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Volume 41, Issue 10
February 17, 2004
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February
17, 2004
War correspondent shares stories
about recent conflicts
Mike Helm
Contributing Writer
War correspondent and filmmaker Dodge Billingsly visited MCC Feb.6
to show war footage and discuss his experiences in covering wars in
Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq.
“One thing I’ve always been fascinated by is foreign policy when
it turns or becomes warfare or combative, and also I’m interested in the
conflict, fog and friction of war,” Billingsly said. He said he believes
video footage is a good way to help sort the confusion and multiple interpretations
that often arise immediately after a conflict.
Billingsly’s footage helped American Special Forces sort out the events
that ensued during the Taliban uprising in which CIA agent Michael Spann was
killed and American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh was captured.
A 2000-pound Global Positioning System bomb was dropped on their location, but
skipped off a wall and struck another Special Forces team instead of the Taliban
targets. In all the dust and confusion, Special Forces team operatives approached
him to view the footage and it was there they determined that American Special
Forces were hit.
“
It was interesting that something that I had sort of believed in all along became
immediately useful on the spot,” Billingsly said.
Much of the presentation revolved around the current Iraq war. Billingsly showed
numerous clips taken during the battles to capture Baghdad. He would become especially
amused when discussing the soldiers he was embedded with along the way. Billingsly
traveled with the First Marine Division south of an-Nasariyah.
Many of the soldiers were very young, ranging from 19 to 22 years old. The leader
of the squad was 26 years old. Billingsly’s footage among the soldiers
backed his claim that much of war is boring and confusing. One clip showed two
soldiers discussing waking up and wondering whether they were in Iraq or Kuwait.
Another topic Billingsly addressed was intelligence gathering. He recalled an
occasion in which they were told that they were going into battle and would be
facing between 1,000 to 3,000 enemy combatants. He described how nerve-racking
the time leading up to the battle was to one soldier, who was convinced he wouldn’t
make it back and handed another soldier a letter to give to his mother. The mission
was to take control of Salman Pak, an area known as a Baath Party stronghold,
and to secure a building thought to be full of intelligence. Upon arrival, they
encountered no resistance. Allied bombing sent to clear the path for the soldiers
had blown up the building.
Video footage shows the building on fire and thousands of pages of documents
scattering into the air.
Events like these are why Billingsly believes his job is important – to
show the war for what it is, and to gain an understanding of conflict and the
events that unfold during these conflicts.
Billingsly holds an undergraduate degree from Columbia University and a master’s
degree from the department of war studies at King’s College. He is a veteran
producer and lead cameraman and director for Combat Films & Research. He
produced the award-winning documentary “Immortal Fortress: An Inside Look
at Chechnya’s Warrior Culture.” To see video footage and pictures,
go to http://www.combatfilms.com. Back to Top
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