Dorothy Brush "Random Thoughts" Published Oct. 1, 2003

"The Brave New World"

Last week's column began an embedded reporter's story of his five weeks with the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry. It left you readers hanging just as they began their march to Baghdad. Jim Axelrod, CBS News correspondent on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, was the keynote speaker for a conference in Delaware titled "The Brave New Media World."

Axelrod began his tale on the morning he bid farewell to his family and left for the unknown. His wife was 5 months pregnant and his 3-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter were bewildered. All through the following days that little girl's final words followed him. As he entered the waiting car that morning she called through sobs, "Daddy, why couldn't you have been a librarian?"

During his five weeks embedded with the 3rd he emphasized that his was "a very narrow slice of the war as seen through a six by three inch slit in a Bradley tank." On the flip side was the amazement he felt when in the heat of a battle their CBS crew could pull out of line and hook up with New York in the span of seven minutes.

In one such situation as bullets were whizzing around them the person taking the call in New York said, "Well, we are just in the middle of a nutrition segment..." and Axelrod fired back with some unprintable language as he demanded, "Put Dan in the chair" and with that the viewers were on the battlefield.

When the 3rd reached the long bridge over the Euphrates each vehicle was under rifle fire as they made the run across. When it came time for Axelrod's crew to move out the sergeant gave the nod and yelled, "Push the pedal to the metal and go. They can't hit a moving object."

Away they went but in the middle of the bridge their humvee sputtered and stopped. What a target it became. Inside the occupants all flattened their bodies as they listened to bullets hitting metal and wondering how long before one might hit flesh. Suddenly a terrific bump hit the back of their humvee and they were on the move. An ABC crew hit their bumper, locked on and pushed them across the bridge to safety.

Axelrod was one of the first journalists to cross into Iraq and the first to file live televised reports from the runway of Baghdad International Airport. He summed up his time as an embedded reporter as one of the most authentic in his career but it has left him with questions too. He asks, "Was that worth almost dying in the middle of a bridge?"

A tear rolled down his cheek as he described cuddling his new son, now 3-months-old, and being haunted by that question. His talk ended then and there was a long moment of silence as the audience of media people sniffled and wiped away a few tears and then they were on their feet thanking him with a standing ovation.

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Dorothy Copus Brush is a Fairfield Glade resident and Crossville Chronicle staffwriter whose column is published each Wednesday.