WAR CORRESPONDENT COURSE - THE WHOLE STORY

The ANTENA3 team. Moi and Raul Timar, the cameraman. Picture by Tudor Vintiloiu (Aka Bogdan)

We've been attacked by insurgents, three of us got kidnapped and one was wounded by a sniper shooting from the woods. I became a hero too. My pants gave in when I was trying to climb an army truck. Ya ya ya... I kind of expected something like this to happen. But that's another story.

The 14 of us went through a lot at this War journalism training. Basically we were trained for embedding, learned the theory and practiced the dangers. Met people, talked tot he soldiers who just got back from a mission in Afghanistan and trained with them, watched them dismantle bombs, set up traps in the woods and practically paying with the machine guns we couldn't even lift from the table. Battalion 33, Mountain Hunters. That would be the literal translation from Romanian, cause the US Army doesn't have this particular section so there is no official translation. These soldiers are trained to survive in the cold, climb mountains and save people fallen from a cliff. They also use certain climbing procedures the professional climbers don't use. The can descend face down, which is pretty dangerous. Not to be tried at home.

They showed us how to climb and descend too. Too bad they didn't have enough equipment. And when there was one free from me, they were in a hurry to get to lunch and I didn't get the chance to climb like my fellow journalists did. Unlucky me, I thought. But, heh, all the trouble turned to be for the best. After a couple of hours, they took us to the training field and we had to take a military truck cause our bus ( I have to show everybody the picture, maybe somebody sees it and buys a new one, cause this one was terrible. We did 100 km in 3 HOURS!) couldn't make it on the country road.

The BUS. Had to take the picture for posterity.

This is the particular moment my pants became the star of the day. They gave in when I tried to climb the damn truck. Ha. Imagine that happening while climbing a cliff. The Sargent accompanying us in the truc tried to find a needle for me to saw my pants and in 5 minutes half of the soldiers there knew what happened. Hahaha! I had to saw the damn pants under escort, with the Sargent guarding the door. Picture that!

Apart from the embarrassing stuff, I have to say the guys from the battalion rock. The girls were really impressed. Hehe! And I have to do them a favor so I will put the pictures of the top 3 men of the day voted as the handsomest but the whole bunch of girls there.

1. Alpha Man. Lieutenant Gabi Ştefănescu. The green eyes made a few victims among the ladies. Hehe. Photo credit Ana Maria Poenaru

   

Za man of the week.

1. Blue Eyes. Mihai Grecu (at least I think that's his name) He helped the girls climb and they talked about his eyes for two days. Photo credit Ana Maria Poenaru

2. Florin, my favorite and Ana Maria Poenaru's favorite. The guy told us he slept in the armored transporter for 6 months because he was in an FOB, Forward Observation Base, in Zabul province, south eastern Afghanistan. He and his fellow soldiers had to save a few Americans lost in mission. Huhuuuu. Imagine that. :)

OK, I said enough with the fun part. Seriously speaking, it was a hell of an experience. Doing the physical exercises, and trying to finish the obstacle course, which was not very easy, and then wearing the bullet proof vests and the helmets, which were pretty heavy, although they were not the heaviest they have. The combat equipment is much heavier than the training one.

Raul going through fire. Photo by Tudor Vintiloiu

The exercise happened the last day. The plan belongs to Major Carol Florea. He organized everything, script and all.

Carol. Photo by Ana Maria Poenaru

We woke up at 6 in the morning. Had breakfast at 7 and by 8 we were in the famous bus with the bulletproof vests and the helmets laughing at each other. Oy, we did look funny. Two press officers accompanied us to the Military Unit headquarters where the tactic exercise was to begin at about 9.05. Alpha Man prepared 4 armored vehicles for us. Me and Ana Maria Poenaru, the photographer from Sibiu, together with Cristina Iovi, from Radio Timisoara, and Carmen Ionescu, form RADOR press agency got to go with him. Raul, my cameraman, couldn't come with us. He was too tall. So he needed the room of two people. He went with another team.

The one and only. Raul

We went to a base outside of Curtea de Arges for the tactic exercise. On the way I felt sick and sleepy at the same time. I think I even fell asleep cause Ana Maria actually shot a few pictures of me sleeping.

We went through a so called checkpoint and we were asked for our papers. It was very relieving for me, cause I got to have some air. The we got back to the vehicle, basically a can where you can theoretically fit 9 soldiers. Ana Maria kept doing portraits of Florin. Can't really blame her. In the meantime, Florin, who was closest to us told us the vehicles they had in Afghanistan were not that great as the one we were traveling in. The engines had to be changed every month because of the sand getting everywhere. One of their fellow soldiers, Sargent Aurel Marcu, died last year in such a vehicle that drove over an explosive device.

We got to our destination, a field outside the town, very close to the woods. The mission was to travel under the army escort to a school the Romanian Military was building in a village. Pretty interesting. Of course we got shot at on the way. We also got shot at on the way Back. Ana Maria, my friend and room mate, the photographer, was theoretically wounded. So she got the chance of being carried by the guys. Hihi. She was happy.

Ana Maria having fun.

Then the media pool. Hehe. Funny experience, especially for the Public relations officers there. E had to choose 4 journalists to go interview a few local leaders. We chose a radio journalist, a photographer, a news wire person, and there should have been a cameraman. But Roxana Lupu, the reporter from Realitatea TV, was going through a tough inner crisis and no matter the arguments for a cameraman to go, she didn't move. So Raul, the only guy with a camera had to stay behind. Good for him, cause the girls got kidnapped. Hihi. Carmen Gavrila, the radio journalist, was happy to say the requests of the kidnappers. Well, they were saved by a commando and that was it.

In the meantime, while the three kidnapped girls went for a beer with the kidnappers, we were struggling back at the headquarters to suck some information out of the military press office. Boy, we scared the poor people. We were pretty aggressive with the officers who were just finishing a public relations course.

Anyway, we got our diplomas on Friday from the Secretary of State, a very elegant and pretty lady, who had gone through lots of plastic surgery, who had nothing to do with the course and wasn't very interested in it and couldn't care less.

ARMY GIRL

Hey everybody. I've been away for a while. 5 days actually. Army camp in Curtea de Arges, beautiful town in southern Romania close to the mountains. Boy, it feels like a month. We did lots of interesting stuff, including train with the military and a tactic exercise in real combat conditions. Well, it was lots of fun. We were 14 journalists. We had applied for the War Correspondents Course with the Romanian Military. We were supposed to be 16, but 2 people didn't show up, which messed it up a bit for us and for the organizers.I didn't expect it all to be so much fun and so informative. And we also got to know the guys from the Defense Ministry press office. Cute, nice and very helpful during the course. We'll see later if the friendship will last after we call them for real stuff. Hehe.

I'm planning to do an illustrated journal of the whole thing. But that's gonna take me some time. So I'm just letting you guys now that I'm back with interesting stuff. And keep posted. Photo credit Ana Maria Poenaru, my room mate.

WACKY ROMANIA

The residents of a Romanian village knowingly voted for a dead man as their mayor in Sunday's municipal election, preferring him to his living opponent.

Neculai Ivascu, 57, who ran the village for almost two decades, died from liver disease just after voting began, but still won the election.

In the end, election authorities gave the post to the runner-up, but some villagers and Ivascu's party, the opposition Social Democrat Party (PSD), have called for a new vote.

The village is swarming with foreign journalists by now, cause, of course, this only happens in Romania. According to CNN reporters, it's an iternational first.

THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITES

Nearly 1000 prisoners escaped from a prison in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Shocking, huh? It happened under the noses of the fellows from the ISAF and from the Afghani security and whatever kind of security they have there in mighty Afghanistan. It seems the Talibans watch the Arnold Schwarzeneger movies cause they formed a comando (yeah, a comando, I can even see them covered in dirt, shiny muscles, fancy camouflage pants and the Rambo Bandeau). They blew up the prison gate, they got in, shot a few guards and freed 1000 detainees. They also fired a few rockets at the building to make holes in the walls. HUHU! My question is why bother? I mean all they needed was a pickaxe blow and building would have fallen. But yeah, this thought us something new about the Talibans. They discovered Satellite TV. Wait until they watch Ironman.

WHILE THE ITALIANS ARE TERRIFIED OF THE ROMANIAN GIPSIES...

Hey , Mr. Berlusconi, can't you see the real threat here? It's a Hamas conspiracy. The gipsies in Rome and Milan are there to distract your attention from the real invasio! While you are busy convincing the EU guys that you have to send back all the Romanians, these guys are preparing to invade Rome.

WHY WE SHOULD DRINK COCA COLA

SHOP OWNER IN BEIRUT

Akl El Hatib has had his shop for 35 years. War, peace, Israeli bombings, internal fighting - whatever. The man is still in his little shop in Manara. He sells little things. Toothpaste, soap, pretzels and biscuits. The shop is more or less empty.But that doesn't seem important. He's happy to talk, but not just to anybody. No conversations with Jews and Americans. Cause they are the ones behind the "global conspiracy".

PS . Many thanks to Mr Bassem Boustany who kindly helped me with the translation.

OMAR SHARIF : Americans are ignorant

Al-Hayat TV on May 26, 2008