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From Cornfields to Battlefields
UI journalism alumna Kirsten Scharnberg covers the war in Iraq for the Chicago Tribune
BY KATE BRASER

Kirsten Scharnberg hasn’t had a hot shower in months. Or a decent meal. Or a real bed. As a matter of fact, she shares a tent in the middle of the desert with ten male soldiers.

And she wouldn’t trade it for the world.

“This is the most amazing reporting experience,” Scharnberg said.

The 1998 UI journalism graduate, and former Daily Iowan editor, is one of about 600 reporters embedded in the war with Iraq, fewer than ten percent of them are women. She is a Chicago Tribune correspondent living, eating, and sleeping with the 101st Airborne Division in Kuwait. Scharnberg is the only woman in a camp of 700 infantrymen (women are not allowed in the 101st Airborne). This means her days begin at 4 a.m. when she wakes up to make a hike to the next camp where there are women stationed so she can shower.

“Mind you, ‘showers’ are usually standing in a tub, pouring a couple bottles of water over ourselves, but at least it’s among other women and with a tiny bit of privacy. I don’t get much ‘alone’ time in a camp full of men,” she said.

On Thanksgiving morning of last year, while visiting her family in Everly, Iowa, Scharnberg first realized she would be trading her casual work attire for military issue chemical suits and gas masks. That was when one of her editors at the Chicago Tribune called with a question.
“How would you feel about heading over to Kuwait, to cover the impending war with Iraq?” he asked.

Her response?

“Sure.”

She is used to covering disasters. A member of the so-called disaster circuit of journalism, a position usually held by the young and eager like herself, Scharn-berg has seen firsthand the devastation of Oklahoma City and Ground Zero.

Still, Scharnberg knows this experience will change her.
“I would like to meet myself in six months, I think I will be a somewhat different person after this. How couldn’t I?” she said.

Never before have the ideas of fighting a war and covering it been so closely linked. The war with Iraq is allowing journalists onto the battlefield, separated from the soldiers only by their possessions. The journalists have laptops and cameras; the soldiers have guns.

“I don’t think anyone wants to cover or fight a war, but someone has to,” Scharnberg said.
One week after her Thanksgiving phone call, Scharnberg headed to Fort Benning, Ga., for a journalist boot camp offered by the Pentagon.

“I asked one of the officers what they thought about the idea of embedding journalists,” Scharnberg said. “He told me the opportunities outweigh the dangers, because we are able to stand up for the country that allows us to be in a free press. I think that is a good attitude.”
The next step after boot camp was to meet with an army commander charged with placing journalists with infantry divisions. He asked Scharnberg whether or not she was in good shape. With confidence, she replied she had just finished the Chicago Marathon. Without so much as a smile, he asked her what her finishing time was.
“I guess mine was decent by army standards,” Scharnberg said with a laugh.

She was soon placed with the famed 101st Airborne Division. In February, she headed to Fort Campbell, Ky., to meet with the soldiers soon to become both her subjects and companions.
“Sitting in the desert with these guys will definitely lend itself to narrative pieces,” said Scharnberg, which follows along with her typical writing style.

The challenges of covering a war ob-jectively while living, eating and sleeping with those fighting for their country have proven a valid concern for Scharnberg.
She spends her days talking to the men about their families at home, their children and wives. She watches them do training and listens to their commanders worry over how well their men will perform against the bevy of unknown challenges that lie ahead. She jokes with them in the long meal lines. She knows who writes to their wives every day. She knows which guys pray before bed, and which lie awake and worry.

And then in the morning, Scharnberg wakes up and separates herself from them, so she can report the war fairly and professionally.

To the folks reading her work at home, the men are part of the collective military forces, their daily battles reported impartially. To Kirsten Scharnberg, they are a collection of individuals whose personal battles are familiar. Like them, she sets aside her own emotions and fears every day and does her job.

That is what she is there to do.

“All that said, this is the most amazing reporting experience. Wouldn’t even trade a hot shower for it. Nah, maybe I’d trade it for a hot shower, a decent meal, a real bed. On second thought, nah . . .”