"Deuce-Main, Apache-Six, Contact, over." [Deuce-Four headquarters, this is the Alpha Company Commander]
"Apache-Six, Deuce-Main, send it."
"This is Apache-Six. Heavy small-arms and RPGs vicinity 4-West. Three friendly casualties, one is litter-urgent. Still in contact. We are in pursuit trying not to lose contact. Estimate 25 AIF [insurgents], all dismounted. Request QRF, over."
"Apache-Six, Deuce-Main, QRF spinning up. Warmonger is en route and fast movers in vicinity. Bulldog Company has a platoon two kilometers west en route to you. They are under your control time now. Don’t let the AIF break contact. Over."
"Roger, at least four enemy KIA. All Apache elements remain in contact and we have them isolated in a four-block area, over."
"Apache-Six, Deuce-Main, keep up the good work, don't let them get away. More combat power is on the way to assist in isolation."
"Deuce-Main, Apache-Six, roger, out."
IF YOU'RE NOT READING Michael Yon's Online Magazine with its up-close and very personal dispatches from Iraq, here's one of many very good reasons:
And now, for the rest of the story....The formula followed by foreign (non-Iraqi) journalists here is different that used by the local papers back home. Western media cannot free-range Iraq, asking questions and jotting answers on notepads, particularly where insurgents cut off the heads of anyone they do not agree with, later posting "news" videos of their own. Here in Iraq, where bullets are often the background noise, most news agencies get their daily facts spoon-fed straight from the military. The basic building block for just about any news item reported in mainstream press is something called a SIGACT....
But news of a baby girl with a circulatory condition who needed hand surgery getting medical help from U.S. soldiers and a concerned nurse did not become a SIGACT, nor will it be included in a media release. So, unless a reporter was embedded with that unit at that time--and decides to tell the story--no one will ever know this one small, but powerfully important detail. There are a thousand such details falling likes trees in a forest, but no one is listening for those kinds of sounds.
Pointer from John Geiger
Posted by Vanderleun at March 24, 2005 9:45 AM | TrackBackThanks for the link. I subscribed and will share it with others.
Posted by: Barbara Spalding at May 24, 2005 1:31 PMThe synchroncity of the blogosphere. I ran across Yon sometime last night and subscribed to his newsletter. One of the few blogs I've ever read all the waaay down the page.
I think it was the combination of pictures and stories. There was such a sense of immediacy to the experience of reading him.
Posted by: dymphna at May 26, 2005 1:00 PMIt's too bad that the news media doesn't want to report on the good things that are going on in Iraq and the good things the soldiers are doing for the people there like their helping the baby girl who needed surgery. It would also be nice to hear reporters talk about why our soldiers are there and what they are giving their lives up for. There are so many good things happening in Iraq because of our soldiers being there not withstanding those from our ally countries who are staying by our side there. Instead they just want to tell about all the soldiers who are being killed. It would be nice if they would be responsible for once and take their agenda out of their reporting.
Posted by: Karen at June 1, 2005 6:38 PM"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated to combat spam and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.