My Army Times

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My position with the Division Public Affairs Office at Fort Campbell is considered excess, therefore I must PCS (Permanent Change of Station). The options were Korea or Europe. For Europe I had to reenlist for an additional year. Beginning October 10th I'll be working for the Armed Forces Network (AFN) in Vacenza Italy. That means I must pick up and move between now and then. Naturally I'm disappointed I wont be going to Iraq with the division I've come to know as family. But if I had to go anywhere, and I did, Vacenza Italy would be my first choice. I spoke with the Air Force Tech Sergeant who runs the shop I'll be working in, and there will be plenty of deployment opportunities. But for now, the plan to bring you stories from Iraq has been somewhat sidetracked. So instead I'll bring Italy to you.

ajc.com Sorry for all the articles. They are interesting though.

BBC NEWS"In this difficult hour, the people of Great Britain can know the American people stand with you," said Bush. "And just as America and Great Britain stood together to defeat the totalitarian ideologies of the 20th Century, we now stand together against the murderous ideologies of the 21st Century."

MSNBC.com Documents like this are leaked for a reason. While I'm not surprised this (if true) is coming, I certainly hope insurgents don't think this was in response to last weeks bombing in London.

I apologize for the lack of stories lately. I probably won’t be doing any stories until I arrive at my next duty station in October. In the mean time I’ll “re-run” stories that I posted when I first started this v-blog. I did this story about a year ago when stop-loss was just beginning to catch the attention of soldiers. Although this policy may conflict with some soldiers plans to separate from the Army I do feel it's smart and necessary. My only problem with Kerry is his problem with this policy. I think we can all agree our military should not have to deal with attrition on the battle field while we are at war. This policy solves that problem. Besides with the implementation of lifecycles in the modular unit concept stop loss will not be necessary. But that's a few years off. One thing interesting about the story is I used an animation of papers to cover 18 seconds of video... which was cool because b-roll was tricky for this story.

Latest and greatest.

I thought maybe you'd to hear this story in English. Enjoy.

I was going through our video library and came across this. With the help of interpreters, SPC McDonald produced this August 2003. For all you Arabic speakers... this one's for you.

Normally I try to stick with a total run time of a minute and a half or so because that's about how much attention you get from your viewer before they start falling asleep. This story runs much longer. I was instructed to try my hand at a 60 Minutes style story... a feature... about the energy conservation initiative going on here at Fort Campbell. I tried to make it as interesting as possible, but I think I'll stick with shorter stories, unless the content is compelling enough.

Every other year or so the infantry brigades conduct a certification exercise for troops to earn the Expert Infantry Badge. Hundreds of soldiers spend several weeks practicing, studying, and taking the test. This story looks at what some of the soldiers go through.

The Army has seen the light... and so have many soldiers. Laser Corrective Eye Surgery has benefits for both. A clinic at Blanchfield Army Community Hospital is offering this cutting edge procedure and soldiers are loving it.

I worked at WESH Newschannel 2 my last two years at UCF. Someday I'd like to work for them again, but sadly, no broadcast journalist starts in Orlando. You must move to a smaller market and pay your dues. Well, you must pay your dues somewhere. I chose the military. (And I'm glad I did.) But I did it with the impression that I'd be going to Iraq immediately. The PAC office said my new unit, The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault!) was in Iraq already, and to be prepared to go immediately upon arrival to Fort Campbell. So I had this plan for a while. Unfortunately, when I arrived at Fort Campbell, they wanted me to stay put as the division would soon be returning. So the WESH story is a little off. But the needs of the Army outweigh my desires, and that is the end of that.

I'm going on vacation so for the next few weeks. But I'll still be releasing content... be it "re-run" content, that was posted a while ago, and may have been missed. And I've also got some new stuff, so keep coming back. Also, you may want to check out another site I've put together... separate from the Army thing. http://thekeverreport.com In the mean time check out this story on military blogging. If I could say one thing about this story, it's that I wish I could go into more detail about what blogging is. From political blogs to blogs on how to hack your cell phone, imagination is the limit on what blogs can do. Not to long ago I read an article about how the military could use blogs to share intelligence information between government agencies. Time will tell where blogging brings us.

I posted this a while ago before anyone was coming to this site. There's actually a bunch of stories back in the archives worth checking out. Originally this was supposed to be a simple man-on-the-street type story. But as I shot the video, I realized I had a real gem on my hands. This was the first story I've done that didn't require narration. The sound bytes did a much better job telling the story than I ever could have. I hope you enjoy it.

I figured with all this anti-war sentiment I've been getting in e-mails and comments, you guys might like to see a story I did a few years ago before the election. It's a bit dated, but still interesting. Why is America in Iraq? It's such a simple question. Yet within it's answer lies controversy, emotions, and the lives of soldiers and civilians alike. It seemed like such a natural question to ask when you look at where I was hanging out when I came up with the idea. I went to Advanced Individual Training at Fort Meade Maryland... which is dangerously close our nations capital. So... I did what any red blooded American would do. I opened up a charge card and bought a camera and headed out to the Mall... which is what they call the strip between the Capitol Building and the National Monument. I asked people the odvious questions and got a wide range of answers. This story is mine. I did it of my own accord... with my own equipment. Because it was mine I was able to do a stand up... a luxury the Army currently does not afford me. There were a couple of things I could have improved on... but all in all... I'm happy with how it turned out.

This is one of those stories that hits you like a Mack truck. It started out simple enough. My NCO handed me a paper with times and dates for the sling load of some new Army machine. It didn't really sound all that interesting but what ever. The day before, I found out I'd be riding in a Black Hawk video taping a Chinook doing sling load maneuvers with this "bull dozer" in tow. That was exciting news in of itself because I've never been in a Black Hawk... or any helicopter for that matter. When I got there, I found out what this "bull dozer" really was and I was truly amazed... a remote controlled robot used to clear mines. And that wasn't even the coolest part of the story. This machine is just one of many robots the military is using for all sorts of dangerous tasks. I couldn't help thinking of that scene at the beginning of Robocop where the robot malfunctioned and shot those people. But after talking to the Marine Colonel who heads the military robotics division, I'm confident that kind of mistake would never happen in the military. He told me safety is a paramount issue when it comes to robotics. Arming robots with lethal and non lethal weapons is happening, but the military is reluctant to release those robots in the field before all the safety concerns have been identified and worked out. In any event, robotics is fascinating, especially when it comes to military applications. I can't wait to see how this new field will benefit the military and save human lives.

This isn't the most training oriented story but important none the less. I've had the opportunity to work closely with Fort Campbell's education system, and I know first hand how valuable it is for military parents and students alike. Luckily no one is acting on the recommendations of the study, and it doesn't look like there are plans to. I'm confident that upon further investigation and study, military elementary and secondary schools will remain under DOD control.

This is a cool story. One that should strike fear into the hearts and minds of our enemy. When it comes to training, no one can accuse the Army of having incompetent people or antiquated equipment. Nobody. This wrapped up my week working with the Rakkasans. I have to say I'm going to miss it. Brigade broadcasting is awesome on so many levels. I'd like to do more work with the Brigades. Specifically because of stories like this. The story is a bit longer then I normally go. I did this for two reasons. 1) We are short stories this week in the show, and.. 2) There's a lot in this story that deserves more time to tell.

As a newbie broadcaster, this story presented a problem. A problem which won't stump me next time. When I arrived on the scene soldiers started testing the water. Everything was happening so quickly, and nobody was holding shots for any amount of time. I just didn't get enough cut-away's to really show continuity in the video. Next time I'm in a situation like that, where things are happening so quickly, I'll think to myself, "What can I shoot a close-up of that will transition one shot to the next. The story itself though, is interesting. A fresh water supply is absolutely necessary where ever the Army goes.