By: E&P Staff Late last week, University of Alaska Fairbanks Journalism professor Brian O'Donoghue and three students, Jennifer Canfield, Jessica Hoffman, and Tom Hewitt arrived in Iraq to begin a month-long stay with U.S. troops in Iraq's Diyala Province. It didn't take long for the danger of the situation to present itself.
"While on our way to get our credentials at the Combined Press Information Center (CPIC) in the Green Zone [Sunday], our convoy came within a few minutes of being hit by an IED, which made the situation getting into the Green Zone a bit tricky due to fears of another attack," Hewitt wrote Tuesday on the group's blog, Short Timers.
However, the group was able to make its way out of Baghdad by helicopter Sunday night, and land at Forward Operating Base Warhorse in Diyala Province.
"Since Monday morning," Hewitt wrote on Short Timers, "we?ve been getting our feet back under us, and we're getting to work on our real mission: getting some stories produced."
Hewitt described the IED near-miss in detail on the blog in a post titled "Wake-Up Call":
"Just outside the entrance to the Green Zone, the convoy rolled to a halt. No one seemed to understand what was going on, and apprehension filled the air inside the vehicle. The turret gunner swiveled back and forth, anticipating a possible attack from an uncertain direction.
"After a few minutes, the gunner knelt down and passed on what she had heard over the radio: An IED had exploded on our route minutes before we arrived, and the Iraqi Army was locking down the Green Zone ... We were turning around and heading back to the airport immediately, presumably to avoid being sitting ducks for a second attack."
To keep up to date on the group's activities in Iraq, check out the Short Timers blog,
here.
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