View Eurosatory and Normandy at EveryTrail

It’s getting there. I just found a site called Everytrail.com and it does exactly what I was looking for. It’s the only site I’ve found that allows you to place geotagged photos and GPS tracks together on an interactive map. Its free, for now, but it shows. The interface is wonky and the uploader only allows 4 images at a time.

I found a workaround by uploading the geotaged images to Flikr, then importing them into Everytrail.com. But it still choked after 16 images, leaving 8 behind. I can’t seem to get the last 8 to load.

I walked pretty much right in and had a specialist escort me up to his office. He’s got lots of plaques from his Iraqi counterparts and some coffee-table books that attest to his travels undertaken in the name of the coalition. He’s looking forward to seeing Mike on his trip to the UK.

Jocelyn Alberle was there and remembered me from my ill-fated 4th ID OIF I embed slot. She was happy to see me and even remembered my kidney stone episode. I got a chance to ask her about the EOD embed and I think she’ll have it straightened out for us.

In the meantime, we are embedding with the AF MPs that are out training and working with the IPs. We’ll be out on patrols in south Baghdad with them this week. We got to see one of their vehicles that was hit by an EFP. The gunner took some shrapnel to the head and is in rough shape, and another Airman got a little piece in the leg, but no KIAs. The copper spall was evident and you could see where the jet went right through the armor plating.

So, we roll out tomorrow morning to talk to the IPs that were supposed to be at a nearby checkpoint, but were mysteriously absent at the time the patrol was hit by the EFP…

The day before we got here earlier this month, a rocket hit the PX parking lot. I was talking to a friend that is serving over here in the IZ and he told me a story about one of his soldiers getting shot in the gut while playing Xbox in his room. It was a stray bullet, but the incident clearly shows that this is a dangerous place whether you are inside or outside the wire.

Just yesterday morning, as we were coming in to the embassy compound, we heard a couple of distant booms. Turns out that it was a car bomb and a rocket hitting just south of the IZ. They took out another bridge. (8 left!).

Life at the embassy seems good. The security is a tight and we had to run through a gauntlet of offices and forms just to get temporary badges that would allow us to go from our hooches to the building. This is in addition to the outer ring of security just to get on the ‘embassy compound’. I suppose it makes you feels safer with all the heavy doors and guards. But Erik pointed out that we as US citizens with passports had to step aside to let the Pakistani janitors go into the building as we pleaded with a Peruvian security guard to gain entry.

We are currently working on a story about the US involvement in the Iraqi justice system. The heart of the story is the Detainees. It doesn’t seem likely that I’ll be photographing guys in yellow jumpsuits, so I’m trying to find ways to show the process without the faces, or even bodies of the detainees.

We caught a break and found out that the Iraqi judges were willing to let me shoot in a courtroom. This would have been something! But, it turns out that the day before we were to go, our PA escort told us that no US forces would be allowed to go to court due to a security threat. The alert started Sunday and is indefinite.

That was last night. We also heard back from PAO that our embed request with AF EOD was denied due to operational security concerns. Grr. I was planning on making my money with that story. I’m heading back to Camp Victory and will see if I can shake anything loose via some private channels in the head shed.

Meanwhile, we are making friends with the British contractors that are in our tent. They work for Aegis protecting US engineers.

When I got home, instead of unpacking I went out to the workshop and made him a little casket and dug his little grave in the backyard. Bella made a drawing to put in his casket. We buried him the next morning before taking Bella to school.

I shot that photo the morning I left for SHOT. It was the last time I saw him. We had Fiddler for 12 years… since my senior year at BU. We’ll miss him.

So we are here at SHOT show for a week of guns and gear. The four of us, me, C. Mark, Rob C., and Sheila have been gathering string for our annual gear guide that includes products for 16 categories. While lounging around the 600k sq. foot show floor we have been sending back video and stills of our ‘picks of the day.’

It’s been exhausting. Making the tree video pieces each night has been fun, but the process of editing, compressing and transmitting has meant an 8am to 3am work day. Today, though, we only shot stills and I managed to clear myself by 10pm.

The show itself has been about what I expected. Lots of cool toys, remarkably, many that don’t go ‘boom’. Although this might be the biggest gun show, ever, it’s surprising just how many vendors are here that aren’t showing guns. There is a huge market built around hunting, police and tactical firearms that includes things like knives, backpacks, gear bags, dietary supplements, fitness products and services, hearing protection, clothing, navigation, weather stations…and we even found a company selling camouflage lingerie.

It’s been a lot of work, but by today, day 3, C. Mark and I got in enough of a groove to have some fun poking around. I must say that things did get off to a bit of a rough start when we checked in on the first day.

I guess a lot of the exhibitors complained about certain people and crews getting access to the show floor with the intention of ambushing top level firearm industry execs with ethical questions about guns and such, al la Michael Moore in Bowling for Columbine.

So, before the show organizers would give us our ‘broadcast’ credentials, we had to have somebody from the industry ‘vouch’ for us as responsible (and gun friendly?)journalists. It ticked me, off, but it’s a private show. What’s worse than the actual request, was that they pretty much ambushed us with it. We could have complied pretty easily anytime in weeks prior to the show, had we known there was a credibility requirement.

There were no harsh words, just some scrammbling to find a freindly PR person that would answer a cell phone the day before the busiest 5 days of the year for them. It all worked out, but it did make me feel a little dirty, having to rely on a possible story source to get access to the show. The process could be seen as making us appear to be beholded to the companies that vouch for us.

Lasty, on this subject, only the people shooting video were subject to this extra hurdle. I guess because it’s pretty tough to get an embarrasing still photo or print interview without resorting to making something up. So, on the flip-side, I guess I could thank the organizers for not putting out a blanket policy for all media.

Gunners endoscopy went well this morning. The doctor didn’t see anything notable, but did take a few biopsies. She is waiting on the result before she declares him just a small, healthy, kid.

Seeing Marc and Michelle up at the alter together looking so lovingly at each other was a great. I shot some photos for them (to the dismay of their hired wedding photographer) and I witnessed so many ‘moments’ of them falling into each others eyes that it was easy to shoot.

I set up my laptop with a slideshow of the ceremony that people could watch as they picked up their place cards at the reception. Michelle and Marc were thrilled to be able to see the ceremony so quickly. In fact a lot of folks, aside from the wedding photographer, loved having the photos there. I saw a lot of people’s positive reaction to the ‘photojournalist’ approach to weddings and wonder just how much money there is to be made if I ever get bored with the newspaper thing.

The drive both was was long, but pretty painless. I had the company of my BU classmate Christina Asquith for the ride up, and Tom Ricks read me all the way home with his new book about the Iraq war, “Fiasco.”

I am still listening to it and have to say that it’s quite a good book. It definitely pulls a bit to the left, but Rick’s has backed up his assertions about the senior political and military leadership’s mishandling of the campaign. Some friends make appearances in the text, like Joe Anderson and Dan Morgan from the 502nd. Also mentioned are a some folks I met from the 4th ID, like Fred Rudesheim, though I am not sure how Nate Sassman missed getting a mention, but I’ve still got a few chapters left.
It’s incredible to listen as Ricks lines up all the little facts, reports and quotes, and anecdotes like so many dominoes. Tipping the first one begins a cascade, exposing the glaring truth that hid in the patterns that I myself witnessed on the ground in Iraq, but failed to recognize as so many little events that can be viewed from a distance as the Fiasco that Iraq has become.

I remember standing in the Capitol and the Pentagon at press conferences and listening to people from the administration and the DOD bashing the media for being too negative about the war. I remember thinking to myself that there is some good news to report and feeling like maybe they had a point. Were we missing the ‘good news’ stories? We after listening to Ricks’ put the events and statements in context, I feel foolish for thinking for even a second I owed the the administration or senior military leadership any deference. The only people I owe are the men and women that serve the country in ways that I don’t. That’s who I work for, and shame on me for forgetting it for even a second. I thank Tom Ricks for reminding me of that.