Notes from Mission Control

Kevin is currently experiencing technical problems with the satellite modem he relies on to transmit stories from these remote, difficult places. He is still newsgathering in Fallujah and we will post more coverage as soon as possible. In the meantime here are some reflections from the other side of the Hot Zone equation: mission control back in Southern California.

We knew there would be times like this.

Note: Kevin is currently experiencing technical problems with the satellite modem he relies on to transmit stories from these remote, difficult places. He is still newsgathering in Fallujah and we will post more coverage as soon as possible. In the meantime here are some reflections from the other side of the Hot Zone equation: mission control back in Southern California.

In a dispatch from Africa a few weeks ago, Kevin compared his assignment of covering every armed conflict in the world within a year to a group of Congolese men pounding away at boulders:

"A large and overwhelming pile of boulders lies in front of you -- a backbreaking daily task that could defeat you before you even start. But then, with a purpose, you begin. You hammer and hammer. Eventually the big boulders become smaller boulders, the smaller boulders become rocks, the rocks become pebbles, the pebbles become gravel. The mountain of rock becomes manageable.

It is, I decided, a cumulative effort, the work of a single hammer with a single purpose. The world becomes countries, the countries become people, the people become stories, the stories become understanding. The world of stories becomes manageable."

Well, now Kevin's in

Iraq and a part of the hammer is broken.

It's actually his satellite modem, a piece of hardware many journalists use now to access the Internet and file stories from the field, where no other transmission options are available.

For a project like this, where Kevin is reporting from a different conflict zone nearly every week and posting stories almost daily, the satellite modem is an indispensable tool. Without the development of newsgathering technology like this there's no way we could execute this project.  

But when the satellite modem isn't working, the rest of Kevin's gear -- digital cameras, laptop -- isn't much good.

We did know that sooner or later this would happen. Kevin's gear is subject to immense stress: traveling through eight countries in as many weeks, bags getting packed and unpacked and thrown around on airplanes. In Africa, gear gets wet; it gets hot during the day then cold at night. In Iraq it gets filled with sand. In fact, it's a wonder we've made it this far before our first gear malfunction.

So what happens now? If Kevin is to achieve the goal of covering every armed conflict in one year, time is of the essence. By the way, Kevin doesn't return to "home base" between countries, he keeps going from one to the next.

Knowing this, before Kevin left we worked hard to set up a "redundancy" plan: for every piece of gear he carries in the field, we keep a backup here in Southern California. (Calling DHL, "Do you deliver to Fallujah?")

It's just one of the many things that Kevin, our researcher Lisa Liu and myself (Kevin's producer) worked on in the months leading up to Kevin's departure.

The to-do list was overwhelming: build coverage itineraries,  apply for visas and make travel plans, contact local sources, compile research, set up an expense system, buy and test gear. These are just a few of the things that must be done whenever a journalist travels to cover a single story. We had to do it for a journalist planning to cover every armed conflict in the world, within one year, by himself.

For every question that we answered, five more came up. And the to-do list continues to grow. Plans that look golden on paper often fall apart when you hit the road; that's true whether you're driving to your grandma's house in Ohio or catching a

United Nations plane from Kinshasa to eastern Congo.

The point is, here at mission control we have our own pile of boulders to deal with, and like Kevin, we hammer away at them, one by one.

When you look at it that way, it's really quite simple. If Kevin can't fix his satellite modem soon, we'll figure out a way to ship him a new one, and we'll move on.

In the meantime, the Hot Zone team would like to highlight these blogs from Iraq. Some are written by U.S. military members, some by Iraqis.

Baghdad Burning
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
"Girl blog from Iraq... let's talk war, politics and occupation." It's of the most comprehensive and consistent blogs from Iraq.

A Soldier's Thoughts
http://misoldierthoughts.blogspot.com/
Sgt. Zachary Scott-Singley, an Arabic translator from the 3rd Infantry Division, blogs from his post in Tikrit. 

Healing Iraq
http://healingiraq.blogspot.com
Blog by an Iraqi dentist living in Baghdad.

A Female Soldier
http://www.afemalesoldier2.com/
A wife, mother and soldier with the 101st Airborne Division blogs from Iraq.  

 
 

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