Through Veterans' Eyes_The Iraq and Afghanistan Experience by Larry Minear

Author:Larry Minear [Minear, Larry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Goodreads: 12964019
Publisher: Potomac Books
Published: 2010-07-01T00:00:00+00:00

Interview

Tyler Benson (AFC2001/001/52131), Photographs (PH 07), VHP, AFC, LOC. Photograph © Linda Cullen, used with permission.

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Spec. Tyler Benson of the Minnesota National Guard’s 134th Signal Battalion, Bravo Company, answers questions from John Hines, a radio talk-show host on K102 (Clear Channel) radio in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

The interview took place in January 2005 at Camp Liberty, Baghdad, one of the largest military bases in Iraq and home to the Blackhawk helicopters that are used for combat operations and for evacuating the wounded. Seated on the roof of the brigade headquarters, Benson and Hines look out over the sheet metal that served as a barrier against incoming mortars. In the background, a U.S. military communications tower tops Signal Hill.

Hines, along with Clear Channel executive and photographer Linda Cullen, were embedded in the Minnesota National Guard unit—the first instance, to Hines’ knowledge, in which non-broadcast personnel were permitted such access. While in Iraq, they interviewed approximately 150 soldiers. As part of Clear Channel’s “Operation Northern Lights,” a promotion intended to provide phone cards to Iraqi troops from Minnesota, interview excerpts and selected photos were broadcast back home and some were transmitted live to large screens in the Mall of America in Minneapolis.

Looking back on the interview in December 2008, Benson says, “I appreciated that these civilians from our area showed their support by coming over to Iraq and experiencing first-hand what we were going through.”

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