AP: Wounded ABC Anchor Evacuated to Germany

[Hissyspit]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WOODRUFF_IRAQ?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=INTERNATIONAL

Wounded ABC Anchor Evacuated to Germany

By DAVID BAUDER
AP Television Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- ABC "World News Tonight" co-anchor Bob Woodruff and a cameraman were seriously injured Sunday when the Iraqi Army vehicle they were traveling in was attacked with an explosive device.

Both journalists suffered head injuries, and Woodruff also has broken bones. They were in stable condition following surgery at a U.S. military hospital in Iraq, and were being evacuated to medical facilities in Germany, ABC News President David Westin said Sunday night.

"We take this as good news, but the next few days will be critical," Westin said. Woodruff and Doug Vogt, an award-winning cameraman, were embedded with the 4th Infantry Division and traveling in a convoy with U.S. and Iraqi troops near Taji, about 12 miles north of Baghdad.

They were wearing body armor and helmets but were standing up in the hatch of the mechanized vehicle when the device exploded, exposing them to shrapnel. An Iraqi solder was also hurt in the explosion.

MORE

[albertrenault]

1. wierd story,

it says he was in a Russian MTLB armored personell carrier. Wierd.

[babylonsister]

4. What says anything about what type of vehicle they were in,

and why can't you spell 'weird'???

[albertrenault]

6. sorry, I was going by the "i before e except after c" rule...

I read that part somewhere else, that he was in a MTLB "meatball, in NATO parlance" for some reason. Just struck me as odd.

[babylonsister]

9. There is no "c" in the word weird. nt

[hippywife]

16. Which is what led him

to spell it incorrectly. He correctly applied the rule but to a word that is an exception to it. Why are you being so mean about something so inconsequential?

[laylah]

21. Welcome

albertrenault! :toast: You'll get used to the nitpicking but will also become VERY informed if you stick around.

Jenn

[Media_Lies_Daily]

26. Why can't you give it a rest?

[babylonsister]

2. This is ironic. My DH heard 70+ journalists had died, first time

he'd heard of that is today associated w/Bob Woodruff story.
I told him some were questionable; he ignored me, sort of, or
couldn't wrap his mind around it.
Or, I'm completely delusional!!

[Hissyspit]

7. More dangerous for journalists than Vietnam.

I believe, depending on how you figure it.

[gumby]

3. I Dare Bush to say, that has been 'reported,'

to say that these reporters are the 'victims' of 'too much insurance.' Go ahead, BubbleBoy, you Giggling Murderer, Make My Day.

[burrowowl]

5. Brain shear

from explosion can really be bad!
Maybe we will get more coverage on this from the MSM now. Then again maybe not.
"Lighter" brain injuries are not being diagnosed in our wounded soldiers and sometimes they are being called maligners.
:mad: :mad: :mad:

[albertrenault]

8. Ok, found something about the vehicle

from ABC news:

"Woodruff and his crew had been traveling in a U.S. armored Humvee, but then transferred into an Iraqi vehicle — which was believed to be a much softer target for attacks.

"It was a mechanized vehicle," Raddatz said. "At least it wasn't one of the pickup trucks they usually drive around in. They were in the lead vehicle, and they were up in the hatch, so they were exposed."



I read another article earlier today that identified it as an MTLB, a cold war era Soviet built armored personell carrier.

[burrowowl]

10. No matter the vechicle

the blast goes through the vehicle the same and the brain get rattled from the explosion, sloushed around the brain case, etc. E.g. you can be in an earthquake-proof building and not get done in by debris, but you will still be shaken around.

[bananas]

15. WP: "It looks like what got them was standing up in the turret"

Found a Washington Post article mentioning the MTLB:

"It looks like what got them was standing up in the turret," the military official said, adding that doing so, while less safe, was not unusual. "Another guy inside didn't have a scratch on him."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/29/AR2006012900264.html

...
Prior to the attack, the Woodruff and Vogt, who were part of a four-man ABC team on the assignment, switched from an American Humvee to the Iraqi vehicle. The ABC crew was riding in the lead vehicle in a joint U.S.-Iraqi convoy at the time of the explosion, which was followed by small-arms fire, the network reported. The journalists were wearing body armor, helmets and ballistic glasses.

According to a U.S. military official who was briefed on the incident but spoke on the condition that he not be named, the attack came as they rode in a Soviet- made MTLB armored personnel carrier, a more than 12-ton vehicle that can carry about a dozen soldiers. It is described as "lightly armored" on the website of the Federation of American Scientists, which catalogs the specifications of military equipment. The armor in its turret is said to be 7 to 14 millimeters thick.

"It looks like what got them was standing up in the turret," the military official said, adding that doing so, while less safe, was not unusual. "Another guy inside didn't have a scratch on him."
...

[wordpix]

23. Biden said they shouldn't have been in an Iraqi vehicle b/c not protected

as well as American. This on Imus today.

Biden said he saw Bob Woodward right before he left for Iraq and told Woodward not to travel with Iraqis because equipment not good.

WTF?

[anitar1]

30. His name is WOODRUFF. n/t

[BrotherBuzz]

13. Iraqi Army uses Russian equipment

Most of the former Iraqi Army equipment was made by the Russians and they plan to continue purchasing Russian equipment. Familiar equipment at bargain basement prices.

What's weird (or a miracle) is the fact that they have the parts to keep them running. I guess the Russians are on top of the game.

[Posteritatis]

14. Russian equipment can run on the power of cynicism alone

Seriously, a lot of their older equipment (Iraq lost most of its newer stuff when its army got scuppered three times in twenty-five years) can be maintained in at least basic working order with extremely limited resources, technical training, and spare parts.

It's less that the Russians are on top of the game than that they're playing an entirely different one. You can sink a lot of resources into a relatively low number of NATO-style armored vehicles (which really are, for all practical purposes, basically indestructible), or you can bite the risk and get a whole shitload of Russian or Chinese equipment. These days, it's not that much less advanced than western-style vehicles; they're more fragile and probably more cantankerous, but it's much easier to keep them going. That and, in the case of the Iraqis, the soldiers are long familiar with the stuff; they don't need to be retrained on entirely new vehicles with entirely new operating procedures, tactics, etc.

If I wanted to build an army by yesterday, I'd go for Russian or Chinese equipment; if I wanted to take my time building one and have something sufficiently frightening at the end, I'd probably put the resources into the more overengineered western designs (or just spend a long time buying Russian or Chinese equipment).

[RamboLiberal]

25. Here's a story on the lack of Iraqi Armored Vehicles

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20051227-124949-3236r.htm

The emerging Iraqi army is in dire need of more armored vehicles, an issue largely lost in the two-year debate over U.S. soldiers and Marines who at one time lacked protective gear.

Defense sources say the required number of armored vehicles has not kept pace with the Iraqi army's growth, leaving exposed, newly minted troops to conduct patrols in thin-skinned trucks.

"One of the main things is they don't have much armor at all," said retired Coast Guard officer Michael Kearney, a defense contractor who is working to bolster the force. "Their people are running around in pickup trucks, and they are getting nailed."

Mr. Kearney ran a program to get quickly to the Iraqis 77 refurbished T-72 tanks in time for security duty in the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections.

<snip>

Today, the Iraqi security forces rely on an international mix of armored vehicles -- the American Humvee, the Pakistani Talhas and Mohafiz, the French Panhard and the Soviet BMP.

[bananas]

17. Welcome to DU and thanks for your post

I went to news.google.com and searched for "woodruff MTLB"
and got two hits - one of them was a site I didn't know about "TVNewser"
which looks like a useful resource, I subsribed to their RSS feed.
Here's the google hit - it has a link to the Washington Post article:

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/abc/woodruff_vogt_injured_in_iraq_ticker_3_31556.asp
Woodruff & Vogt Injured In Iraq: Ticker #3

[saltpoint]

11. Never met the man, but Woodruff lends the impression that he's a

sincere and unassuming news man. I hope both these folks recover quickly and are back on the job as soon as possible.

[countmyvote4real]

12. My knee jerk reaction is that I don’t care about the circumstances.

I’m sorry for his injuries. I’m sorry if they are life changing or worse. Most of all, I’m sorry that he was there as a tool for MSM/Pravda. It was his choice to go there.

With that in mind, here are my tin foil opinions on what happened:

1) He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. That seems somewhat doubtful considering the previous threads of this message.

2) He was working with the Government to expose them and the Government offed him. Hello? That doesn’t happen anymore. The MSM doesn’t employ real journalists that challenge the government over their corporative goals and intrists.

3) Maybe shit happens. Go figure that it happened in Iraq where * planted his seed of Democracy and purple fingers. Maybe shit shouldn’t have happened in the first place as well as no-bid contracts that robbed our Treasury blind until whistle blowers spoke out and subsequently lost their jobs.

4) Turn off and don’t subscribe to the MSM. That’s cable and AOL and MSN, etc. Obstruct in anyway you are comfortable, but be vocal in your opposition to the * administration agenda.

[tanyev]

18. Fortunately, the network seems to have recovered enough

from their shock and sorrow to realize they have an exclusive that needs to be milked for all it's worth! The first 17 minutes of Good Morning America were devoted entirely to this story. They brought in Elizabeth Vargas and some suit to talk about their feelings. I had to flip to CBS to see if there was any other news going on in the world.

Please don't get me wrong--I do wish the best to Bob and the cameraman and their families. It's just shameful that our soldiers who are still getting wounded and killed every day hardly rate a mention any more.

[marylanddem]

19. My sentiments exactly

Where is the colorful detailed information on the deaths of those thousands lost in Iraq not because it's the news capital, but because a deranged warmonger wanted to play with their lives?

[wildwww2]

20. Soldiers don`t get paid millions to promote an agenda of a billion $

corporation like ABC. I know the cameraman probably is not making a million dollars a year. But an anchorman must be up there in the million dollar a year range. The MSM at the behest of the smirk administration have been trying to promote the lie that we do not see the good things that are happening in Iraq. It is all good for the Bu$h`s and their corporate sponsors. With such close ties to the military industrial complex. They are making big bucks everyday. And none of their children are cruising the roads of Iraq in a military vehicle. So they are able to pay some faux journalists to go out in the midst of a civil war. So what. I remember seeing the same thing during Vietnam. This is just not that much different no matter what anyone tries to say. A desert death trap instead of a jungle death trap. The military industrial complex still profits. And some Americans are stupid enough to believe it makes them safer. Mission accomplished.
Peace
Wildman
Al Gore is My President

[Stephanie]

24. Elizabeth Vargas is painful to watch

She winces her way through every story.

[Posteritatis]

29. On the other hand

If a major, high-profile member of a news network is killed or seriously injured, I do think said network is kinda justified in taking some time out of their day to discuss it. If Blitzer grew the cojones to leave Atlanta for awhile and got whacked by a flying FOX News van while covering a hurricane or something, I wouldn't begrudge CNN for talking about that either, nor any other major figures for the other networks.

If they 24/7 it for several days, that's something else entirely, but given it only happened yesterday I'm not going to fault ABC for keeping an eye on it until they know how Woodruff and Vogt are doing. I hardly think it's fair to expect them to behave as though it didn't happen less than a day after it did.




This whole thing's reminded of something I caught several ago, as part of a show on the risks reporters deal with covering wars. There was this one British reporter covering an urban firefight in the Balkans; a pretty hairy thing, with the two forces on opposite sides of a major street firing from storefronts or behind low walls. This guy's more or less standing in the open, with an immaculate white suit, covering the whole thing as though it was some elementary school spelling bee or something. Of course the inevitable happens; a mortar goes off close enough to the guy to seriously injure him, and he goes down. He then proceeds to pick himself back up, obviously wounded, mutters something to the effect of "sorry about that," and continues covering the story.

Gah.

[lovuian]

22. Why are all the journalist being killed

this isn't right!!!

[Hissyspit]

27. Same reason U.S. soldiers, Iraq civilians, police being killed...

It is incredibly dangerous over there. It is a hornet's nest. It is a f*cking MESS.

[hholli11]

28. Is there any update on his condition? nt

[RamboLiberal]

31. Interesting Info from Tom Brokaw who spoke to Woodruff's Wife

"Am I Alive?"
Quoting the AP:

"Former 'NBC Nightly News' anchor Tom Brokaw said Monday that he had spoken with Woodruff's wife, Lee, and said the family told him they had received 'some encouraging news.'

'The doctors had told them once they arrived that the brain swelling had gone down. In Bob's case, that had been a big concern. Yesterday they had to operate and remove part of the skull cap to relieve some of the swelling," Brokaw said on NBC's 'Today' show.

The family also learned some details about the explosion from people who were there, Brokaw said.

'Immediately after the explosion he turned to his producer and said 'Am I alive?' and 'Don't tell Lee,' and then he began to cry out in excruciating pain,' Brokaw said.

He said the family told him doctors don't know for sure whether shrapnel penetrated Woodruff's brain but they were removing additional shrapnel from his neck area."

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/

And from his brother.

"I immediately knew that if my mom was going to call at six in the morning something was going on and that was probably it." James Woodruff told CBS 13, "So I had a feeling something had happened to Bob."

Reports say is older brother has broken bones and undetermined head injuries. But James says no one really knows how Bob is doing. "They did an EKG or a brain scan and it came out negative but I also heard they had to cut his skull open and relieve the pressure from the brain swelling"

ABC Website

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/IraqCoverage/story?id=1556157&page=1

"World News Tonight" co-anchor Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt may be brought to the United States for further treatment as soon as tomorrow.

Doctors at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in western Germany said the two had shown signs of improvement and remained in serious but stable condition following surgery at a U.S. military hospital in Iraq. They were flown to the medical facility in Germany to recover from injuries suffered when their convoy was hit by an improvised explosive device in Iraq on Sunday.

<snip>

"They're very seriously injured, but they are stable," Col. Bryan Gamble, Landstuhl's commander, said today on "Good Morning America" of Woodruff and Vogt.

He said the men were heavily sedated to help with their recovery from head injuries they suffered. The two were under the care of the hospital's trauma team, he said.

[NightOwwl]

32. I get the impression Woodruff is worse off than they say...

like serious brain damage or something.

I felt like this when I heard about Christoper Reeve's horseback riding accident.