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Color of War

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Michael Yon

 

When I was embedded with the British Army I had contact with some Bedoin who had cell phones. Click here to read the article Death or Glory IV.

The pilots flew down the wadis searching for caches. The enemy knows we search, and they often rig caches with booby traps, which have killed many American and Iraqi soldiers.

 

A soldier spotted a tarp, so we landed and let out the soldiers. I stayed in the helicopter and we went back up, while the other Blackhawk landed with a second group of soldiers.

 

Tire tracks leading to the tarp, which covered a machine gun and some bombs.

 

The soldiers rigged the cache with explosives and moved away. We flew further back.

 

A small mushroom cloud as fragments spacked into the desert, kicking up dust.

 

We landed and picked up our group of soldiers, then the second bird got theirs.

 

The Blackhawks were low on fuel, so we roared low and fast over the desert back to the FARP, where we got gas and returned to the mission.

 

Where oh where?

 

The soldiers spotted a group of men in pickup trucks. They decided to swoop down. The second helicopter covered us as we came down fast and kicked up dust. The soldiers were off in seconds. We roared back into the sky while the crew chief kept his machine gun on the men, then we covered as the second helicopter put down more soldiers.

 

The women were separate from the men.

 

Another water trailer and satellite dish.

 

The other helicopter circled.

 

What would the war would look like in black and white? While the soldiers did their stuff and the pilots flew high cover, I switched the camera to black and white. Many people prefer their wars in black and white. Color complicates and confuses.

 

Where is the black and white of Good vs. Evil? In most countries, Right vs. Wrong is merely Might vs. Meek.

 

No harm no foul, we swooped back in to pick up the ground force.

 

The main reason we are beating al Qaeda in Iraq is that we are winning on the moral front. They landed, checked things out, found nothing suspicious, and left the people alone.

 

Back to the Blackhawk.

 

Gas was running low, so the pilots took the soldiers home.
Gas was running low, so the pilots took the soldiers home.

 

That was a tractor. Few things in life are black and white.

 

The colors of a war.

 

 

 

Michael Yon

Michael Yon is America's most experienced combat correspondent. He has traveled or worked in 82 countries, including various wars and conflicts.

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Picture of Michael Yon

Michael Yon

Michael Yon is America's most experienced combat correspondent. He has traveled or worked in 82 countries, including various wars and conflicts.

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