Mini Dawn Patrol

Busy Day!

To keep you all busy, let me introduce a few embedded reporters who are doing the down in the grit, Michael Yon style of reporting:

Michael Fumento who was embedded w/ 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force in Fallujah in 2005 before he was injured and medevacked out of Baghdad, he's back in Fallujah and on his way to Ramadi. Great reporting.

There are about 45 embeds in Iraq right now, primarily the U.S. and U.K. From a chart I'm looking at now, there will be two other reporters at Ramadi when I'm there; one from CBS (though I assume he has a camera crew) and one from the AP. The great plurality, of course, are in Baghdad. As I blogged previously, it's a bit more comfy and safe staying right here. Besides, this is where almost all of the crowd-killing suicide bombing goes on.

To most reporters, the war comprises nothing BUT such attacks so why bother going with the troops and being where the fighting is? Never mind that Ramadi is probably supplying and training most of those suicide bombers. Such is the American journalist mentality.

Franklin Raff, senior executive producer at Radio America, was embedded and asked the following question by an Iraqi Army officer of high rank: "Why do you people not tell our story?
Frank was embedded in Baghdad, Sadr City, Fallujah, and a series of remote combat outposts and forward operations bases in the Sunni Triangle and this is his story

Why do you people not tell our story? Why do you not say what is going on? Why do you come to our country and see what is happening, you see the schools and the hospitals and you see the markets and you eat with Sunni and Shia soldiers – everybody eats together, everybody works together –you see that Saddam is gone forever and we are free to speak and complain.
You see we are working and eating together and fighting together ...

Some of you may know Frank as G. Gordon Liddy right hand man.

Bill Putnam is embedded with our boy's in ABU Co. he's been in Bayji and recently visited the Bayji Oil Refinery and describes what he sees:

The refinery just north of town is one giant EPA Super Fund site waiting to happen. An engineer could spend a career out here trying to clean this place up and might make a small dent in the entire problem.

Chris West of GX Online is embedded with the 1/34th Red Bulls. He's going outside the wire this week to assess the rebuilding.

This day, the CA team, a mix of the 1/34th and the 1/48th, were heading out to conduct several different missions. They huddled up in the morning and did a thorough brief on what to expect, what they planned to do, the latest intel and contingency plans in case something went wrong. These briefs are one of the surest ways to tell if a unit is buttoned up and on top of things. If they are prepared, sharp and detailed, it’s a pretty sure bet they know what they are doing. These guys had it in spades.

They rolled out their maps, discussed their routes. They covered the different stops they were going to make. Discussed the people they were going to meet, their personalities, problems they had run into with them in the past and exactly what to expect. They detailed all of the latest operational intelligence, not just for the local area, but for the entire theater, making sure that everyone was up to date on the tactics being used by the enemy. This area has been quiet for a long time, but these stone cold professionals weren’t taking any chances.

And if you haven't read Michael Totten lately well, now there's no excuse

...Because Americans are happy to see that Northern Iraq is a normal, reasonably prosperous place. Sean even took pictures of the laser scanner in the checkout line.

We met two American soldiers in front of the store. They sat on a park bench outside. Iraqi Kurdistan is perfectly safe, so they did not carry guns. They did not wear body armor or helmets.
...It's hard to convey what it's actually like meeting Iraqi Kurds. Fleshing out the dialogue doesn't capture the feel of it. Americans and Kurds don't just get along because we're temporary allies of convenience in the Middle East. The connection is deeper and personal. Kurdish culture and American culture might as well be from different planets. But somehow, oddly enough, Kurds think much like Americans do. Let me rephrase that: Americans think like the Kurds.

Moni Basu and Curtis Compton from Atlanta Journal-Constitution, have been ebedded with the Charlie Company of the 121st Infantry Regiment’s 1st Battalion and are expected to reach Georgia at Hunter Army Air Field, early this morning. Charlie Company is one of the first of the Georgia-based 48th Brigade Combat Team’s units to return home. Here's a report of their last patrol

Baghdad, Iraq — After he rolled into the darkness of Camp Liberty from his last Baghdad patrol, Sgt. 1st Class Patrick Eaton, silhouetted in red and yellow lights, gave the soldiers in his platoon one last pep talk.

“Remember, boys,” he said. “Nobody owes us anything. That’s the deal. When we get back, we fit right back in.”

And let's not forget our own guys who are doing some great reporting themselves starting with :

Buck Sergent's More Tales from the Front

SPC Josh Spano's Who turned up the heat?

And keep an eye on Bill Roggio as he heads to Afghanistan.

Speaking of Bill, he'll be merging with Counterterrorism Blog, an excellent blog to form a new Counterterrorism Blog

And last but not least don't forget to visit StrategyPage that gives you rapid access to military news. Reporting events as history, not headlines, and providind concise, comprehensive and easy-to-understand descriptions of the troops, their equipment and why wars the world over are being fought.

The real stories are out there, you just need to know where to look.

Previous Dawn Patrol here