bridge over the river tigris

and he's back!

a lot has actually happened during my blogging hiatus. i've gone out of the wire on a few missions, i got my hair cut twice and i'm pregnant. don't worry it's andrea's.

while i'm sure you're all on pins and needles about how good my haircuts were... can you say pure sex appeal?... i feel this blog should be on my latest mission, documenting the construction of an assault float bridge over the tigris.

basically the insurgents felt compelled to mess with transportation in the qayyarah region and blew up a section of the bridge. it forced the locals to have to use row boats to ferry across the river to go to work or shop ect. so i went up there with the 74th engineer company. at first i was a bit nervous since i don't get out much and you never know how a unit will respond to having a camera guy tag along. they were really cool though. they picked me up just after 6am and we were off. here's what the bridge looked like when we got there.


that's a temporary bridge across the gap put in by some other engineers right after the bombing so military vehicles could still cross the river.

anyway... they got right to work taking boats out and building a new bridge. they slide these pieces off the beds of heavy moving equipment trucks and once they hit the water, they unfold into sections of the bridge. it was pretty cool to watch and videotape.

at one point i got onto one of their boats and realized what my biggest fear is in iraq. it's not being shot or blown up... while either of those would really suck i probably wouldn't see them coming or feel them happen. no, my biggest fear is drowning in the tigris river. you see when you get on a boat in the military... you have to wear a life preserver. while this might sound like a good idea... imagine wearing 85 pounds of armor, weapons, ammo for said weapons, and your camera gear. now imagine putting a life jacket on over all of that. these life jackets might keep you afloat normally... but with the added weight i'm sure it would only slow my sinking to the bottom of the river. i asked one of the guys whether they'd battle tested the things and he said "not officially, but we did have a guy go in on the last job." to which i said "and did he float?" "no, we had to send in divers. but he's okay." "do you have divers today." i ask as i'm stepping from the boat over water and onto a floating section of the bridge. "no." he said so reassuringly. so now i'm thinking about how much fun it would be to fall into the river and try to not only get out of my normal gear but unclasp the life preserver first.
i could just see the letter sent home...

dear hartman family,
we regret to inform you that your son has drowned in the middle of a desert. no one saw this coming as it was a desert and mostly filled with sand. don't worry, for ssg hartman died a hero, saving the iraqi people and allowing a free and safe iraq for the citizens to form a democracy and have a super-walmart in every village and a mcdonalds and starbucks on every corner. if only you'd invested in more swimming lessons when he was a child.

luckily though, i survived my outing and the bridge was a success. here's a shot just before it was completed.

i also stretched my reporting skills back into some form of shape. if you want to see my package... that's news package of course... check it out. anyway... fun times.