A Battlefield Tourist

It’s About The People

Feb 22 at 10:10am by David Tate

As anyone who has followed my work over the years knows, on occasion, I get slammed by someone good; a parent of a soldier, a Marine in the field, a journalist on the way to Oruzgan. Yes, even other journalists have given me grief over the years.  I’ve had some even say that I was akin to a ‘military stooge’ just because I am former military!  How about that.  Because I can speak the language and understand what it means, I am a ’stooge’.    The problem with that is that I get the feeling people believe my mission is a “pro-military mission”.  So I just wanna clear up my anxiety on the issue, even if just for me.  

Be clear:  I do this line of work, when conditions permit, to be able to reach the people that are involved.  I have a great passion for understanding “the people”.  I absolutely love the thrill of walking down the back streets of Kabul, picking a random bakery, climbing into the the small kiln room and having tea with some people I can’t even talk to properly.  Raw culture with primitive means to communicate between us.  Gotta love it.

Fact is, none of this would be possible without the military mission.  Just isn’t possible for two reasons:  My life and the video market.  There is no market for my work that involves the people.  There is a market for military video.  

Early on in my career, I just traveled to travel.  Loved getting shots of the kids.  If you can make the kids smile, you can get into the heart of a village.  The camera is a perfect means to achieve that.  Problem was, there was no market for that type of imagery; at least from what I knew.  It wasn’t until after spending nearly a year in Afghanistan, in 2004, that  I realized the hours and hours of video I had collected, was actually an archive of world history.  After all, I witnessed the first Afghan election from Kandahar (a day I’ll never forget.  It was the highlight of the year).  And to ensure that it became part of the historical archive, I tracked down a distributor who agreed to take my future video on.   That’s when the military connection really took off.

Obviously, other than the preservation of military history, I need the military for security. Hands down, just a fact.  The only way I can get the imagery and the contact with “the people” is with the military.  While I agree it may cause the dynamic to shift some; something is better than nothing.  Besides, in pursuing that, I have had many, many opportunities to interact with “the people” without the military anywhere near me to influence anything.  

Beyond that, when not out working with “the people”, I’m also looking for those ground level military stories that help illustrate the war through the everyday eyes of those serving there. That, more than anything is what draws people to this site:  The ability to get a basic, stripped down, outsider view of something that involves them or their family.

Pro-Afghanistan Blog

It is true that this is a pro-Afghanistan blog.  That is another complaint I get.  Those folks tend to link “pro-Afghanistan” with “pro-military/war”, which isn’t necessarily the case, however.  First and foremost, I want Afghanistan to succeed for the people of Afghanistan.  I know a better life is in their future if a functioning government can be achieved.  It is just going to take time.  Beyond that, a functioning government is the best result for world stability.  For that, I support the ISAF forces assisting this country achieve that.  It is really that simple. 

However, supporting the mission is a personal feeling that I have chosen to make public and in no way influences what I write.  This blog is simply a ground level look at what I see on a day to day basis when I am out in the field.  In between trips, I like to throw out some educated opinions and make some short films as well.  However, the WHOLE idea of this blog is to help you see, feel and understand as much of what I’m seeing, feeling and understanding without actually being there.  That is why the approach to this blog is often times raw and unedited.  Actually it started as a diary to show you the journey an independent journalist will take to do his job.

With that said, I am still dealing with some personal issues that have me grounded for a bit. In lieu of anything else for now, I am re-hashing my 2004 epic journey through Afghanistan that many of you have never read before.  I hope you understand my situation and enjoy this series.  I will try to post the entries as close tho the actual dates as possible.  There will also be a likely intermission in a few weeks due to a pending trip to Haiti.

Enjoy!

Monday January 26, 2004

Well… the new adventure is about to truly begin… I hope. I have decided that it’s time to go to Afghanistan. There are many places I want to go, but for a few reasons, the story in Afghanistan is the one we’re going to pursue.   We are calling this docu-series, “The Backseat War”.  The reason is obvious and is connected to the lack of attention on Afghanistan due to the invasion of Iraq.  Some have asked me, ‘what slant are you going to take?‘. It is a valid question, in a way, but only so based on ignorance of who I am. 

First: I have decided that Afghanistan is the story because I believe that it is a story that would be noticeable enough on the PBS circuit to eventually be distributed internationally. In short: I want my show, “The Battlefield Tourist” to be a benchmark program on PBS that not only solidifies my crew, but also WBRA as players in the field of quality, independent programming. 

So what are we doing? Without getting into too many details, the meat is that Ben and I will travel to Afghanistan where we will embed with an Army or Marine unit that is in an active combat zone. We plan to stay with this unit for up to eight weeks. During this time, we will produce dozens of segments based on the everyday lives of the soldiers and marines on the front line in Afghanistan. This docu-series will focus more on the efforts of these few dozen men instead of taking an empirical look at the situation in Afghanistan. Simply: The goal is to portray as accurately as possible, a day on the front line in the true “War on Terror”. 

Currently we have teamed up with WBRA (PBS-Roanoke) and we have begun the long and expensive task of preparing a grant. The grant money we are looking for will allow a two man team to go to Afghanistan. It allows for post production as well. Additionally, we are budgeting for an interactive website and a photo book to expand on the knowledge presented in the docu-series. 

We are very excited about this and will begin sending out our proposal to various foundations in hopes of securing up to $120,000. To do this, we have hired Grant Proposal and Research Services from Knoxville, Tennessee to help us properly prepare our grant proposal. We believe this extra effort in addition to joining forces with PBS, is what will put us over the top in which we will realize our dreams. 

Be assured that if this first opportunity happens, we will be in a fantastic position to increase the likelihood that we will be able to continue producing this series of programming. If this doesn’t work, I expect to be back in local TV soon, knowing that I did my best.

Note:  My best friend, Ban Davis, passed away April 14, 2007.  He was just 40.