We took a ride on this Chinook with Peter Jennings...
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Updated March 24, 2003 10
PM Kuwait-time.
Here's the latest from Kuwait...
more to come!
Kuwait photos
We took a ride on this Chinook with Peter Jennings...
Special Batman goggles. Very stylish.
Do not try this at home...
Don't try this at home either...
Aaron Murphy, soundman, Peter Jennings in rear left
with Marines
Using a model for designing an attack on a building
complex
One of the terrific chapel services I attended. The
power and presence of God.
The line for communion was lengthy. I take that as
a GOOD sign.
We spent the night in the desert with the Marines--
and Peter Jennings
(farthest from camera). This was our "shower" one
early morning
(about 40 miles from Iraq)
Applying a chokehold on one of our security advisors
(former SAS/SBS)
in front of what should be more appropriately named,
"Praise Allah, It's Wednesday"
So, is Kuwait a wealthy country?? Uh...yeah...you
could say that.
(That IS the BMW logo on the hood)
Our driver, Fahti (and our Suburban). Great guy. Excellent
Arabic...
My navigation skills have definitely improved. Finding
one's way through a
featureless desert (in a sandstorm) is big fun. Thanks
for the GPS, Anya!
I DID mention sandstorms, didn't I? Real fun on the
gear, eyes,
nose, throat, ears, etc...
I think I was smiling.
Wanted: Freelance crew to frolic in desert with fun-loving
Army and Marines.
Pleasant weather and lovely accommodations. Air quality
similar to southern
California. Please send resume and photo showing protective
breathing
apparatus.
Actually, we've had nice days too.
Shooting with the lovely Robin Roberts for Good Morning
America is
always a good time. Even if there ARE tanks aiming
right at you.
Moments after this photo was taken, the tanks fired
their guns and we
were all killed.
Not really.
One way to do a two-camera interview in the desert.
In a tent. In the heat.
One of MANY convoys in the desert bringing equipment
and supplies to the
300,000 or so men and women in the region.
"Wow" is right.
And there we are, out in the middle of NOWHERE, and
there's a "Media
Operations Center". Considering there are about 500
journalists actually
assigned to (and embedded with) the troops in the
desert... and another 1,000
or so of us coming and going to the dozens of camps
throughout Kuwait,
I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised. But I
was.
As the last photo in this series... if you look at
it through
a mirror, it will appear as if I'm walking away.
(Please tell me you didn't try that...)
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March 20, 2003: The Day the Liberation Began
It has begun. Iraq fired SCUD missiles at Kuwait today.
Alarms went off and we dashed for our gas masks.
This CBS crew doing live shots on the roof of our
hotel put on their NBC suits (nuclear/biological/chemical). If you had clean air and a telescope,
you could see Iraq in the distance.
This was not a drill and he's not smiling. There's
an emergency shelter in the basement where a hundred journalists fled for protection from shelling
if our hotel was hit. The respirator (gas mask) is for chemical attack. The suit is secondary
and protects your skin from blister agents or other chemicals that, when aerosolized, can make
things very...shall we say...unpleasant? The good thing is that it's very windy, which would
disperse a chemical attack very quickly rendering it fairly useless. And indoors we don't
really need those hot suits. The mask is challenging enough.
Click below for a sort-of creepy "Here's what we do when the siren goes off" video. I'm in the beginning wearing the tan vest and holding the small DV Camera. Be sure your sound is turned up.
Speaks for itself. 300 miles from where I was sitting.
Not that far, really...
Not your typical news-gathering equipment. (Note blood
type on helmet)
And not your typical icons in a Muslim nation. THAT
is real bravery, I believe.
Wished I'd met the driver.
March 24... gotta get to a desert airbase with Diane
Sawyer.
How often do you see this in YOUR rearview mirror?
This is a REAL satellite truck... not one of them
sissy trucks you're used to seeing
back in the U.S...
We'd barely been on the air when the air raid sirens
went off.
Me shooting Diane in her gas mask. Kind of stressful,
actually.
Diane and Jody, waiting it out.
More waiting with the troops in full gear. Thankfully,
no explosion, no chemicals.
Nervous laughter, or real? You decide.
All's well that ends well. So far, so good. (Add your
own personal adage here...........)
Get this life-size poster at your local Wal-Mart.
My mom likes pictures of me, so here's another. For
the rest of you, please disregard.
One Australian cameraman has been killed in a car-bombing
up north, and a skilled
reporter for ITN (European) has been killed in a crossfire
incident near the Kuwait border.
And some American troops are in the hands of the Iraqi's. I have seen the gruesome footage of dead American Marines on Al-Jazeera (Iraqi TV). War is very real here.
PRAY immediately when you hear about these things. God can change the outcome!
God bless you, and please continue to pray for our
protection, and wisdom to do
what God desires. He has great plans for us all!
Keeping my head down but face toward Heaven,
Jody