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September 09, 2005
With the Guard
Our photographer Preston Gannaway and reporter Dan Barrick have spent the week in and around New Orleans with members of the New Hampshire National Guard. If you’ve followed their stories and photographs, you know that each day they have gotten closer to the heart of this great disaster.
Barrick’s story today describes the smelly water in the city as “dark brown with an oily sheen” and the smell of “rotting garbage, diesel fumes, sewage and decay.” To get close enough to record these sensations – and for Gannaway to shoot pictures – the two rode into the city on a four-seat Jet-Ski.
Previously, a five-ton Army truck had transported them so they could report on the work of New Hampshire guardsmen in bringing security and comfort to people in distress.
One story quoted Sgt. John Evans, who returned home in the spring after a year in Iraq. He had mixed feelings about that assignment but not about being sent to Louisiana. “This is the kind of thing the Guard was meant to do,” he told Barrick. “I’d much rather be helping other Americans.”
The Monitor journalists are scheduled to return tomorrow, but they have more coverage in the works. The Sunday A-section will feature a two-page photo spread on the Guard at work and play. On the Viewpoints page, we'll run a personal commentary about the two journalists' experience. Barrick’s e-mail with editors about how to shape this piece included these sentences:
“When I arrived at New Orleans Naval Air Base with some 500 troops from the New Hampshire National Guard last week, I was superbly unprepared for military life. I have never been camping. I do not own a sleeping bag, a backpack or numerous other necessities of the rough life. I enjoy a daily shower. I am also very cranky. These are not promising characteristics for a soldier.”
We’re grateful to local National Guard leaders for giving us a chance to cover their mission and to bring readers a firsthand look at this national tragedy. We hope our stories and pictures have been useful to readers.
Posted by Mike Pride at September 9, 2005 03:53 PM