The liability form spelled out the downside.

"I AM VOLUNTARILY ENTERING A WAR ZONE that has already claimed the lives of civilians, journalists and armed soldiers," the university's waiver stated. "I understand that journalists working in the Middle East have been killed, captured, tortured, beheaded, injured, and traumatized, while undertaking activities very similar or identical to those that I am ..."

Three UAF journalism students and I went through the two-page document line by line with Julie Baecker, chief risk officer for the University of Alaska system. She made sure Jennifer Canfield, Tom Hewitt, Jessica Hoffman and this professor had received the articles e-mailed with that waiver, including a graphic account of The Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping and murder.

"Our role isn't placing limits on what our student learners can do," Baecker explained. "It's ensuring they have the information needed to make informed choices."

In weekly teleconferences leading up to the jump-off date, I'd done my best to scare these students off. It didn't help that experienced war correspondents were confident students could handle the assignment, especially with the security embedding provided.

Joking about our faint prospects of surviving a month embedded with Alaska-based soldiers serving in Diyala province, Iraq, we each signed on the line and initialed where required.

What followed surpassed expectations.

Continued: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Comment on this story

April 7, 2010 10:24

The comments about the coin are incorrect, That is not a "heart with a lightning bolt". That is a Taro leaf with a lightning bolt. If I remember correctly, the 24th and 25th Infantry Divisions both had the taro leaf insignia, were formed out of Hawaii before WWII, and both performed well in WWII, Korea and Vietnam. The taro leaf was split by the lightning bolt on the insignia of the 25th to empasize the "Tropic Lightning" name of the division, while the 24th stayed plain. The 24th was a stellar performer in Deset Shield/Storm. It was re-flagged as 3rd ID, and is in Iraq doing a fine job there. The 25th ID has performed well in both Iraq and Afghanistan. I wish that the media would do a little research on the history of the units they embed with. I have a lot of respect (usually) for embeds, but please think of the units as well. Other than that, nice story.

April 3, 2010 10:08 AM

I enjoyed this story. It brought back memories of patriots from past U of A classes. I was reminded that the class of 1960 had a number of career military graduates: Pete Weimer, the Bartholmew brothers, Joseph Baldwin, Paul Hunter and me. So long ago, and so many great patriots. There were others whose names have eluded me over the years. The University can be proud of these men and women.

April 2, 2010 11:11 AM

Brian, great story, I can vouch, Jessica had a great time and learned more than any classroom could provide. I'm glad she earned the chance to go, though it was a very nervous time for my wife and I. Thanks again for keeping us in the loop and having the foresight to do such an unheard of thing.  Dave