday (Twin Cities Public Television)

John Camp and I will be appearing on Almanac, the weekly public television news program this Friday at 7pm. This is a LIVE show, and we're being asked to talk about our Iraq experiences in general... I'm not quite sure where the program will go, but it's an interesting forum to have a slightly more indepth conversation about what we saw.

Almanac runs on TPT channel 2 in the Twin Cities metro area, and it also runs on WDSE channel 8, the Duluth public television station (I'm not sure about any other Minnesota outstate public television stations).

Micheal Yon article in the New York Times

The New York Times has a nice article profiling Michael Yon on the front page of the business section today: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/business/21iraqblogger.html?ref=business


Blogger Michael Yon and CSM Mellinger the sergeant major of all US forces in Iraq. (Photographed in Fallujah in February 2007.)

If you aren't already familiar with his work, Michael Yon is the quintessential Iraq blogger. He has spent years of his life embedded in Iraq, at his own expense, and has generated some amazing reporting. I would definitely credit him with inspiring me to start going to Iraq.

Over the past year it has been a pleasure to get to know him over email, and also spend a little time with him in person in Fallujah last year.

Do you feel like a winner?

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS (in route home from Iraq) - Last February I was in Fallujah at the start of the surge, and when I asked soldiers if they thought we were winning the war they almost universally rolled their eyes, and gave me some version of "Yea, right" for being dumb enough to even be asking the question.

The soldiers I embedded with in Fallujah were justifiably proud of local accomplishments they had made, but violence was generally on an upward spiral across the rest of the country, and their buddies were getting wounded or killed with increasing regularity.

Ten months later I toured the Air Force Theater Hospital in Balad with with COL Storm, the hospital commander, and he shared some amazing statistics with me. In March 2007, right after I left Fallujah the number of combat wounded American soldiers receiving initial treatment at the hospital hit an all time high of 179. By December 2007 that number had dropped to 80. And the trend line was in steady decline.

By contrast the number of combat wounded Iraqi Police (IP) and Iraqi Army (IA) soldiers being admitted to the hospital was on an up trend. The positive interpretation being that the IA and IP were finally really getting into the fight.

When I toured the hospital a majority of the patients were Iraqi children who had been injured by IED's, and wounded Iraqi insurgents, each with their own armed American guard. The only American patients I could find to talk to were there for non-combat injuries or illness.

The medivac crews I flew with also commented on the fact that things were slowing down, and that a much higher percentage of the missions they were flying were to pick injured Iraqis. I spent an entire day with them, and they only flew one mission, to pickup an injured IP soldier.

Now when I talk to soldiers there is definitely a new sense of optimism that was non-existent just 10 months ago. Nobody thinks the war will be over soon, but most people are coming to believe that it's winnable.

One of the most striking signs of progress to me is the number of Iraqis that wave at our helicopters as we fly over.

Tons of new pictures uploaded

I'm sitting in Kuwait at the Crown Plaza hotel waiting for my flight to Amsterdam, and I have great Internet access for the first time in two weeks, and I've uploaded a bunch of photos.

You can check them all out here: http://photos.scrappydog.com/Military/442690

Note: You can order prints or digital downloads of almost all my Iraq photos. Feel free to email me at photos@scrappydog.com if you have questions about ordering photos, or if you would like to order large prints.

Photo essay: Baghdad mission with Alpha 2-147

On Monday, January 14th 2008 I flew a routine "Baghdad shuffle" mission with two Minnesota National Guard Blackhawk crews from Alpha Company 2-147th Assault Helicopter Battalion. We carried a collection of Marine Corps and Air Force generals between Camp Liberty and the Green Zone, and back again several hours later, after a meeting was over presumably.



Crew chief SSG Michelle Smith watches the engines start at the beginning of the mission.

(click the image above to see the rest of the photo essay)

Photo essay: The helicopter fuelers of Echo 2-147

Here is a photo essay following SGT Benjamin Jury of Ewa Beach, Oahu, Hawaii and SPC James Enright of Woodbury, Minnesota as they refuel Minnesota National Guard Blackhawk helicopters as well as Apache attack helicopters from other units in Balad, Iraq.



SGT Benjamin Jury of Ewa Beach, Oahu, Hawaii fuels a Blackhawk helicopter.

(click the image above to see the rest of the photos in this series)

Medivac! Medivac! Medivac!

I went on a Medivac flight on Tuesday, with an active duty Medivac unit from Fort Cambell Kentucky. The Medivac pad is on the opposite side of the airfield from 2-147th AHB, and we just asked if we could hang out for the day, and go on some missions, and the Medivac company commander graciously made us right at home.

I didn't shoot very many photos, or any useful video on the one flight I was able to go on. I was pretty much stuck in my center seat without a lot of visibility, but it was an amazing experience that will definitely stick with me.



This photo of a flight medic racing to his helicopter on a razor scooter is one of my favorite images of this trip to Iraq.

Here is the choronology of my medivac mission:

I had just taken my first few bites of lunch with SSG Anthony Cox and SGT Carmen Catalioti the flight medic and crew chief of the medivac helicopter that I had been assigned to for the day when the big voice started blairing "Medivac! Medivac! Medivac!"

0:00 SSG Cox and SGT Catolioti push back their chairs and run for the door of the little chow hall behind the Medivac operation center. One of the other pilots asks if we want him to save our food... I don't think anybody answers.

1:00 I'm in the ready room frantically grabbing my video camera, body armor, and camera bag.

1:30 I'm outside the ready room looking for SSG Cox and SGT Catolioti. I see them sprinting to the aircraft half way down the flight line. Somebody says, "You better run!"

2:30 I'm on the helicopter, totally winded after running 100 meters carrying my body armor and camera gear. The rotors are starting to turn.

7:15 We are airborne! We take off very fast and are probably at less than 100 feet off the ground as we cross the wire of the base perimeter fence.

9:30 I'm listening on the headset. The pilot says we are headed to Samara (40 kilometer north along the Tigris river). We're less than 10 minutes out.

12:00 I'm in the trail aircraft, and I hear our pilot tell the lead aircraft to "Watch those power lines!" We're flying lower and faster than any helicopter ride I've ever been on. The TRQ LED display reads 90+%, and our airspeed never drops below 150 knots.

17:15 We're on the ground outside the wire at a Forward Operating Base (FOB) on the outskirts of Samara. No patient in sight. There is a brief discussion of whether or not we are at the right place.

19:00 An ambulance appears carrying an injured Iraqi Police officer. He has gunshot wounds to both thighs.

25:00 The patient is on board the lead aircraft.

27:00 Airborne again. We make several banking turns so steep that the rotors are almost perpendicular to the ground.

28:00 We are low and fast over downtown Samara.

34:00 Pilot, "We just went right over a flock of birds. I wonder how they like us flying over the top of them?"

37:00 My aircraft "07" is cleared by Balad control direct to the FARP (fuel point).

39:00 Crossing the Tigris river.

39:50 We hear over the radio that the lead aircraft "05" is on the ground at the "cas pad" (the helipad at the Air Force Theater Hospital).

41:20 "07" is on the ground at the FARP for a "hot" refuel with the engines running.

46:00 Full fuel.

47:15 Airborne. Cleared direct to the Medivac parking area. We go over the top of an F-16 sitting in the middle of the runway surrounded by emergency vehicles. Our pilots speculate that he has probably blown an engine.

50:10 Wheels down at the Medivac parking area.

55:00 Crew unloading personal weapons, "weapons green!"

55:45 Rotors stopped.

57:00 Pilot CW3 Tory Koselke comments that he has more "boots untied" flight hours in Iraq than "boots tied" flight hours. As he gets out of the aircraft and ties his desert combat boots. He was sleeping with his boots off when the alarm sounded, and he dashed to the aircraft without stopping to tie them.



Medivac pilot CW3 Tory Koselke, from Fort Cambell Kentucky ties his boots AFTER completing a Medivac mission in Balad, Iraq.

There is a very real sense that EVERY second counts. As one soldier tells me, "We go from 0 to 90 in 0 seconds when the alarm sounds!"