Reporters

I often see reporters when I’m out and about in my travels and I can see why the military has such a difficult time with the media. It’s not that they are trying to get the big scoops or undermine the President or anything. It is the utter disregard for the personnel out here. They often times have looks on their faces as if there reason for being out here is beneath them, if they individuals weren’t out here they’d be chasing human interest stories on lint picking.

I was on one flight with an unnamed news network and we were on the flight line getting ready to get on a bird. First off it seemed to me that the news organization skimped out on the body armor. For Iraq the protection those vests would give is about as solid tissue paper. Hell, the vest I have can only take one or two 7.62 mm rounds before it is structurally unsound. The good thing about getting hit by a 7.62 round is that it will drop you to the ground like a sack of potatoes. That puts you out of the line of fire for the most part. A 7.62 would have ripped through those vests like hot butter. They might as well have gotten on with no shirts on the way I saw it. I’m sure those vests could probably stand up to a few .40 cal shots but any type of fire that we would encounter would rip that media crew to shreds.

The funny thing about the reporters and the vests were that they were color coordinated bulletproof vests. The cameraman had on a dark blue shirt and a dark blue vest, the reporter had on a black shirt/jacket and a black vest. The one that killed me was the makeup lady. She had on a green shirt and a pink vest. I was like how cute a pink bulletproof vest.

I would like to give a note to my friends in the media who read this blog. It may come to a shock to some of my readers but members of the mainstream media read this site daily. Tell your bosses that they are making billions selling their versions of the war to a public who foams at the mouth for doom and gloom. So if it’s not too much of a problem try not to skimp out on the ballistic protection. Get your people some stronger armor; they look like disasters waiting to happen. On the other hand, if you are lucky you can catch said disaster on camera. Oh boy! Wouldn’t that bring in the ratings?

For those of you that have never been on a military helicopter this is how it works. When they call you up you get in line with all your gear, have your flacks and Kevlar on and you march out to the bird. The birds are still whirling when you get there. In a smooth operation you run up to the bird in line you get on as fast as you can, drop your trash, get in your seat, get your seatbelt on and get ready to go. Conversely, when you get off the bird you get up as fast as you can if there are a lot of cargo you help form a working party to help move the trash off the bird as quickly as possible so that the flight crew can get back in the air. As part of basic combat procedure the crew does not switch off the engines so that if they start taking hits in the area they can get in the air quickly.

Now that is in a good situation. Even if they march you out to the tarmac that doesn’t mean you are getting on the bird right that second or at all. In a not so good situation you have to wait for personnel to get off, the cargo to get unloaded, and outgoing cargo to get loaded. The mission commander (the pilot) has final say who and what gets on the bird and you don’t board the bird until the pilot is ready. On top of that they have their own preflight checks that they have to do so you could be out there with all your gear on waiting for seconds or minutes or hours either way you need to be in a ready state because when the crew tells you to get on you pick up your trash and get on as quickly as you can. Other troops in other locations depend on those birds those few minutes it takes you to get ready could cost someone else’s life.

You don’t sit down or lounge around or anything like that.

What bugged me about these reporters so much it is the attitude that they seem to have. The Soldiers and Marines are all standing up with all this gear and hell it fucking uncomfortable out there but they are ready to run as soon as they get the all clear sign. They treat getting on and off the bird as they would if they were taking fire. You get on as fast as you can and you get off as fast as you can that means be ready. The reporters they had an obvious look on their faces of discontent because we didn’t get on the bird as soon as they would have liked. Hell, you think anyone liked standing on that fucking hot ass tarmac, sucking in pure diesel exhaust? So what they after waiting for a whole 5 minutes was get out of line and takeoff their “heavy” body armor and just sat about. I’m like suck it up, stand the fuck up, and stay in line. You think any one else in this line wants to stand with 200 lbs on them? Hell no but, they do because they have to be ready to go. When you lounge around people have to wait on you. And you may think it’s fine because it’s “safe” but the way I see it as long as you are in Iraq it’s not safe. And regardless an airfield is the PRIME target once you get on the airfield you put your eyes and ears on and get ready to move. I could see the seed of discontent in the glares of the personnel that were standing around.

They were upset because they saw the problem just as I had. Once we get the word to move we have to wait for them to put their body armor, wait for them to grab their gear, then wait for them to get back in line and then we start up. That slows things down and when it can go down slowing things down can get people killed. I mean don’t you reporters report on this shit? I figured that you all would know as well as anyone.

People gather their impressions not from what people say but what they do. When you see people getting out of line and sitting on the ground and huffing and puffing about being inconvenienced by waiting on the tarmac that builds up resentment. You’ll hear or see people in the COC saying, “That bitch couldn’t even stand up when we were waiting for the fucking bird.”

They find it disrespectful and to me it is. They’d never say it to a reporter because the reporter is out of the chain of command. But, if you saw a Soldier or Marine doing what they were doing they would be handed their ass regardless of the rank. One could argue that they aren’t in the military so they shouldn’t have to do what the Soldiers and Marines are doing. And I would respond that you are right they shouldn’t and didn’t do what the Marines and Soldiers were doing. But, just because you CAN do something doesn’t mean you SHOULD. I know for a fact that their behavior costs them on the other side. I mean listen I could be a total dick if I wanted to. With my GS rating there aren’t many people in Iraq that could say anything to me if I wanted to be a dick. But, I know if I play the game and at least look like I’m trying to fall in with the team I’ll get much more done. I’d much rather earn the trust of the troops by deeds over my rank. Reporters you would be wise to do the same.