Embedded journalism

Pimp My Ride: Afghanistan Edition

By Hope Hodge Seck on May 28, 2014 Afghanistan, Blue-Green operations, Embedded journalism, Training, Vehicles

During my last few days in Afghanistan, I got a behind-the-scenes look at a “dress rehearsal” for a large-scale training exercise the Afghan National Army’s 215th Corps was planning at Camp Shorabak in Helmand province to showcase the Corps’ military training and enhance interoperability. The scale of the exercise was pretty impressive: it involved hundreds of Afghan soldiers, two of the 215th Corps’ Mi-17 helicopters, and over a dozen M1117 armored vehicles, plus Humvees and trucks. The M1117, used by the U.S. Army’s military police corps and the Army National Guard, has less armored protection than the Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle,…

“Going out to pick a fight:” Marines from 1/9 remember one of their own

By Hope Hodge Seck on May 27, 2014 Battle Rattle, Camp Leatherneck, Embedded journalism, Marines

During my short visit to Helmand Province, Afghanistan earlier this month, I was struck by the way honoring and remembering fallen brothers becomes an integral part of everyday life for Marines. One of the first stories I heard from a Marine on the C-17 ride over from Kabul to Camp Leatherneck was about a white board hanging in a company office with a simple inscription: “Going out to pick a fight.” It was a favorite catch-phrase of Sgt. Daniel Vasselian, a Marine with Bravo company, 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, a unit that is now returning home after a deployment providing…

On the ground in Afghanistan: the last days of a FOB

By Hope Hodge Seck on May 12, 2014 Afghanistan, Embedded journalism, Food

As I prepared for my first embed with in Afghanistan, I figured I might spend some time sleeping under the stars and taking “health and comfort breaks” in the woods as the Marines shut down several of their remaining forward operating bases. I’ve done a bit of tent camping, and I figured I couldn’t be disappointed if I managed my expectations. But, as it turned out, even the final days of FOB life came with quite a few creature comforts. Soon after I arrived in Afghanistan, we moved to FOB Sabit Qadam (formerly FOB Jackson) in the Sangin district of…

Meet Steel, the Marines’ morale dog in Afghanistan

By Hope Hodge Seck on May 10, 2014 Afghanistan, Animals, Battle Rattle, Embedded journalism

Not all working dogs in Afghanistan sniff explosives or walk patrols. Meet Steel. Steel, a three-year-old black Lab, was trained was an Improvised Detection Dog (IDD), skilled at sniffing out explosive devices. But when he arrived at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan, his trainers realized that his paws were too soft and sensitive for patrols over rugged, rocky terrain. He would never patrol with his infantry unit, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines. Instead of being sent back to the States, however, Steel was sent over to Camp Leatherneck’s Concussion Restoration Care Center–its consolidated medical facility for sick, injured and wounded troops. Steel…

Commandant, Marine Corps Times reach coverage agreement on Infantry Officer Course

By Dan Lamothe on April 16, 2013 Afghanistan, Embedded journalism, Infantry, Marines, The CMC, women

Commandant Gen. Jim Amos made headlines last week when he challenged me in a letter to the editor published in Marine Corps Times to attend the service’s difficult Infantry Officer Course as a participant. The invitation was issued after he took umbrage with a recent story I wrote that had a headline saying two female volunteers for the course “flunked” IOC last month as part of ongoing research into which roles service members can fill in combat. I met with the commandant Monday morning at the Pentagon to discuss the issue. By mutual agreement, we decided that it would be…

ISAF will still lead embeds with U.S. forces

By Dan Lamothe on January 29, 2013 Afghanistan, Drawdown, Embedded journalism, Infantry

Earlier this week, Politico reported that the media embed process would be led by Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense within a matter of months. Turns out, that’s partly true. As my colleague Jeff Schogol reports this morning, the International Security Assistance Force will continue to oversee the embed process for reporters wishing to work alongside U.S. and coalition forces downrange. The MOD will be put in charge of embeds this spring — but only for journalists wishing to embed directly with Afghan forces. That’s no small distinction. While the war in Afghanistan has shifted to put Afghan National Security Forces in…

Video: Marine Corps Times on sniper needs in Afghanistan

By Dan Lamothe on January 2, 2013 Afghanistan, Embedded journalism, Infantry, Weapons

Happy New Year, everyone. Now that it’s 2013 and many of us have completed family vacations, I wanted to share a recent TV segment I did for Marine Corps Times on This Week in Defense News with Vago Muradian. The show, airing locally in Washington and internationally on the Armed Forces Network, focused on scout sniper operations in Afghanistan and some of the other things I observed during my last embedded assignment in Helmand province. In particular, Vago wanted to talk about the weapon upgrades that scout snipers told me they wanted. Check it out here: Stories out of my…

“Humans in Afghanistan”

By Bethany Crudele on December 21, 2012 Afghanistan, Deployments, Embedded journalism, Marines

Cpl. Karim Delgado said he’s still learning to live with his demons. But unlike some Marines who struggle with the piercing memories of combat, Delgado is haunted by what he calls “non-deployment guilt.” “You feel guilty for not having gone, like you did a disservice. You have this shame because you have people who will say, ‘you’re a Marine and you can’t talk about combat,'” said Delgado. “What you’ve got left are boot camp stories.” The combat correspondent did a tour in Okinawa and worked on several humanitarian missions while he was in the Marine Corps from 2004-2008. But one…

In defense of the U.S. military in Afghanistan

By Dan Lamothe on December 18, 2012 Afghanistan, Embedded journalism, Infantry, Sangin

Ever since U.S Marines killed three children in an airstrike in Helmand province in October, a debate has raged online: Is the U.S. deliberately killing kids in Afghanistan? It’s a frustrating conversation, fed in part recently by an inflammatory piece published by Robert Dreyfuss for The Nation this month. Taking an article I wrote with assistance from Army Times colleague Joe Gould out of context, Dreyfuss said a U.S. officer acknowledged “the military isn’t just out to bomb ‘military age males,’ anymore, but kids, too.” There’s a major problem, though: the officer quoted, Army Lt. Col. Marion “Ced” Carrington, never…

When puppy dogs meet Marine scout snipers in Afghanistan

By Dan Lamothe on November 27, 2012 Afghanistan, Animals, Embedded journalism, Infantry, Marjah, Trek Nawa

Earlier today, my long-form narrative look at a Marine scout sniper mission in Afghanistan was posted on the free side of our website. It covers the ins and outs of a Taliban takedown while I was embedded with 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, in Trek Nawa, Afghanistan, on Oct. 25. There’s a thread I didn’t mention in that piece that’s worth sharing here. Blackheart 2, a scout sniper team led by Sgt. Joshua Ott, took over a compound near Marjah occupied by a family with seven or eight children. As awkward as that is, that sort of decision is commonplace in…

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