The Other Unannounced Trip

After a somewhat disappointing couple of days in Kabul, we were pulling up stakes and making an unannounced trip to Baghdad. We, of course, knew about the trip, but it was apparently news to the rest of the world. We cleaned out our underground room and dropped our bags off by 6AM. It would be a few hours before the motorcade would roll back to the airport so I headed over to the mess hall to have breakfast with the FOX crew.

The mess hall, called “Goat House” had a pretty extensive lineup of food offerings. Everything from made to order eggs to waffles and every imaginable kind of breakfast meat. Since I like burritos, I thought I would give one of the little breakfast burritos a try. I won’t be doing that again. I couldn’t even identify what was in this thing. When I cut it in half a molten blob of yellowish goo slowly oozed out. Was it cheese? Eggs? I honestly couldn’t tell. Even the taste was somewhat unfamiliar. It was a little cheesy tasting, but not really. I’m sticking to cereal from now on.

There was one last photo op at Eggers before we left. Bob would be meeting with the British Minister of Defense and we had about a minute or so at the top of the meeting to do a photo spray. The staff referred to him as the “MOD” which led me to wonder if he would arrive on a Vespa with a green parka on that had a Who patch on the back. The FOX cameraman asked if he had shaggy hair.

The spray took place in a really small room that could barely fit 5 people let alone the 20 or so that would soon pack in for the meeting. Right before the top of the meeting we were told that some of the British press would be coming in. I staked out my spot and waited. Seconds before Gates came in with the “MOD” a TV crew and a stills guy came in and proceeded to push me and the FOX cameraman out of the way. It was unreal. At least they didn’t just stand in front of us. I’ve gone down that road before.
We all geared up and made our way to the airport where an Air Force C-17 cargo plane would take us to Baghdad. The press and staff would sit along the walls of the plane in jump seats while Bob would be inside a customized Airstream trailer that was safely secured in the cargo hold. The five-hour flight was pretty uneventful. Unfortunately, I had packed away my iPod in my backpack that was now under a ton of bags that were strapped to a pallet. This made the flight a little dull. At least we had power so I could get some work done.It was nice to walk off the C-17 onto the tarmac in Baghdad and see the sun shining with temps well into the 60’s. The cold in the ‘Stan was getting old. About 100 yards away from the plane eight Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters waited to take us to Camp Victory, a five minute ride. Soldiers stood at attention outside the birds as the delegation made their way across the tarmac.
Being back in Iraq was like going back to my old neighborhood or seeing a house that you used to live in. We flew over the airport terminal and the infamous Baghdad Airport Road where I used to come to pick up colleagues at the airport. There was the parking lot where we would wait and on a few occasions watched mortars fall about 100 yards away in an open field. The memories were flooding back. The quick flight dropped us off near Saddam’s Al-Faw Palace. I was in this place back in 2004 and was so surprised at how poor the craftsmanship was for being such a grand palace.We were dropped at the Palace Hotel, adjacent to the Al-Faw Palace. It is a pretty nice hotel, a little gaudy, but nice. Bob and his staff would be staying in the hotel, the rest of us are staying in trailers with bunk beds. The rooms and beds were a step up from Camp Eggers.

An hour after getting off the helos, we were back on. We would gear up with flacks and kevlars as our flight was taking us out of the confines of the base and over Baghdad to the Green Zone where Bob was to meet with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.The ride over took us over the hotel where I used to stay, looks like it is still pretty much in tact despite being hit a couple times. After landing the motorcade made its way through the Green Zone, the pool was in the second to last car behind about ten. Upon arrival we had to run to get there before Bob got out of his car, he never waits for us. We were rushed into the meeting where throngs of press were already set up for the blink of an eye photo spray at the top of the meeting. The room was another dark one. After a few snaps we were escorted out.

There was supposed to be another photo spray for the next meeting with the presidential council but after waiting for over an hour we saw a rush of Iraqi TV crews come out of the room and we were told that we had missed it. Glad someone was looking out for us. This was where the day started to fall apart.

The schedule was going through a last minute change after PM Maliki cancelled his sit down with Bob and we were now on our way to the US Embassy to pay a visit. The Maliki snub would end up being the big news of the day even though it wasn’t really a snub. The dude was busy in some other meeting about the horrific bombing that occurred days earlier.
The Embassy was something else. A billion dollar building that resembles a maximum security prison in the middle of an ugly crumbling. I’d show you a picture of it, but I would have been shot trying to take that picture. It is really incongruous of its locale. The inside was a modern glass and steel structure the kind of place you see in Manhattan, not Baghdad. I can’t believe that they spent so much money to build this place.

There was confusion when we got back to the helicopters. Since it was dark and lights aren’t often used we had to rush to find the helicopter that we arrived on. Well, most of us made it. After donning the flack and Kevlar we noticed that the FOX producer and cameraman weren’t on the helo. One of the crew went to try and locate them to no avail. As we lifted off I couldn’t help thinking that we had broken the golden rule to leave no man behind. I expected to look down and see the scene from Platoon when Willem Dafoe was running across the field being shot by the enemy. Thankfully, the FOX guys made it back to Camp Victory where they received more than their fair share of ribbing.

Scrubbedistan

A light snow fell as I walked to the mess hall in the pre-dawn darkness. This weather would threaten our planned trip to helo to a forward operating base near Kabul and our hour long flight to Kandahar on a C-17 where Gates would meet with troops. We would have to wait and see how the day panned out, but it wasn’t looking good.
We geared up and got into the motorcade about 9 am and moved over to the airport. Gates came later with Matt Lauer in tow, they had some arranged interview that they were going to try and pull off in the helicopter on our way to FOB Black Horse. The helicopters had not yet arrived by the time Gates had arrived, so plans were made for the Secretary to meet with people in the joint command center. The room was a dark dungeon with awful lighting, the kind that can never be color corrected no matter how hard you try. He was briefed by coalition forces and then greeted every person in the room in a receiving line where he shook hands and passed out challenge coins.

Word came the helicopters had arrived so we all made our way out to the flight line where we stood in a misty rain for about 20 minutes before the flight command pulled the plug on the flight. The weather was too unpredictable and they didn’t want to get stuck somewhere if visibility diminished. The C-17 flight to Kandahar was also scrubbed for similar concerns. Our day was shot. The events that were scheduled would have made for nice pictures, now we had nothing.
Staff scrambled to set up more things for the Secretary to do. We made a break for lunch before heading to a NATO aviation training facility where Gates met with NATO forces that were being trained in piloting and maintenance of aircraft. He toured a Russian-made helicopter and a large transport plane before doing a interview on the tarmac with CBS News. Matt Lauer ever got to do his fancy in-flight interview.
Once again, we were back in the motorcade heading to our final destination of the day, the U.S. Embassy. The visit was a last minute add to the schedule, and would be our final event of the abbreviated day. Gates met with the Ambassador and spoke briefly with embassy workers. The staff was very nervous about us being inside the embassy and would not allow us to move anywhere without an escort. We were told that we could only point our cameras in one direction, towards the podium where the Secretary would give his remarks. It was a weird feeling to be an American in the U.S. Embassy and to be so looked over and scrutinized.

It was 4:00 when we arrived back at Camp Eggers. We had a lid on the day, which means we were done. The rest of the night was ours to do whatever we wanted to do which was limiting seeing that we couldn’t leave the base. I fired up my BGAN and sent my pictures from the day. The clouds were lifting a little and the nearby mountains boasted a fresh new layer of snow. It was colder today, but comfortable enough for me to stand outside for an hour while my pictures slowly transmitted.

On my way to shop at the PX, I passed the mob of soldiers who were serving as a backdrop for Matt Lauer and Al Roker’s live Today Show broadcast. The highly staged event had soldiers wearing Santa Claus hats and holding signs near lit up armored vehicles. The soldiers seemed to love it as they were coached by producers to cheer and wave their signs on cue.

With any luck, we will be able to move out tomorrow if the weather cooperates.

Middle East Swing

It has been over 5 years since the last time I was in the Middle East and I was looking forward to going again. My boss asked me to fulfill our Department of Defense pool obligation and travel with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to Afghanistan, a country I have never been to. The weeklong trip to the war torn country comes just one week after Obama announced that he will be sending some 30,000 more troops to fight in the war.

The trip was originally scheduled to depart from Andrews Air Force base this past Sunday but ended up being changed to Monday which left me with a whole weekend in Washington DC. After a couple days of catching up with friends and taking in a few of the Smithsonian museums that were on my list of things to see, we went wheels up from Andrews at 10am on Monday morning. We are flying on Gates’ Air Force E-4B, a militarized 747 designed to serve as a mobile command post for the president and secretary of state. It is loaded with communications equipment once used to monitor the Russians during the cold war and is so hi-tech that it even has exterior paint that can resist nuclear radiation. It is also capable of mid air refueling so we were able to fly to Kabul non-stop.

There are about 20 members of the press on trip, including Today Show host Matt Lauer, who was being asked for photos an autographs by the plane’s crew. Gates came back to the 21 seat press cabin once we were airborne for a quick media briefing. At the conclusion of his face time with the press, he apologized to us for having to eat the food he likes on this flight. Our first meal was bacon cheeseburgers with a side of Cole slaw, chips and a mini Bundt cake. Very Americana.

I tried to get sleep on the flight hoping to counter the affects of a morning landing of an international flight. I should have accepted the Ambien being offered by the plane’s doctor because I couldn’t manage to get a single minute of shut eye and we had a full schedule once we touched down.

We went wheels down at Kabul at 9am on Tuesday morning. I was expecting it to be much colder than it was as we walked off the plane onto the tarmac. The sky was grey with little visibility. Gates was already descending the steps by the time we got around the plane. Myself and Gates’ photographer snapped photos of the Secretary as he made his way to the motorcade that would take us to Camp Eggers. We donned our flack jackets and Kevlar helmets before getting into vans that were retrofitted with heavy steel panels.

It took nearly twenty minutes to caravan off of the airport property, passing through several checkpoints before hitting the streets of Kabul. People on their cell phones were disappointed when their calls were cut short by jamming devices used by the military when on city streets to disrupt IED attacks which are often detonated by cell phone. We looked on through filthy one inch thick glass as people stopped to stare as we sped by the backed up traffic, piles of burning trash and crumbling shops with goat carcasses hanging in front. There was a lot to take in.

After a bumpy ride and a quick stop at the base where we would be staying, we were back on the road and headed to the Presidential Palace for a meeting with Afghan president Hamid Karzai. After going through security we were escorted to a room where a press conference would be held. The room was already filled with local media and photographers from all the wire services, including a local Getty freelancer. Some 30 video cameras lined the riser at the back of the room. Who knew that Kabul had so many TV stations. The presser was dull and we were restricted from moving around the room which made it difficult to get anything interesting. I could feel the fatigue setting in already as I jostled with the other photographers. It was only 11:30 and I was starting to fade.We were scheduled to fly to our next event aboard 4 helicopters. The trip was canceled due to low visibility so we just went back to Camp Eggers. Back at camp we waited to hear from the Secretary’s staff about a possible late afternoon movement that never came to fruition. The rest of the day was ours. I filed my pictures, browsed the PX and got comfortable in our basement room of what appear to be kid’s bunk beds. My head hit the pillow at 5:30 and I was out. I woke up a few hours later and went right back to bed. I tossed and turned a little bit as the room filled with the loud snores of 11 men which often resembled the low rumble of a fog horn accompanied by a gear grinding Yugo with no muffler. Despite the noise, I ended up sleeping almost 12 hours. My body needed it.