Echoes of Iraq Story Remain, Months Later

By: Barbara Bedway Every day, Philadelphia Inquirer photographer David Swanson, who never thought he'd be an early riser, sits down at his computer between 5 and 6 a.m. and interacts with readers, reliving a part of the Iraq war he covered while embedded with Second Battalion, Fourth Marine Regiment, last April.

Swanson, along with Knight Ridder's famed war correspondent Joseph L. Galloway, wrote a powerful print article for the chain's newspapers and contributed photographs to an online multimedia package that appeared in mid-August and drew national attention. But as Swanson's experience suggests, some major stories require careful tending afterward.

The Knight Ridder project chronicled the final two weeks of 12 U.S. Marines from Echo Company who died in the fighting in Ramadi this past April, with Swanson nearby. The overwhelming response from readers ? especially friends, family members and other military servicemen and women ? has become an ongoing part of a still- unfolding story: the struggle to understand what happened, what is still happening, and to accept what the war has wrought.

"I'd say 80% of the responses are from those connected to the military," notes Swanson. "A lot want to know if I met their son, if I have pictures of him. Every day there's a new heartfelt emotion, someone who misses their kids, wonders how they are, if their spirits are high, when they'll be home."

Then there are the requests for any photographs or footage he might have of their loved ones. "It's taken over my life," he admits. "It's very time-consuming to burn DVDs." He also patiently checks each photo he's sent from any soldier's family or friends, who hope he may have photographed their loved ones, too.

"This has turned into one of my proudest achievements," Swanson says, "to have found these men and to have been with Echo at the right time to tell their story."

On the Knight Ridder site (www.krwashington.com), each soldier has a brief profile and a link to a guest book where readers often express their condolences with the ending "Semper Fi." One reader addressing 2nd Lt. John Wroblewski's widow wrote: "I remember first reading about your husband in the newspaper. As I always do, I cut the clipping and saved it. He will never be forgotten and you will never be alone. ... I wish you peace; go easy."

In the question-and-answer forums for Swanson and Galloway, one of a dead soldier's friends wrote it was "a strange comfort" to view Swanson's photos online. A mother wrote, "I can't tell you what it means to see my son in your pictures." Swanson and Galloway were still posting messages weeks after their project went live.

John Walcott, Knight Ridder's Washington bureau chief, notes that "we want to keep the guest book open for some period of time so everyone can catch up. It takes a while for word to spread and for people to find it on the Web. That's the good thing about the Web: It's no longer a zero-sum game where you have to take something down in order to put something up. We'll keep an eye on the traffic, and as long as people keep finding it and expressing their sentiments, and wanting to ask Dave and Joe questions, we'll keep it up."

The overwhelming immediacy the Web account provides ? through audio, video, and letters written to and from the soldiers, along with the narrative account of the Ramadi battle ? makes Echo Company's experience so vivid it raises the question of whether the military really wants the war and its aftermath made so painfully real.

"We're getting through the grapevine some of that sentiment," Swanson acknowledges. "At some point, we had trouble getting after-action reports, and suddenly I lost communication with everybody over there via e-mail. As it went up the chain of command, more and more people would not respond to me. Suddenly it went from 'I'll get it tomorrow' to 'I'm working on it' to my never getting a response. They understand the potency of what we were doing. I've had some positive responses from people who didn't respond to me [at the time]. A public affairs officer told me we did justice to the people over there."

Galloway, who works out of Knight Ridder's Washington bureau, notes that Gen. John Abizaid, Centcom's commanding general, had "a very positive response," as have many Marines, both active and retired.

In September, Galloway spoke at a meeting of the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association in Nashville, where images from the series flashed on a large screen behind him. There he heard "nothing but compliments." There has been no official word from Marine headquarters.

Swanson plans to fly out to California to cover Echo Company's belated return to Camp Pendleton. He visits the www.echo2-4.com Web page daily, as well as the www.icasualties.org page "to see who was killed and pray that it was no one I knew." He can no longer bear to listen to the audio portion of the KR site.

"People have to understand what happens during a war, to think about the question, 'How many men are you willing to sacrifice in this war?'" says Swanson.

As the number of soldiers killed reached 1,000 on Sept. 7, the wrenching words and images of the 12 perished Echo 2-4 Company soldiers, and the family and friends who loved them, only underscored the loss and the widening circles of grief.