Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Questions and concerns:

I've been getting a lot of email from you all over the past week, and I apologize for not having had a chance to respond to it all personally. Here are a couple of common questions:

Q: Why aren't you, or when are you going to, show other Minnesota troops besides Bravo Company.

A1: Transportation in Iraq is very slow/difficult/unperdictable (read some of my earlier posts about the trip from Kuwait to Fallujah), if I tried to visit other bases I would be spending my entire 2 weeks waiting for helicopters instead of taking pictures.

A2: I thought there was more value in focusing on just one group of soldiers, and really taking the time to get to know them in order to provide in-depth coverage that is hopefully representative of all the Minnesota Guard soldier serving in Iraq to some extent.

Q: Are you endangering soldier by tell where they are? Are you endangering a soldier's family by saying where they are from?

A1: I have very strict guidelines about what I can an cannot write about. I will never write about future operations, or operations still in progress, and I will not discuss military locations in Iraq that are not already widely known by insurgents.

A2: I believe it is very common practice to list a soldier's hometowns, it helps readers/viewers identify with the soldiers. That said, if any individual or soldiers family had a problem with their hometown being listed I would certainly remove it from my website and photos immeadiately.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just keep doing what you do best -- taking photos and telling the story. It is not just Bravo Company's story, but the story of every son, daughter, husband, wife, brother, sister, neighbor, friend. I can see our soldier's face in every picture you take and every story you tell.

donna said...

Eric, I am glad I found you and your pictures. Thank you for doing this. My grandson is with Charlie Co. 1st CEB, 1st PL.stationed at Camp Baharia. Take a picutre of those guys sometime. The children are my favorite, however. And, the litter piled high with mail. So glad those guys have not been forgotten. God Bless. Donna

Day by Day, by Chris Muir (updated daily)



Chris Muir is the cartoonist that I met in Kuwait. He spent two weeks in Iraq at the same time I was there in February 2007, and so thought it would relevant to showcase his work on my site. Here is a link to Chris' humorous travelogue of this Iraq trip: http://billroggio.com/archives/2007/03/arrival_alignright_v.php