Before the Maelstrom
Michelle Malkin points to Jules Crittenden as he takes us back in time when two reporters were still with us, and when we were about to take down a parasite.
At 3 p.m., we were finally directed to get on the buses. I got in the second row and piled up my gear on and around the seat beside me. Sig Christensen of the San Antonio Express News came down the aisle taking down everyone’s name and news organization in notes for the book he was going to write about all of this. I looked around, trying to judge the quality of my company for a clue as to whether we were headed for a forward unit or somewhere in the rear. It was hard to judge. The military flacks weren’t saying. There were some grizzled-looking, well-prepared news veterans from first-rank news organizations on board. There were others in various stages of being overweight, soft and woefully ill-prepared looking. The military had made it clear our level of preparedness was our problem. But this busload wasn’t offering any clues about our berths. Maj. Mike Birmingham stuck his head in the door, read off his list of who was supposed to be on board, and finally told us we were going to 2nd Brigade.We can hope this becomes a book someday. UPDATE: March 12, 2003.