'Sleeping' with the Army Air Corps

By TERRI JUDD

Whether through optimism or plain arrogance, I listened little to those who warned me that being "embedded" with the British Army would be frustrating.

My time with the 3 Regiment Army Air Corps - one of the fighter helicopter units of 16 Air Assault Brigade - in Iraq was the most exasperating experience of my career. But it was also the most fascinating and rewarding.

To say that the embedded media were given incredible access would be an understatement.

We lived in the same uncomfortable and perilous conditions, dug the same protective bunkers, endured the same gas alerts, ate the same inedible food and saw the soldiers' fear and grief first-hand.

Much to my surprise, the soldiers welcomed our presence. As is often the case in societies where people have little, they shared all they had without hesitation.

Throughout the war, one was constantly reminded of the two-tier media system - those of us with the forces and those working independently as "unilaterals".

It was only upon emerging from the regimental cocoon that I appreciated the equal frustrations the unilateral reporters were enduring. While we had been jealous of their freedom, they had been jealous of our access.

It was a system that created a strange rivalry. On one occasion, I was among a handful of "embeds" taken to speak to Royal Engineers who had been given the job of checking the giant gas and oil separation plants in the Rumaila oilfields for booby traps.

We arrived, a bedraggled bunch, only to realise that a group of pristine TV reporters had been brought in by helicopter that morning from Kuwait. Their arrival was a bone of contention.

Censorship was obviously a big fear, with the insistence that all copy be checked by assigned media officers in case information should jeopardise operations.

But my "minder" never once asked me to delete anything he considered negative, although I understand other embeds were not so lucky.

The frustration lay in simply accessing information in a rigid system. Details of attacks were initially drip-fed, deadlines ignored and perfectly reasonable questions left unanswered.

We were two diametrically opposed worlds attempting to co-exist.

But after hours of bartering, we did develop a modus operandi.

Would I do it all again? Definitely.

- INDEPENDENT

Herald Feature: Iraq war