BenThere.com in Kuwait

And another chapter of the trip unfolds. I was sitting in the office in Qatar last sunday when I got a phone call from the boss in New York. He wanted to know if I had a visa for Kuwait. As it happens, I had gotten one during the Shepard Smith tour. Why, I wanted to know, was somebody ill and needed a quick fill-in? Not quite...

The military is trying a new concept in how the handle the media, and in particular the media's access to troops out in the field. The process is known as "embedding," where journalists are assigned to a specific unit for a long period of time. The last time this happened was during the Vietnam war. Things, of course, have changed greatly since then. First the military has gone though a complete change from Vietnam to the Gulf War to today. Now more than ever they are seeing the media as partners rather than pests. They have been working very hard to realize the needs and desires of the media, and are working very hard to accomodate us. The military has also come to realize that the best way to get fair and accurate media coverage is to give us as much access as possible. They also have realized that this is also the best way to control the flow of sensitive information to an often skeptical media.

Moving along with our story. A possibility had come up for me to join a two man embed team, with me being a third man to run the satellite gear and keep things in working order. Off to Kuwait I go!

Tuesday 11 March 2003

Heading out to the rendevous point, I find I'm not the only one with a satellite equipped hummer. Not in the least. The 5 American nets are all here, along with Sky News and the BBC from the UK. We wait for our escort, and then convoy to Camp New York, the main stanging area for the Army in the desert. Outside camp, we pause to check with the guard post that the proper passes had been submitted to bring the vehicles into camp. Sky News at this point decides to shut down their vehicle. And then when we are ready to go, it won't start. Being their sister network (well, more like the younger, brasher brother network with more walking around money) I decided to help them out with a jump start.

Something is very wrong with their truck. The jump start didn't work. And now something is very wrong with my hummer. The voltage is dropping like a rock, and my headlights are fading. We move into camp, towing Sky News behing the escort with a winch. We laager up, and the other nets start getting sorted out by the PAOs (Public Affairs Officers). I start working on finding the problem with my truck. Of course, unlike Sky, I'm too smart to shut it down.

Nothing electrical is working, but thank God the beast is still running. I figure that at the very least I'll keep her going, and keep pouring fuel down her throat, untill I can get her to a place to get her fixed. In my tinkering and poking and proding, I accidentaly bump the master battery disconnect switch. Well, that indeed did it. The hummer is no longer humming. I futiley turn the ignition. Not a single wimper of life comes of the attempt.

OK, I guess the alternator is shot, and I've been running on batteries with the headlights on for 3 hours, so we'll charge up the batteries with the portable generator and see if I can get enough charge to get things going. So, I get out the genny, and put in my key, and the switch won't turn. This is turning into quite a day! Luckily I had packed the spare, original key in my kit. Which is of course burried in the deepest recess of the hummer. Pull out more gear, get out the right box, rifle through the box and get the key.

I get the genny running, hook it up to the batteries, and say a little prayer that it will actually work. And then I look around to notice that everybody is gone. It's just me and the BBC truck. It turns out that we're pretty much on our own for the night. So, being around midnight already, I decide to roll out the bag and call it quits. I have a tent with me, but it's dark, I'm tired, and I've never set this tent up before. So, instead of making myself even more frustrated than I already am, I decide to sleep like a settler right on the ground. So I get out a tarp and roll out my bag. And then I decide to unfold the tarp some more and wedge it into the doors of the truck to make a sort of lean-to shelter. It was probably the smartest thing I did all week. Not more than 30 minutes after I laid down, the rain started coming. Day one in the desert in done, and quite a day it was.

Wednesday 12 March 2003

I wake up the next morning, the generator still pounding away. I shut it down and try to start up the hummer. No such luck. The batteries must be toasted as well since they didn't take any charge. Not much else to do but wait untill the PAOs show up again. When they did, their first item of the day was breakfast. At Camp New York they get a hot breakfast and dinner, with MREs for lunch. We head over to the mess tent. It was like valhalla. Valhalla has bacon. All of you at home take bacon very much for granted. I hadn't had a slice in 8 weeks. It was wonderful.

Done with breakfast, time to get something happening in the way of repairs on the hummer. Sky has some mechanics coming out from Kuwait City, but they aren't due in untill the afternoon. Time to see if the military can help us out. After all, they were the ones that came up with the humvee. Our PAO points us in the direction of the PAOs for the 703rd Support Brigade - basically the mechanics. They aren't anywhere to be found. OK, no problem. I'll just track the wrenchers down myself. I head off across camp towards a group of tow trucks on steroids. Tow trucks always head towards mechanics, like a bird returning to it's nest. I talk to the lieutennant, who isn't very eager to help out. There's packing to do, stuff to sort out, maybe come back later in the afternoon. All the while he's playing solitaire on his laptop. OK, let's skip the brass and head straight to the source. A little further down I find some guys swapping a leaking diesel fuel tank on a deuce and a half. Guys covered in diesel. Surely one of them wants a break to go do some nice clean electrical troubleshooting.

No problem. They are happy to help out. They come over and confirm my worst fears. Not only are the batteries shot, but the alternator is dead as well. Hopefully Sky's mechanics will have come extra spares with them. And it is about this time that they show up. They start wrenching away on things under the hood. And I notice that they are mounting the alternator outside of the tensioning bracket. It soons become apparent why they did - they've got the wrong belts in this beast! And it was delivered to Sky like that. I guess that's why there wasn't any juice comeing out of the engine. Which is good for me, since they now have an extra alternator and battery.

So back over to my truck we go. Old alternators out, new one in. Welll, not quite a new alternator. Not even a properly refurbished one. Just one they took off something else. I'm assured over and over that it works quite well. I've heard that more than once in this part of the world. Old battery out, new one in. And everything fires right up. Great, back in business and no need to run back down to KC (Kuwait City) to get more repairs done. And the truck is back up and running in time for me to run back out to the highway.

The generator we first brought out with us has making good electricity. Some of the satellite gear we have with us is very sensitive to the condition of the power. So they guys in KC are bringing me up a new, proper Honda generator. I grab my escort and off we go. An hour trip down to the road, swap the units, and back out to meet up with the 3ID (3rd Infantry Division). Or at least that was the plan.

The guys weren't clear on where to meet me, so that ate up some extra time. New generator in hand, we head back out into the dark to find my new home. The guys I'm with, Sgt. Tanguay and Spec. Lowry have a pretty good idea where we are going. Fourty five minutes down the road, my lights start to dim. Bloody arab mechanics. The freaking alternator is a dud, and my battery is out. And it's about this time that the wind starts kicking up, which means the dust is blowing around now as well. I can't see where I am driving. I can only just follow along the taillights of Tanguays humvee.

We stumble upon a small camp of tanks and Bradley's. Luckily, it's the right division. I've come accross the 464 armor, 2 Brigade, 3 Infantry. Well, at least I'm hooked up with the right division! I get bunked for the night in the command vehicle, an LAV - Light Armored Vehicle. It's like a little tank without the turrett. At least its out of the sandstorm. Quite an eerie thing. Dimly through the blowing dust I can see the tanks of Charlie Company lined up behind the tents of the men that run them. Shadowy ghosts of men are seen whenever a vehicle comes and goes. Their forms only visible with the headlights of the trucks.

I'm thankful for the place to put my head down. I wasn't looking forward to spending the night in the hummer, sitting in a rather uncomfortable chair. Not that the LAV is the pinnacle of comfort. My bunk is the bench in the back where the guys ride. At least I can lay down flat and roll my bag out. The company commander, Capt. Berry, radios in to the network that I'm safe and will be spending the night there.

Charlie company calls themselves the Cyclones. This must be their night! The wind is blowing so hard that the LAV is lightly rocking like a rowboat in the wind. I finally get a good four hours of sleep.

Thursday 13 March 2003

I wake up to a changing of the radio watch. It's four in the morning, and not quite time to get up yet. I fall asleep again, and wake up at seven. The hatch on the LAV is open, and the morning light fills the tank.

The chow truck is outside, and I grab an orange juice and a cup of coffee and a mechanic to jump start the hummer. 48 hours of fun with the hummer and sleeping in new and interesting places. Who knows what today will bring. At least the sun is shining!

We get the hummer started in quick order, but the alternator is still not charging the system. Capt. Berry organizes an escort for me to get over to the unit I'll be with, and to hook up with the other two guys on my team. 15 minutes later we pull up at the HQ company of 2nd Brigade, the Spartans.

Mal James, our shooter/editor/producer and Greg Kelly, our correspondant, and I have a quick pow-wow. The first order of business is to get back to KC stat and get the hummer fixed. And if I'm not confident in the fix, to switch to a different vehicle.

Back to KC I go! I get the hummer into the hummer shop around 1100. Things are not encouraging. The shop is a mess. There are about 5 hummers in various states of disassembly, all of them of a very early vintage. There is one hummer that is actually intact and possibly running. Two guys in a corner are putting an engine back together. They are putting a cylinder head back onto the block without the gasket, then tightening the bolts with a vise grip. This does not instill a great degree of confidence in me. Well, insh'allah mine will get fixed right.

My first challenge is to explain that I don't want an alternator off one of the other trucks. I've already been down that route yesterday. I finally get the point across that they need to go out and find a new, in the box alternator for my hummer.

Three hours later, the parts guy shows up with a newer looking alternator. Meaning one that has a fresh coat of paint on it. At least the windings on this one aren't corroded and the wires aren't rotted. Might as well give it a shot. Miracles abound, it actually looks like it's working. Back to the hotel/brueau in KC, I keep the truck running with the lights on for about 6 hours just to make sure all is well. And they seem to be. Back up to camp first thing in the morning. Hopefully all of our problems are beind us.

Friday 14 March 2003

Not much remarkable to write about today. Especially compared to the last few days. We did our first liveshot, I got a haircut, and the weather was wonderful. Things seem to be finally going our way.

So a little about where I am right now. We are in an "assembly area." This is the last stop before moving into position for a shooting match. Here the soldiers perform their final checks of equipment and gear. But largely the rest and wait. They have been here in the Kuwaiti desert since late September. The have been training for years before that. As one officer told us, you don't study for the SAT the night before the test.

The kitchen truck comes out for breakfast and dinner. Lunch is an MRE - meal ready to eat. They aren't too bad in an of themselves. Considering you are eating something with a shelflife of several years, they are pretty tasty. If you add enough Tobasco sauce to them.

Everybody here is ready to go. The general feeling is get the war started, or get us home. It is a dangerous time for the Spartans. They have been here for so long, training and preparing and planning for a war. Now, there is no more training to do. All of their plans are in place. And the longer they wait, the greater the fatigue of waiting, the value of the hard work of training starts to become lost.

Saturday 15 March 2003

Life sucks again today. We shot a few things earlier today, then started to set up to do liveshots. And the genny won't start. Son of a bitch. Can anything stay right on this trip for more than 24 hours? We practically stripped the thing down to the piston rods trying to figure out what was wrong with it. Fuel was flowing, sparks were making, but generator would not run. So, it looks like another run back down to KC tomorrow. I was hopeing I had left KC behind me.

Maya Zumwalt and Grigory Khananayev get ready to embed with the 82nd Airborne Division	Greg Kelly, Pat Butler, and Mal James testing our antenna in KC	Camilla Webster and Don Collopy say goodbye to Rick Leventhal at our embedding party	Ben and Oliver North at the party	The Fox News Goodbye Embedders party
Our setup at the Assembly Area camp	Greg Kelly and Mal James do our first liveshot form the desert	Mal James edits a package on our FinalCutPro G4 laptop editor	trying to stay tidy in our camp
	trying out our night vision goggles		Sgts. Tanguay and Joseph	Lt. Col. Eric Wesly, Greg Kelly, and chaplin Capt. Johnson
Mal with Sgt. Joseph and Sgt. B	our setup at sunset in the assembly area	Mal shows his support for the coalition of the willing	Ben admires his fine lettering job on the car	Our convoy lined up before departing the AA