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thedrifter
01-10-07, 06:46 AM
They were to capture the war in images. Instead they joined in
By LOUIS HANSEN, The Virginian-Pilot
January 10, 2007
Last updated: 12:30 AM

NORFOLK — Petty Officer 1st Class Steve Harbour had to drop his camera to pick up a fallen comrade’s automatic weapon from the Iraqi street and fire 60 rounds at a sniper perched on a rooftop.

In the back seat of a Humvee, combat photographer David Hoffman gave final solace to a gunner shot in the head by an insurgent.

Navy photographer Jackey Bratt shared bread and laughed with a group of shy Iraqi women in downtown Baghdad.

The images that stuck with these Navy combat cameramen in Iraq often were captured only in their memories.

On Tuesday, they were among four Navy cameramen at Norfolk Naval Station who were awarded Bronze Stars for their service.

Chief Thomas E. Jones Jr., a combat photographer who filmed special operations raids and combat throughout Iraq, also received the Bronze Star.

Pictures and videos shot by combat cameramen help train Iraqi soldiers, document the secrets of hostile bomb makers, and chronicle the daily successes and failures of U.S. troops.

The Bronze Star , uncommon for cameramen, recognized the sailors’ dangerous missions embedded with soldiers and Marines in 2006, said Rear Adm. Jamie Barnett, who bestowed the medals at a morning ceremony.

Barnett called them “intrepid sailors.”

In Iraq, the photographers learned, no mission was routine and no place safe.

Petty Officer 1st Class Bratt, a 28-year-old mother of two from Lincoln, Neb., saw combat in her first mission. Insurgents fired at a medical clinic set up by the Army, scattering the Iraqis seeking care.

Later, during a routine outreach mission , Bratt dropped her camera for her M-16 when a sniper opened up on her unit.

“The journalist in me wanted to get a couple more shots,” she said. “The sailor in me said, 'this man is trying to kill me.’”

Harbour, a 15 -year Navy veteran from Missouri, was embedded with an Army unit teaching and accompanying Iraqi soldiers on patrols in heavy insurgent neighborhoods.

While on patrol, a sniper struck an Iraqi soldier and a Marine gunnery sergeant on either side of Harbour. Laden with combat and photographer’s gear, Harbour dropped to his knee and picked up the Marine’s weapon.

Heavy fire from Harbour and other Marines and Iraqi soldiers ended the threat. The gunnery sergeant, wounded in the leg, swore at Harbour and joked, “Did you get that on video?” Surgeons later amputated part of the Marine’s leg.

Harbour also documented an Iraqi bomb maker’s confession of secret tactics used against U.S. troops. The film trained Army explosive ordnance disposal units how to disarm the deadly roadside bombs.

Petty Officer 1st Class Hoffman deployed to combat for the first time last year. Hoffman, 33, of Seaford, Del., captured the aftermath of a roadside bomb that blew up a vehicle in his convoy. The images helped the Army figure out the size of roadside bombs and tactics of the bombers.

Stuck in another convoy in downtown Baghdad, Hoffman’s Humvee came under sniper attack. The gunner slumped down, struck in the head.

Hoffman pulled the gunner inside the vehicle, held the young soldier and watched as blood bubbled from the wounds.

The soldier died that day.

“You don’t have time to process it,” Hoffman said. “Those are images that burn into your brain.”

Reach Louis Hansen at (757) 446-2322 or louis.hansen@pilotonline.com.

Ellie