Finally embedding with the warfighters!!
By Jeff Emanuel Posted in RedState to Iraq | Special Events — Comments (17) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
After what seemed like days of waiting (though it was just over 36 hours), I finally learned tonight that I've gotten an embed slot with the 1-4 Cavalry of the 1st Infantry Division. I'll fly out sometime tomorrow via helicopter and join up with the unit for a week of living, eating, sleeping, and operating alongside these combat troops. To say I'm ecstatic - and am looking forward to it - would be a vast understatement.
Army Spec. Wyatt Harper, from Fort MacPherson in my own state of Georgia, was a real trooper throughout this effort, putting up with my incessant requests and reminders and getting fast results when it seemed that such an assignment would not even be possible, let alone timely.
So, at some point tomorrow, Victoria and I will again part ways. She will bring you some of the best that Baghdad, MNF-I, and perhaps other people and locales have to offer, while I am stuck with a low-echelon unit, living in the dirt and getting a front-row view to our troops' prosecution of this war.
I'd take the latter any day.
Depending on internet uplink availability, I plan to have some (hopefully) quality exculsive combat video and photography for you in the next few days, as well as write-ups as regularly as I can do them.
« Underscoring the danger — Comments (4) | Believing in the mission — Comments (14) »
Finally embedding with the warfighters!! 17 Comments (0 topical, 17 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
I am so jealous I could just spit nails. Stay safe.
____
Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't.
They have rules about not allowing embeds to be armed...
:>)
____
Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't.
They should let you hang around the rooftops, Model 82A1/M107 in hand, and a spotter at your side. ;)
***
“Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn't so.” – Ronald Reagan
Good work. We'll be waiting for your dispatches. Thanks for making the effort to get this assignment.
Well done is better than well said. —Benjamin Franklin
He can't.
Michael Yon, who's resume pre-journalism looks something like Jeff's, got his thing in a wringer big time with an Army General because he picked up a rifle in the midst of a firefight and saved a couple of guys lives. The officer in question has been trying to get Yon tossed out of Iraq and done everything he can to make Michael's life miserable.
____
Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't.
"I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."
John Paul Jones (letter to M. Le Ray de Chaumont,16 Nov.1778)
doing the right thing for the right reason is still the right thing despite the consequences.
Well done is better than well said. —Benjamin Franklin
When they duck their heads, you should probably be kissing the floor. :-)
And good luck going in to the thick of it.
P.S. Even if they won't let you shoot back keep the rifle loaded. As FireFireFire says you never need a firearm till you really need one.
______________________________
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
While We (yes, I use the "Royal We") are trying to pull funding from the troops we support in pursuit of our "tough and smart" defense policy, now restructured to encompass the takeover of Iraq by al-Qaeda or Iran-leaning radical Shias,
NEVERTHELESS, could you pick up those DIVINE Arabesque tea pots and some water pipes (the latter specifically requested by my staff as they enjoy a quiet smoke while crafting my policy papers)?
Also, I would like more charming bejeweled bracelets in the Retro Ba'athist style. I did pick up some while shopping in Syria, but I understand that prices in Iraq are lower, you know, with those terrorists gunning for our troops and Iraqis and all that. I may not have time to meet with General What's-His-Name, but I keep track of the important things. We girls like our accessories! And I been experiencing severe withdrawal symptoms ever since I. Magnin was restructured in the 1990's.
My love and support,
NP
Remember, don't blame me, I'm just the messenger, acting in the spirit of true bipartisanship.
I've been reading all the dispatches so far and I want you both to know that what you're doing is one of the most admirable and courageous things that I've ever personally witnessed. You're there in Iraq and a lot of us wish we were right there with you, but we'll have to take things as they come via the Internet.
Write as much as you can, and please don't varnish or sugarcoat what you see. I wish I could be there to carry your luggage. ;)
Veritas vos Liberabit
but you rule, mon!
hiring a translator to enable you to interact with Iraqis on the street? Some of the best Iraq reporting has come from people like Dexter Filkins who left the Green Zone without military escort and went around doing "man on the street" work. Working with the military is good, but it offers a fairly limited perspective, and the military issues its own press releases fairly often anyway. It would be interesting to see someone without the typical bounds of journalistic neutrality go out and do some interviews with Iraqis.
..I'm actually more interested reading about a journalistic
embed from the point of view of an ex-special ops guy. I
suspect that his understanding of military culture is better
than his understanding of Iraq culture, and his insights
will be more valuable as an embed than as a general cultural
correspondant.
That Dexter Filkins is good stuff. He was really there in
Falluja. He's got his own page at timeswatch.org, though.
Jeff -- you and Vic both, I have not been replying, just consuming. But I am hungry for every word. Keep it up, bro.
It's war -- so when can we start shooting back at the
enemyDemocrats?