Home » Archives » "Back from the front"

Back from the front

Mar-18-2004 » Filed Under: Iraq News

Lorraine sent this article about some of the television reporters embedded with troops during the beginning of the war. Will there be embedded reporters in future conflicts?

[Link to Full Article]
BY VERNE GAY, STAFF WRITER
March 18, 2004

A year ago today, ABC News "embed" Mike Cerre was poised on the Iraqi border with Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Division - or "Fox 2/5" in military shorthand - and about to become one of the few and the proud to change television history.

But 34 years ago, when Cerre (pronounced sir-RAY) was a member of a Marine reconnaissance unit that flew out of Da Nang, Vietnam, the 23-year-old lieutenant would occasionally run into a brash young CBS News recruit "with a big 'fro and military fatigue shirt" who would become famous someday but was then merely a nuisance. Ed Bradley had a tiresome habit of hanging around the base perimeter in hopes of getting some Marine to tell him about the next mission, recalls Cerre, now in San Francisco for ABC. But he was "not to be spoken to or dealt with and avoided as much as possible."

Certainly, nothing personal with enterprising Bradley, whom the GIs respected. But orders were still orders: Stay away from the hated press.

Operation Iraqi Freedom changed that dynamic.


Advertisements