April 10, 2003
CONTENTS

15 MINUTES WITH Joshua Davis, Wired's Embedded Author in Iraq

JOSHUA DAVIS, Embedded in Iraq for Wired

by Jonathan Angel

Wired Magazine became the first -- and probably only -- technology magazine to have one of its journalists embedded with the military in Iraq. It will soon publish an article by freelance writer Joshua Davis, covering how the Army is using PCs and networking technology in Iraq. We spoke with Davis by phone from Kuwait City.

TM: First, were you embedded just for Wired, or are you writing for other titles as well?

JD: It is an exclusive assignment for Wired. It started two or three months ago as an idea that I had to follow the Army's 11th Signal Brigade, which is the unit that basically wires the war. I had made contact with them and been talking to them regularly, so that's where it came from.

TM: You've found a lot of off-the-shelf technology, put together in a fashion that sometimes seems jerry-rigged. Was that a disappointment?

JD: I'm not so much disappointed as surprised. The things that I've been seeing out in the field are off-the-shelf systems. In one sense that's a good way for them to go. Why would they go through the process of developing special systems to meet their needs when that would take five years?

Either you wait five years and get something outdated, or you just go to your local corner store and buy a bunch of Cisco routers and put them up. They decided to do it that way. I don't think it was motivated just by affordability, although that's certainly part of it.

What's so interesting is seeing how these guys take systems that were never intended to be used in the conditions in which they're being used and make them work. They're meant to be used in clean rooms or server bays in Silicon Valley, where they're cooled and there's no dust. When I'm out there I'm wiping the dust off of my face watching these guys vacuum servers out in the field. You'll see a whole rack of Cisco routers in the middle of the desert in a tent.

They have what they call data packages, which is a black box that contains a number of servers. Those servers are encased in foam when they travel. It's been fascinating to see how these things work. Once they get somewhere they'll take them out of the foam and put them into a rack.

TM: How are the servers connected into a network over multiple sites?

JD: The system leapfrogs itself. They'll go to the furthest edge of the network, which is the edge of the battlefield, and they'll set up things up. As the battlefield moves forward, systems are brought from the rear to become the new point man.

Connectivity between sites is via a giant web of wireless connections that stretch to the border. It's not until the signal reaches the border that it is transmitted via satellite to Camp Doha, which is the forward command center, and to Centcom, which is in Qatar. Then it goes to the Department of Defense back in the States.

TM: Are you at liberty to discuss the wireless technology? That aspect can't be off-the-shelf civilian stuff.

JD: No, it's Army design stuff. They can consult data on the move via Army-developed wireless devices that have an Ethernet plug. They plug in Panasonic Toughbooks, for example, and are on the military's Siprnet (Secret Internet Protocol Router Network). When the Siprnet is being used in this fashion, out in a battle, they refer to it as the Tactical Internet.

In the instance that I saw, the network wasn't super-zippy. It wasn't like my DSL at home, but it does the trick for the way they use it.

TM: Would you describe the computer technology as being integral to the military's effort, or are they still really just testing it?

JD: I would argue that it has become integral. I'm not sure that they necessarily planned it that way. We could do without cell phones. But could we do the same things? No. And the same holds true for the army.

This network gives the Army more choices about how to operate. For example, since two or three weeks before the war started, they started using chat rooms, helping people meet who are specialists in certain aspects -- artillery, for example. As the war started and progressed, they would have conversations in these chat rooms about specific battles.

On the fly they adapted these to bring all sorts of new resources to bear. For example, they'd have an analyst back at the DoD looking at the same data they were looking at. It might be an expert on minefields, for instance, who types in "look in Quadrant XY -- there's a minefield."

TM: I'm guessing it's going to be a challenge for you writing the article, in that for the readers of Wired, you want to be as specific about technology as you can. Yet you must have seen things you aren't allowed to talk about.

JD: I haven't had too much problem with that. I'm traveling with Ed Kashi, a very well-known photographer, and so before Ed and I go into a room, we're warned if there are things we can't take pictures of. From my point of view, that's fine. From Ed's point of view, it's a little more difficult.

For me, it doesn't take away from my story not to be able to give secret details such as what frequency they're broadcasting on. I don't care about that at all. That's the type of stuff they're concerned about, so they don't want us taking pictures of wireless transceivers that would give that sort of information.

It has been hard to get them to talk about how they're using the technology when they're right in the middle of a battle. They want to tell me and would be happy to tell me, but they can't talk about operational stuff when it's going on. However, I have been able to get them to give me examples from a day or two ago.

TM: Are you looking at doing a follow-up story when more can be told openly?

JD: What I'm most interested in is writing something about the great almost-story of this war, from a tech point of view. Namely, the deployment of the 4th Infantry Division. This is the Army's "first digitized division," where they went in from the top down and wired them purposefully, as opposed to having each individual unit figure out how to do it themselves.

This division was supposed to go through Turkey, and we all know what happened there. Their equipment had to go back through the Suez and come up the Gulf, and was late in being deployed. I was initially going to cover them, but when I realized they weren't going to make it in time, I decided I'd just write about the 11th Signal Brigade. They turned out to get a much more important role in the actual war.

TM: The program of embedding journalists in the troops has not been without controversy. As you've been involved with it, have you felt any ethical concerns?

JD: Well, there are always ethical concerns with journalism. In this case, I don't see it as being any different than the last story I wrote for Wired, which was about America's fifth-largest tobacco manufacturer, where I was following around these corporate types. People want press, and they hope it's going to be of a certain nature. But that doesn't mean they'll get it.

JD: Finally, has your own situation been physically taxing in any way?

TM: Well, I've been pretty dirty. I've been wearing the same clothes for five days and not showering or shaving. I do brush my teeth!

Jonathan Angel is senior editor for Adweek Magazines' TECHNOLOGY MARKETING. Reach him at jangel@technologymarketing.com .