Ray Flores
Journalist
From Alexandria, Virginia
Army, Staff Sergeant
Public Affairs, Broadcast Journalist
Kuwait and Iraq, 2/03-1/04
Words Provided 2011
Written Statement
From Alexandria, Virginia
Army, Staff Sergeant
Public Affairs, Broadcast Journalist
Kuwait and Iraq, 2/03-1/04
Words Provided 2011
Written Statement
I still remember the sneers from the other Soldiers when we redeployed from Mosul, Iraq in 2003. In a lot of people’s minds, our small team of nine had disgraced the Public Affairs field with our “antics.” Somehow our reckless behavior crossed a line…
The formula for our shenanigans?
Instead of feeding our command information stories back home to the States, we focused our reporting on the people who needed it most- the people of Northern Iraq.
Each day we witnessed Soldiers rebuilding infrastructure, delivering propane, providing medical assistance… We reported on those moments just like we were trained. But that squad of Soldiers only made a strong impression on a handful of people. Our hope was by broadcasting the Soldier’s stories to Northern Iraq we were exposing that squad’s efforts to over two million Iraqis.
We wanted to provide information so the people of Northern Iraq could make an informed decision about us, and our intent in their country. If faced with the decision, they could choose whether or not to detonate the IED.
“Iraqi Freedom News” was delivered to the local television station by 7 every night. And compared to the rest of the country, for a while Mosul felt relatively safer.
I can only hope our peers would be faced with the same situation and make the same exact decisions. Because in the end I hope we prevented just one death that year. I’d take all the sneers in the world if we accomplished that..
The formula for our shenanigans?
Instead of feeding our command information stories back home to the States, we focused our reporting on the people who needed it most- the people of Northern Iraq.
Each day we witnessed Soldiers rebuilding infrastructure, delivering propane, providing medical assistance… We reported on those moments just like we were trained. But that squad of Soldiers only made a strong impression on a handful of people. Our hope was by broadcasting the Soldier’s stories to Northern Iraq we were exposing that squad’s efforts to over two million Iraqis.
We wanted to provide information so the people of Northern Iraq could make an informed decision about us, and our intent in their country. If faced with the decision, they could choose whether or not to detonate the IED.
“Iraqi Freedom News” was delivered to the local television station by 7 every night. And compared to the rest of the country, for a while Mosul felt relatively safer.
I can only hope our peers would be faced with the same situation and make the same exact decisions. Because in the end I hope we prevented just one death that year. I’d take all the sneers in the world if we accomplished that..