The United Nations fave’d my Photo. Sweet.
Desperation, originally uploaded by Benjamin Chertoff. It’s not everyday when the the United Nations singles you out. For better or for worse, I’ll use E.B. White’s description of the organization, as “this lofty target scraping the skies and meeting the destroying planes halfway, home of all people and all nations, capital of everything, housing the [...]
POV Helo Food Drop: Intense!
Haiti, somewhere along the South “Claw,” probably near Jacmel. Notice the momentary “brownout” upon landing: This problem, dust obscuring visibility at low altitude from the wicked rotor-wash of an MH-60 Sea Hawk (the US Navy variant of the famed Blackhawk), is far worse in theaters such as Afghanistan or, especially, Iraq. This has led to [...]
The Things They Carried: A Photo Essay
www.popularmechanics.com: Early in the morning of January 13th, news cameras began to roll, capturing the magnitude of the January 12th earthquake in Haiti. Little did the public know, nearly half a day earlier, senior military leadership was already huddled in an upstairs meeting room at US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), on the phone with the US [...]
Child Labor
Petion-Ville, HAITI — A child at a 5000-person refugee camp west of Port-au-Prince carries a cinderblock on his head. Shot while on a mission with a group from the 82nd Airborne Div. This camp had previously not been found by relief organizations. With tin roofs, salvaged sections of concrete walls serving as building materials, intelligence [...]
Children at the Gate
Children at the Gate, originally uploaded by Benjamin Chertoff. Moving on… Something non-Penn related. Delmas, HAITI — Deep within the winding, steep, unpaved blocks of Delmas, an intel recon team from the 82nd Airborne finds a small refugee camp. The mission: find large, uncharted camps and assess medical needs; this camp, so remotely hidden and [...]
Why Sean Penn Doesn’t Care About CRITICS; VIDEO and Slideshow
Sean Penn has every reason to be pissed at his critics. When I talked to him in Haiti (I was embedded with the 1st-73rd Airborne Cav, 2 Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne out at FOB Grey, in an abandoned country club – story and images here) he was tired, sweaty, in the middle of juggling several satellite phone calls as he tried to get generators down to the disaster response team down the hill. His camp was sprawling; two entire tennis courts. His room and board in Haiti? A tent, smaller than most families take to go camping. The rest of the space on the courts was reserved for humanitarian supplies he’d had flown in and was working with the Army to distribute.
Woman in Tent City, Haiti, January 2010
Woman in Tent City, Haiti, January 2010, originally uploaded by Benjamin Chertoff. HAITI, JANUARY 2010: A girl hides her face behind the tin wall of just one dwelling In a 5000-person camp we found in Petion-Ville that, at the time, had not yet been discovered. I took this while standing on the pick-up bed of [...]
Kids With Guns
Kids With Guns, originally uploaded by Benjamin Chertoff. Deep within the winding, steep, unpaved blocks of Delmas, an intel recon team from the 82nd Airborne finds a small refugee camp. Their mission is to find large, uncharted camps and assess medical needs. This camp, small, remotely hidden and without any serious medical needs, is marked [...]
Ten Seconds to Chaos: 9:24:50 AM
Ten Seconds to Chaos: 9:24:50 AM, originally uploaded by Benjamin Chertoff. Part of my Popular Mechanics photo essay: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4346988.html
PUBLISHED: Ospreys Get their Humanitarian test in Haiti
My third story for Popular Mechanics — this one on the much maligned, but very, very cool, MV-22 Osprey at work in Haiti, is up at PopularMechanics.com. USS Bataan, HAITI — An MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft launches from the flight deck of the Bataan during Operation Unified Response. The relief effort in Haiti is the [...]
PUBLISHED: Flagship in a Box
My next piece for Popular Mechanics is up! Read on to learn how the military is developing command and control units to replace to all-important flagship of yore. Lashed to the USS Bataan’s crowded hangar deck, a group of four sea containers provides complete command and control access for a commanding Naval officer. It also gives [...]
