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- Part 8: David Swan
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- Vermont Public Radio
In these remarkably candid first-person stories, we hear about the day-to-day life of a soldier, the waiting for something to happen, and what it?s like to face life-or-death situations. These eight soldiers from Task Force Saber open up about some of their fears now that their time in Iraq is over?fears of emotions that might rise up, fears of not being able to find people who will understand what they're talking about, and fears of long-term emotional scars. All of the soldiers served in the Vermont National Guard, yet their stories are universal. The stories were recorded during demobilization at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, by Vermont Public Radio.
David Swan
(Host intro) David Swan commanded 27 men as part of Task Force Saber. Swan's unit patrolled in the Tamim area of Iraq. Swan says few days passed without incident. Today, as we conclude our series of "Soldier Stories", he describes one particular battle and talks about how his experiences in Iraq will stay with him.
--Audio content--
(Host outro) David Swan, with the conclusion of our series, ?Soldier Stories?. Soldier stories were recorded on location at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. They are the stories of members of the Vermont National Guard who served in Task Force Saber. The stories were produced by Vermont Public Radio. Steve Zind was the reporter. Chris Albertine was the audio engineer.
(optional music bed provided)
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Piece Description
In these remarkably candid first-person stories, we hear about the day-to-day life of a soldier, the waiting for something to happen, and what it?s like to face life-or-death situations. These eight soldiers from Task Force Saber open up about some of their fears now that their time in Iraq is over?fears of emotions that might rise up, fears of not being able to find people who will understand what they're talking about, and fears of long-term emotional scars. All of the soldiers served in the Vermont National Guard, yet their stories are universal. The stories were recorded during demobilization at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, by Vermont Public Radio. David Swan (Host intro) David Swan commanded 27 men as part of Task Force Saber. Swan's unit patrolled in the Tamim area of Iraq. Swan says few days passed without incident. Today, as we conclude our series of "Soldier Stories", he describes one particular battle and talks about how his experiences in Iraq will stay with him. --Audio content-- (Host outro) David Swan, with the conclusion of our series, ?Soldier Stories?. Soldier stories were recorded on location at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. They are the stories of members of the Vermont National Guard who served in Task Force Saber. The stories were produced by Vermont Public Radio. Steve Zind was the reporter. Chris Albertine was the audio engineer. (optional music bed provided)
Broadcast History
Vermont Public Radio broadcast this piece on June 23, 2006.
Transcript
(Swan) "The gun trucks were roving through the town. They came into an ambush, probably seven insurgents that ambushed them with heavy machine gun fire. And the squad leader started maneuvering his men. We returned fire and ended up killing two insurgents at that point. And then we started doing house searches after that to see if we could get any more insurgents."
"The houses were your typical third world kind of houses. Some people had nice furniture. Some people would have just a mattress on the floor. A lot of people were driving around in Mercedes but they wouldn't have anything in the house."
"I feared more for my men's sake than I did for my own sake. That was the hardest part for me cause I was in command of the twenty-seven guys there and it was pretty hard to you just never know what was going to happen next, five minutes from now or a day from now."
"I had one soldie...
Read the full transcript
Timing and Cues
(Host intro) David Swan commanded 27 men as part of Task Force Saber. Swan's unit patrolled in the Tamim area of Iraq. Swan says few days passed without incident. Today, as we conclude our series of "Soldier Stories", he describes one particular battle and talks about how his experiences in Iraq will stay with him.
(Host outro) David Swan, with the conclusion of our series, ?Soldier Stories?. Soldier stories were recorded on location at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. They are the stories of members of the Vermont National Guard who served in Task Force Saber. The stories were produced by Vermont Public Radio. Steve Zind was the reporter. Chris Albertine was the audio engineer.
(optional music bed provided)
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Bill Anderson
Posted on July 21, 2006 at 10:51 AM | Permalink
Review of Part 8: David Swan
This short piece was well edited. It detailed some of the grim realities of war, from the act of killing to being injured physically and/or emotionally.
I question why the description of the houses which were searched was included including the reference to Mercedes autos.
I liked the simplicity of this and the narrator just spoke as oppossed to speaking into a microphone.
I gave it a low rating only because we are getting a steady diet of these first-person stories on the news magazines. That's no fault of the producer and not a reflection on the producer's work.
That said, I would use them if the voices were from my community.