Q&A: Embedded Geographic Filmmaker on Iraq War

I made it a point to call my wife at home twice a day, on the satellite phone, and she would compile the news of the day. It was enjoyable to me to do this. It was a very nice situation when I'd call the Marines over, they'd know that it was time to make the phone call to my wife. They knew that meant news, and they'd huddle around me. My wife would give me the news and I'd repeat it back to the Marines. They really appreciated that and I enjoyed doing it. It was a small contribution but one I was glad to make.

The "embedding" program was undertaken on a large scale. Did the Marines really want their story told?

Printer Friendly

Email to a Friend

What's This?

Afghanistan Reporter Looks Back on Two Decades of Change

I don't know exactly what the guys in the field wanted with regard to that, but I know that was what the top command wanted. They knew going into that war that they would be successful. Their confidence level was very high. They wanted a record of their accomplishments and they looked to us to do it. That may have been the view of the officers, but I'd say that 90-plus percent of the Marines I spoke with who weren't officers had the same notion—"Let's just get this underway, do it, and go home."

You reported from Afghanistan during hostilities in that country. In the larger sense that was a very different undertaking than Iraq. Was your experience on the ground different as well?

From my perspective there was a big difference between Afghanistan and Iraq. In Afghanistan I wasn't with the military. I was there with humanitarian aid groups. I wasn't in this embedded process, so I basically was on my own there and access to the military was very limited. In Iraq the embedding process allowed me to live day to day with a group of Marines and that was totally different from the experience in Afghanistan. In some ways it was good. I felt protected by the Marines to a certain extent, but on the other hand they would go into all of the dangerous areas. So it was a mixed blessing being with them from a point of view of personal protection or danger.

Was it a mixed blessing as a filmmaker as well?

There are advantages to each method. Being embedded meant that I would go everywhere they went and because of that it meant I didn't have a vehicle of my own. I didn't have a way to break away to cover something that I wanted to cover. I had to stay with that unit. The reverse side of that is the closeness that we had, the access that we had—and there was a lot of access. No one in the 40 days I was there, not one single person, told me 'Don't do that' or 'You can't do that.' That situation never came up. I had complete access, so it really was a mixed blessing.

Now that it's over, would you do it again?

I asked Chip Reed of NBC if he'd do it again and his answer is very close to my answer. Yes I would do it again, but would I do it again if someone said 'You're leaving tomorrow?' No. I think that I need to absorb what happened and frankly relax a little like I'm sure the Marines are going to do when they return. But it was a heck of an experience. I would definitely do it again and I found it incredibly worthwhile and rewarding. I made some relationships over there that I'm happy with; I met some really nice people.

More Iraq Stories from National Geographic News
National Geographic News: Iraq
National Geographic TV Reporter Embedded in Iraq
Hunt for Stolen Iraqi Antiquities Moves to Cyberspace
Uniting Iraq's Disparate Cultures a Challenge, Experts Say
Baghdad Zoo Animals to Get Help From U.S. Zoos
Iraq: The State of the Postwar Environment
Humanitarian Crisis Looming for Iraq, Aid Workers Warn
Dogs of War: Inside the U.S. Military's Canine Corps
Iraq Conflict: Following the "Laws of War"?
Dolphins Deployed as Undersea Agents in Iraq
Geography Shapes Nature of War in Iraq
Iraq War Threatens Ancient Treasures
Photographer Tells of Iraqi Kurds "In Agony"
Iraq Expert Predicts "Problems of Control"