New York Times Delivers Stirring War Report From Afghanistan

This weekend in real journalism: C.J. Chivers turns out a vibrant and arresting report from Marja, Afghanistan entitled “In the Cold of Morning, Descending Into Conflict.” Told in a narrative style, the piece is a relic of the traditional embedded war reporting mourned by Baby Boomers and blog-haters alike. It’s well worth a read.

The article’s opening sets a scene most familiar from an endless stream of war movies and video games:

The helicopter was filled with men and dark in its cabin when a voice cut over the whir of the rotors.

“Five minutes out!”

The men of Company K, Third Battalion, Sixth Marines, shoved their clips into their rifles and pulled back their bolts. A chorus of clanks rose and fell.

The whir of the rotors filled the cabin again. The helicopter banked in the darkness.

“One minute out!”

The men of Company K hollered and whooped.

The CH-47 touched down, and the ramps came down, and the young men scampered into the cold and dark. It was 2:40 a.m.

From there, Chivers tells succinctly of a Marine mission, not necessarily with a news peg but with enough detail to imply an intimate firsthand understanding of the conflict.

For a war that often seems too far away to understand, the report is enlightening and representative of the service of nonpartisan wartime reporting. Read the rest here.

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