Request for OIF Video

In my day job I work urban operations issues for the Marine Corps. One of the projects I am involved in is the production of an official USMC video on insights and observations from Operation Iraqi Freedom / Telic / Falconer / Catalyst. These insights and observations are based on our Emerald Express series of seminars where we pulled in recently returned operators in order to capture their knowledge and lessons.

This project is by no-means Marine Corps centric; Emerald Express is Joint, Coalition and Interagency and operators from all sister services to include Coast Guard, United Kingdom, Australia, State Department, USAID and others participated.

Our desire is to reflect all the Joint, Multinational and Interagency aspects of OIF (focusing on the urban operating environment) in the video. We have captured this on the text (narration) side but could still use some additional digital video. A project team member spent a week at Joint Combat Camera and brought back some excellent footage. That said, we need some more to round-out the video back-drop to the narration.

If you have digital video of operations in Iraq and would be willing to share it with this project it would be most appreciated. PM me here and I will give you my official e-mail address for further discussion. Again, the video is part of an official USMC project and your video will not be used for commercial or personal purposes. If desired and your video is used you will be recognized in the credits.

...clips relating to OIF urban operations - all services, interagency, coalition that cover the Three Block War...

The video project is now complete and awaiting approval for distro. If I say so myself it turned out great.

We had a great team and especially a great project lead (Caitlin). Everyone put their heart and soul into the project.

Thanks to all who e-mailed and PMed pointers on attaining background video. We ended up using a "Ken Burns" format, combining video, stills and video interviews (ala History Channel).

The video is called New Challenges for Military Operations in the 21st Century: Emerald Express Insights and Observations from Operation Iraqi Freedom. The video is divided into seven sections - Introduction, Winning the People, Strategic Compression, Filling the Gap, Becoming an Agile Force, Improving Civil-Military Unity of Effort, and Enhancing Coalition Operations. It runs 55 minutes and is in DVD format.

Emerald Express is a long-standing USMC program of assessing insights and observations from real-world military operations. The Emerald Express seminars used for the video were part of the USMC - US Joint Forces Command Joint Urban Warrior program.

I'll keep the board posted on when it is approved for release and how to get a copy through their official channels.

S/F

Dave