A Battlefield Tourist

A Battlefield Tourist Turns Six… Heading to Helmand

Dec 19 at 10:10pm by David Tate

As my usually on, sometimes off, milblog approaches its sixth birthday in February, I thought it would once again be a good idea to hit the road.  This time I have decided to try to go toward western Helmand Province, in southern Afghanistan, and embed with USMC Third Battalion, Eighth Marine Regiment. 

Originally I was hoping 2009 would be the year that I would be able to take another stab at this work full time, but with the economy in the crapper, there was really no feasible way to think about leaving the stability of a job I love that still has benefits and a 401k.

With that said, it was decided that I would head toward Helmand for the month of February with a plateful of work that needs to be accomplished.  While abroad, I will be working on a plethora of projects that will keep me busy for much of the rest of the year.

The Work

Primarily, I will be focusing on the gathering of documentary archive footage for Getty Images, a company for which I exclusively provide 90% of my material.  What makes this year different is that I will be going with High Definition equipment and will be shooting in 16×9 (letterbox) as a stepup in quality alongside the television industry.

I also have (so far) content request inquiries from Soldier of Fortune (magazine), Voice of America (radio), CBS News (TV) and The Long War Journal (online).  I will also do my best to update the daily blog for this site which will eventually include the slide shows, videos, etc…

Back to the birthday theme:  The point is, when A Battlefield Tourist started, it was envisioned as a ground level look at the ups and downs of a freelance videojournalist interested in covering under reported, conflict-related stories (of which Afghanistan has been my primary focus since 2004). 

Starting the year off, I will revert back to that format as much as possible.

If you feel like buying a subscription for my free, original content, you can drop a few $$ at dtate38@cox.net on PayPal.  I spend tons bringing this material to the public forum.