Strykers search for source of rocket attack

FOB NORMANDY, Iraq -- Capt. Chris Hassan and Second Platoon, Charlie Company had a different mission scheduled with their Iraqi Army partners. Plans changed in the wake of an unsuccessful rocket attack against American forces the previous night.

"Jesus, that's down by Warhorse," the 28-year-old Hassan spluttered as the headquarters of 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment radioed the new instructions.

Each of the 1-25th Stryker Brigade Combat Team's sub-commands wields responsibility over designated portions of Dilaya Province. The rockets took off from a grove less than 10 miles from the brigade's headquarters at Forward Operating Base Warhorse, near Ba'qubah.

The platoon's home borders Muqdadiyah, roughly 90 minutes north. It might have made sense for soldiers from the closer base to respond. But Iraqis call the shots on U.S. involvement since June 30, and the IA command in Diyala Province wanted the assistance of Hassan's Strykers searching the date palm grove linked to the attack.

Local police met the combined force of Americans and Iraqis shortly after 8 a.m. in a village near the Shaki River. Hassan directed his soldiers down a narrow road, bordered with mud walls on either side, toward the grove targeted for searching. As the road emptied into a grassy field, the local sheik arrived with news.

"Guys were seen escaping when the rockets were launched," the sheik explained through a translator.

See KTUU.com for more

New Posts At Alaska Dispatch

Balancing rockets and recreation

by Brian O'Donoghue

Once known as a "black-out" base, Forward Operating Base Warhorse now sports an outdoor basketball court illuminated by spotlights all night long.

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Good fences make good neighbors

by Tom Hewitt

It's easy to miss the most prominent architectural feature of Forward Operating Base Warhorse, even though it takes up far more space than any other object in the area.

More at Alaska Dispatch.

Getting The Band Back Together

It's been over a week since the team has been in the same place - Brian and Jessica headed out to Forward Operations Base Grizzly last Saturday, then Tuesday they came back to Warhorse as Jennifer and I traveled to Command Outpost Cobra to the northeast. We thought we would have a little overlap time before Brian and Jessica went back north to FOB Normandy, but then Jennifer and I were waylaid en route, so we missed each other again.

In a few hours, though, Brian and Jessica should be returning from Normandy by convoy, and the gang will be whole once more.

I've really appreciated the trips outside of Warhorse - they've been the most valuable time I've spent here - but it's going to be nice to have a little time with the whole team. It's been a while.

Recap: Our Trip So Far

Our posts lately have been pretty narrowly focused on particular situations we've encountered in our travels, so I thought I'd briefly recount what we've been up to since we arrived in the Middle East.

We arrived in Kuwait early Saturday morning, and were taken to a transfer base for processing and to arrange a flight into Iraq. Our processing there took almost exactly 24 hours, whence we got aboard a C-17 and flew to Baghdad. We were met there by a public affairs officer from the 1-25^th Strykers. He helped us obtain our press credentials and secure transport to Forward Operating Base Warhorse in Diyala province.

While on our way to get our credentials at the Combined Press Information Center in the Green Zone, our convoy came within a few minutes of being hit by an IED, which made the situation getting into the Green Zone a bit tricky due to fears of another attack. We eventually made it into the CPIC, however, and got credentialed. Late Sunday night we flew out of Baghdad by Blackhawk helicopter - an awesome experience - and landed at FOB Warhorse.

Since Monday morning, we’ve been getting our feet back under us, and we're getting to work on our real mission: getting some stories produced. I'll keep you updated.

-Tom Hewitt

Counterpoint: On The Worth Of Technology In Reporting

Brian’s Luddite Manifesto earlier prompted a defensive reflex in me, so I’ve decided to offer a counterpoint.

I could pick Brian’s assertions apart piece-by-piece, or hold forth on the questionable wisdom of attacking the very same technology that allows you to post your content directly to anywhere in the world wirelessly from the floor of the Minneapolis airport, but I won’t. What I’ll do instead is tell a little story.

As we prepared to leave the airport in Amsterdam, a series of bizarre delays left us stuck on the tarmac for over two hours. Brian, looking worried, passed me an email (printed out, naturally – the man doesn’t use a computer unless he has to) from the military liaison who was scheduled to meet us upon our arrival in Kuwait.

My first thought was to contact her via email, but only secure wireless networks were available. I noticed, however, that the liaison had attached her international cell phone number, so I paused the music on my iPhone and selected a local cell provider’s network. Two text messages later, the liaison had all the information she needed. I turned the phone to airplane mode again and went back to listening to music.

Try doing that from inside a plane with a reporter’s notepad or a Selectric typewriter, and let me know how it works for you.

-Tom Hewitt

Suppressing The Urge

All you Facebook friends out there, Twitter devotees and the like, forgive Jessica, Tom and Jennifer for their relative silence during a passage that actually warranted status updates. Look for them to fill in the blanks as soon as they power up.

We crossed the globe, passed security checks on three continents and bunked in military tents as a rosy desert dawn lit this gateway camp outside Kuwait City. The name goes unmentioned in accordance with military rules governing our embedding.

All the way the professor squashed student passions for updating their every move. Call me paranoid, but it struck me that our group, being unusual in its Alaska student involvement, invited problems from those looking for ways to embarrass the U.S.

Or worse.

My nerves began fraying when a recent article by the Chronicle of Higher Education unleashed a wave of national publicity about our embedding project. I really worried after our commercial media partners announced our departure Thursday, ignoring or perhaps misinterpreting my request to fudge on the travel dates. “Leaving this weekend,” would have covered our tracks nicely. The reporter is a friend. I was likely unclear. And I’ll never fault journalists for printing the truth.

Jessica’s dad gets ultimate credit for Friday’s sleepless night en route from Europe. It was his suggestion I prepare for this venture by watching the movie “Taken.” I kept putting it off this summer. It seemed fortuitous when I came across the flick on the list of free videos offered on our final-leg KLM flight.

The plot certainly resonated: A beautiful young woman flies off to Paris-- over her doting daddy’s objections—gets kidnapped, virtually from the airport, and soon lands in white slavery.

Stand down, retired Master Sgt. Hoffman, the entire base has her back now.

By the time we huddled in Kuwait City’s airport lobby, every stranger seemed a threat and I summoned the A-Team in the form of Mass Communication Specialist 1^st Class Kelli Roesch, a Navy reservist, and her cohorts from the camp’s Media Transit unit.

We’re being issued flak jackets at noon.

None too soon.

--Brian O’D

Whirlwind

It seemed impossible yesterday that today would be busier, but somehow it happened.

In the morning and early afternoon we continued our media saturation, as we were interviewed by Rich Mauer from the Anchorage Daily News, Amanda Bohman from the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, and the lovely Tazlena Cheap from Fairbanks CBS affiliate KXD (Channel 13). I understand that we'll be on at 6:00 and 11:00 p.m. tonight.

We're tying up loose ends right now - Brian is out getting power converters and we're packing up cameras, laptops, and other expensive electronic equipment. We're getting calls and texts every few minutes from friends who want to say goodbye and to stay safe. Thanks, guys... we'll do our best.

I just heard that the News-Miner's story is up now on their homepage. My parents' cabin made it into the lede somehow, and I'm loving the trademark FDNM flame war that's starting in the comments.

Don't tell anyone, but I think we're all going to be happy when we finally leave and get to find the stories rather than have them be about us. We're all more comfortable on the other side of the microphone or the notebook.

The Basics: What's Going On

Unless you know one of us personally, it’s likely that you’re a bit in the dark about the fundamentals of our expedition. Here’s what you need to know to understand what’s going on:

• We are three journalism students from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Our names are Jennifer Canfield, Tom Hewitt, and Jessica Hoffman. We will travel to Iraq with our professor, Brian O’Donoghue.
  
  
• We will be in Iraq for a month and will embed there with the Ft. Wainwright Stryker Brigade (1^stBrigade, 25^thInfantry Division).
  
  
• We will send reports back to print, radio, and television media outlets in Alaska. In addition to those dispatches, we will regularly update this blog with news on our experience.

There are a lot of finer details, but those are the broad strokes, and they should be enough to get you by. Please understand that the reason we aren’t always forthcoming with exact dates, locations, and other specifics is that the military, the university, and our families are all concerned with our safety and the safety of those around us during our time overseas. Loose lips sink ships, and all that.

What we don't have to be skittish about (and neither do you) is sharing this blog with others who might be interested. The blog is super easy to update (I can actually do it from my phone via text message!), and it will be our most reliable communication link while we're abroad. We're excited about this, and we want as many people on board as possible. Tell your friends!

The professor to blame...

Brian Patrick O’Donoghue

Geez. Still can't believe it myself, but the mirror doesn't lie. I'm 53.

Where does time go?

My career has taken me from photo shoots atop the Great Pyramid to interviewing oilfield workers in 70-below conditions on the Arctic ice pack, pulling 7Gs in the cockpit of a soaring F-16, eying Prince William Sound from a supertanker’s wheelhouse, mushing dog teams in both the Iditarod andYukon Quest International—

Bringing readers on these and other rides typifies my 30-year career as a photojournalist, reporter, editor and author.

Fresh out of school, I followed an old newsman’s advice—“find someplace miserable and newsworthy”—and broke into the business as a photo stringer for United Press International in Cairo. That summer of ’79 found me shooting a Sadat-Begin summit, Egyptian-Israeli peace talks, the return of Al ‘Arish, and other events before my dad's stroke, at the age of 48, yanked me home to D.C.

True story: My mother later showed around my Egypt photos to relatives in Minnesota. Studying the above portrait of Anwar Sadat, one clueless relative observed, "Oh, how your husband must have suffered before he died." My mom didn't have it in her to explain.

Weighing life’s curves, I shipped out as a Seafarers International Union wiper aboard an India-bound cargo ship.

Back on “the beach,” I branched into writing for City Paper in Baltimore and D.C, before moving on to The Villager in New York. From 1983-85, I juggled graduate school and night shifts in a cab, while reporting on squatters, police drug crackdowns and the Purple Man’s fight to preserve his urban “Garden of Eden.”

In 1986, a job listing in Editor and Publisher sent me to the Frontiersman in Wasilla, Alaska. I've since worked for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Anchorage Daily News, KTVF and KTVA-TV, covering four gubernatorial campaigns, a decade of military exercises, the Exxon Valdez spill, seven sessions of the Legislature and thousands of miles of dog races.

Honest Dogs, Epicenter Press, 1999, and My Lead Dog Was a Lesbian, Random House, 1996, recount my “Red Lantern” misadventures in the Quest and Iditarod, respectively.

What the hell, I've finished every race I've started.

In fall 2001, I bolted from writing editorials and joined the faculty at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Among other things, I teach news-writing, investigative reporting and an online publication class producing Extreme Alaska. I received tenure this spring. As of July, I serve as Journalism Department Chair.

I'm past president of the Alaska Press Club and a dedicated member of Investigative Reporters and Editors. As an undergraduate, I first studied history at Holy Cross College, ultimately earning a B.A. from University of California, Santa Cruz. My ticket to teach on the university level comes through a M.A. in broadcast journalism from New York University.

My wife, UA Public Affairs Director Kate Ripley, and I have three kids: Rory, 13, Robin, 11 and Rachel, 5.

Somehow it adds up.