Posted on: Sunday, July 11, 2004

AFTER DEADLINE
By being there, writer gained insight into soldiers' skills, hearts

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

Traveling with Schofield Barracks soldiers for three months in Iraq and Afghanistan and reporting on them for The Advertiser was both an education and rare opportunity.

Photographer Richard Ambo and I convoyed with Hawai'i soldiers 600 miles from Kuwait to northern Iraq, went on numerous missions, experienced missile and rocket attacks, traveled to the Iranian border, and visited the reputed tomb of the Prophet Daniel, protected behind the towering walls of a fortress in Kirkuk several thousand years old.

Afghanistan found us skimming rugged mountaintops in helicopters and rubbing elbows with shaggy-haired Special Forces at 9,000 feet.

All the while, we lived, ate, humped packs, slept in the dirt, swore and looked out for trouble with the best group of soldiers I'd ever want to trust my life to in a war zone.

If our "embed" sounds like great adventure, it was. But it was never easy, sometimes scary, and it didn't make the debate over Iraq — and whether the United States has been successful there or not — any easier to call.

People ask: What's the situation really like there? Meaning: Is it chaos or under control?

It's never a black-or-white issue. It's photochromatic gray, darkening some days, lightening others, and sometimes shifting unexpectedly.

In Kirkuk, Schofield soldiers are infrequently involved in big firefights. Forty miles to the southwest in Huwijah, in Sunni Arab territory, security is more tenuous, but the city remains relatively stable. On April 7, though, 48 enemy fighters were killed and 50 were wounded in a 10-hour firefight that left 11 Schofield soldiers injured.

Our embed was a learning experience not only for us, but also for The Advertiser, the 25th Infantry Division (Light), and even the families of deployed soldiers back home. We were guinea pigs of sorts for a newspaper and for an Army division unfamiliar with embedding journalists in a war zone.

We came close to mistakenly getting controversial shots for anthrax and smallpox — something we didn't need.

Once we got to Kuwait, an overzealous public-affairs sergeant threatened to have us kicked out of the country if we didn't submit our stories for military review. A review of Defense Department rules, a flurry of international phone calls and the intervention of higher brass resolved the matter. We were free to report — taking the security of soldiers into consideration — and from then on, had unfettered access to troops and command.

The newspaper learned that being embedded has limitations: Sometimes you can't get to a news story, even if it's a few blocks away. If soldiers don't go, you don't go. Talking to Iraqis or Afghans without a swarm of soldiers present isn't possible, making it very difficult to get both sides.

"Unilateral" reporters unattached to a military unit find their own way around with a paid "fixer" — and a great deal more risk to their lives.

We learned how hard it is to arrange transportation, even by convoy, from Point A to Point B. "Always check with three different people" became my mantra, because invariably each said something different.

We learned how much families across the nation appreciated seeing any scrap of news about their sons and daughters. And how wrathful a few could be if we stayed with one unit and didn't visit their spouse's unit at some other base.

What they didn't seem to grasp was the danger of convoy travel because of roadside bombs and possible ambush. We traveled a lot by convoy.

I learned just how difficult it is to be away from your wife and kids for three months — nothing compared to the year-plus that soldiers will be away from theirs.

But mostly I learned what a motivated, highly trained, professional and mature bunch Hawai'i's twentysomething soldiers are in Iraq and Afghani-

stan. How they give out candy to kids and want to do their part to help — regardless of big-picture politics — in countries that aren't easy to figure out. How they continue to do their job even after a buddy has been wounded or killed.

It is to them I owe the greatest debt of gratitude for a lesson learned.

Reach Advertiser Military Writer William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.