Reporting from Iraq

Just as the Fairbanks forecast hints at the first snow of the season, I’m off to 100 degree heat.

But I expect heat on this assignment in more ways than just the ambient temperature.

Last time I went to Iraq to embed with the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, I saw it reach 80 degrees only a handful of days out of my six-week stay. And while soldiers were in danger each day, I witnessed mostly friendly relations with local Iraqi Army commanders and soldiers and many locals who often invited U.S. forces into their homes for chai and chat.

The commanders of the 172nd were proud to show off civil projects, partnerships with local leaders, and how their soldiers could morph into diplomats. There were dangers every day and around every turn for the brigade. But most news about Iraq was coming out of Baghdad and in a way, that was a good thing for the 172nd.

As the end of the brigade’s yearlong deployment neared, you could almost hear the collective sighs of relief in Fairbanks, like a light breeze through the community. First, the advance party came home, than bulk of the 4-14 Cavalry Regiment as August approached.

Then the extension was announced.

While the brigade moved to Baghdad and began operations, families bore the brunt of the media attention that came with the last-minute extension. Many were gracious in speaking with local and national media about the effects of the extension on their families, and secondhand, how their soldiers were holding up.

Other families started Web sites to express their frustration and disappointment in the extension. Still, others preferred privacy, and rightly so. While some find the media a helpful outlet, others are not comfortable with their words and pictures playing out for others.

Now the soldiers deserve a chance to tell their stories. We hope to get across what it is about the 172nd that commanders wanted them in Baghdad. Why was it necessary for the brigade to spend up to an additional 120 days in Iraq? What is different in their mission in Baghdad from what they did in Mosul and Rawah?

Again, like the last go-round at this, I’ll cover what I see. I can’t possibly thoroughly cover every aspect of news happening in Iraq currently.

I, through the News-Miner, can offer a piece of the puzzle with our coverage, one that will focus on a brigade from Alaska, the reason they were extended and their role in the conflict right now.

Here on the blog will go short stories or tidbits of detail and description that I cannot find a place for in daily stories, the slices of a day that seemingly have no role in a news story, but having meaning nonetheless, especially for families, friends and a community in waiting.

I’ve prepared myself has much as I can. I have my Kevlar vest and helmet and I’ve even worn it grouse hunting to get used to the bulk. I have my notebooks and pens and laptop, complete with a few choice songs on iTunes to help inspire writing when my brain is sapped.

I know what to expect from the two-day plane trek to Kuwait and what the credential process entails. I’m prepared for the replies to blog enteries, the encouraging, the complimentary and the not-so of either.

But I’m still in the dark about most of what I will encounter in Baghdad–the resistance the soldiers face each day, their life on their base in Baghdad, if the danger on patrol is greater than it was in Mosul. The heat in this situation, literally and figuratively, is the great unknown right now.