Target in sight

Iraqi airspace, north of Mosul - I'm not sure why I find this surprising, but there is no war in the air at 30,000 feet over Iraq, civilian aircraft are welcome. Our flight path takes us directly over Mosul, a little west of Kirkuk, east of Baghdad, and on into Kuwait.

I realize the insurgants don't have an air force, or long range surface to air to air missiles, but I would still have thought the airspace would have been restricted. The US Air Force is obviously flying combat missions in this airspace all the time, but close air support doesn't happen anywhere near this altitude.

The power of a photo

Photo by: Joe Rosenthal

KLM flight 457, somewhere over Romania - With no photos to process, and no stories to write yet, I decided to watch a movie. I'm a WWII buff, and I picked Flag of our Fathers, without knowing anything about it except that it was made by Clint Eastwood, and that it is set in WWII.

Little did I know that this is a movie about, a single combat photo. Specifically, the famous picture of the Marines raising the American flag on Iwo Jima. At the beginning of the movie the narrator claims the ability of a photo to win or loose a war, and contrasts the flag raising photo with another famous photo from the Vietnam war of a South Vietnamese officer executing a prisoner with a pistol shot to the head.

The movie was definitely a serendipitous choice, and food for thought. I'm under no delusions that I will ever take a picture this powerful, but it's still a heady reminder that a camera has a power of it's own in war.

But the story is also a cautionary tale about "truth"... The photo actually shows a team of men raising a second replacement flag later in the day, not the original soldiers who were the first to the top of the mountain. The men in the photo became heros, and the men who fought their way to the top of the mountain are virtually unknown.

Phase Line Amsterdam

Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam - First leg of the trip from the US completed, getting ready to board my flight to Kuwait.

I lived in Europe for several years in the 80's, but there are still things that surprise me just walking through the airport. For instance finding a female janitor mopping the restroom floor under the urinals as the male visitors (myself included) go about their business a few urinals down. This isn't new to me, but it's been 15 years, and I was still a little taken aback.

For international readers: In the US they put up a closed sign when they are cleaning the restrooms, and there would NEVER be a female in a men's restroom unless it was closed.

Sierra Papa (start point)

North Atlantic, 100 miles south of Iceland - A Northwest Airlines Airbus A330 is a pretty comfortable troop transport compared to the troopship my grandfather and his men road across the Atlantic to North Africa 64 years ago as Combat Engineers in World War II.

I've taken this Northwest flight from Minneapolis to Amsterdam many times before, en-route to vacations in Scandinavia, England, and Italy. This flight isn't much different, but my eyes have changed. As I board I notice a scattering of ACU (the new digital Army camouflage pattern) backpacks in the overhead compartments. There are only a few men in uniform, but the others are fairly obvious if you are looking for them. Men with "high and tight" hair cuts and casual civilian clothes who don't look like tourists or business people. American soldiers on their way back to another war in a desert.

There are undoubtedly service women on the flight too, but they don't make themselves so obvious. I'll have to wait to see who picks up those ACU backpacks in the overhead compartments when we get off the plane.

Most of the soldiers on this flight are probably on their way back to Iraq from a leave at home with their families. Being able to hop on a plane, and in 24 hours be home with your family makes the war feel civilized to me, just another business trip. But I know it's not.

In the gate area in Minneapolis a young soldier in the ubiquitous grey sweatshirt with ARMY across the front and a baseball cap was saying goodbye to his mother while a pretty girl with tears in her eyes hung on to him tightly. How long will it be before he sees them again? Six months? A year?

For me this really is a business trip. I'm going to spend a couple weeks in Fallujah taking pictures, and appearing on TV and radio, and then hop back on Northwest Airlines. My wife will pick me up at the airport, and I'll be back to my comfortable life before I know it.

But I suspect that when I get back I'll have a new perspective on the war, and hopefully I'll have had an opportunity to share it with many of you. It's not civilized, and it's definitely not routine, and ignoring the problem won't make it go away.

Getting equipment ready

Here's a quick shot of the kitchen table this evening. Getting things organized, and putting the finishing touches on my plate carrier. A plate carrier is a vest that holds armor plates, and has lots of molle loops on the outside to rig gear (one of the big pains about body armor is that you loose access to all the pockets on your shirt). Mine currently has a satellite phone, a maglite, a leatherman, and a couple of pouches for extra camera batteries, memory cards, and video tape (photojournalist ammunition).

Status Update

Minneapolis, Minnesota - I've been busy at the "day job" wrapping up things in preparation to be gone for 3 weeks, and so I'm a little behind on some of my communications. I'm planning to get caught up this weekend... stay tuned!

FYI: My current expectation is that I will arrive in Fallujah on the 9th, so that will probably be when the first "real" stories and photos start appearing here and in the media

Why I think this is important

Minneapolis, Minnesota - I've been getting some nice emails from the family members of Minnesota National Guard soldiers in Iraq, who are becoming aware of what I'm doing. This is the sort of thing that really reinforces my resolve that this is worthwhile project!

I got the message about you going over to Iraq to follow our guys - THANK
YOU - more than you will know!!!! I personally have 2 sons over there and
all information that we get seems sketchy at best. There has been lots of
disappointments along the way. It is good to see some active coverage of
this for our guys who have been gone so long. The only coverage or
recognition they seem to get is if someone comes home in a body bag. Then
and only then the media is reminding us that they are over there. Many
people from MN have forgotten that these soldiers are there day in and day
out and have been for about a year now and not sure of homecoming date. So
thank you for doing this for our guys and us back home.

And another:

I am looking forward to your trip... my husband is currently serving with the MNANG- should be an interesting trip for you! Good luck and thanks for doing this!

Thanks for your support!