[whataretheysaying] Mary Madigan: Michael Yon in Iraq

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Posted by Mary Madigan:
Michael Yon in Iraq
http://whataretheysaying.powerblogs.com/posts/1168445686.shtml


   Via his [1]Online Journal:

     I plan to spend the entirety of 2007 with our troops at war, until
     sickness, wounds or worse send me home, or the military tires of my
     presence and catapults me over the wire. Having spent most of 2005
     in Iraq, I know what this means. "Drive-by reporting," as some
     commanders call it, is worse than no reporting at all. The only way
     to approach describing what our troops experience, and what is
     really happening in Iraq, is to go the distance.

   ..also from the same post - hanging with the pilots in the cockpit of
   a C-17..

     If I had gotten to take this ride as a kid, Iâd have become a pilot
     for sure. All those buttons, switches and gauges. Something inside
     a boy just wants to start pushing a few buttons to see what will
     happen. Especially those two red ones, and what are those four
     orange knobs about?

   ..photos of the landing, [2]slipping it to line up with the runway at
   Baghdad International Airport (BIAP)

   [I can't imagine what it must be like to land a C-17. Here's a
   [3]photo of one via Strategy Page. They're kinda heavy..]

   [4]c17 

   ..after landing:

     While getting this far is progress, journalists still must obtain
     final press credentials, and to do this, they must find their way
     from BIAP to the IZ (International Zone: AKA the âGreen Zone.â)
     Already there at BIAP when we landed was a clutch of what appeared
     to be journalists waiting for ground transportation. But I knew
     something they didnât. I had seen journalists waiting here before,
     and had helped them catch helicopters only to find them trying to
     muscle in on my flight. Not today. Just thirty secondsâ walk from
     where they would wait most of the night for ground transport in a
     "Rhino" (armored bus) was the booking desk for "Catfish Air." I
     walked in, got on a helicopter flight and flew away, leaving them
     behind.

   [5]..more.

References

   1. http://michaelyon-online.com/wp/walking-the-line-2007-part-one.htm
   2. http://www.michaelyon-online.com/media/images/disp/wtl5/8937.jpg
   3. http://www.strategypage.com/military_photos/20030212.aspx
   4. file://localhost/files/whataretheysaying-c-17-vortex.jpg
   5. http://michaelyon-online.com/wp/walking-the-line-2007-part-one.htm