SV soldier’s camera work in Iraq lands her TV spot

CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq — It was 3 o’clock on a January morning when a convoy of Stryker vehicles rolled out of this protected American base near the main Baghdad airport.

The discovery of 27 bodies on a part of Haifa Street, a meandering road that also goes through the Green Zone or, as it is now called, International Zone, meant it was time to help the Iraqis take back what has been called one of Baghdad’s meanest and toughest areas, a place, according to news reports, even henchmen of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein avoided.

Sgt. Holly Jensen of the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, out of Fort Lewis, Wash., was in one of the vehicles.

The 31-year-old non-commissioned officer was thousands of miles from the safety of what had once been her home — Sierra Vista.

That day, Jensen was armed with a weapon like most soldiers. But her main gear was a video camera.

Her mission was to shoot film, not bullets, and capture the sights and sounds of battle while embedded with a sniper team.

As the Americans began their sweep along the street, “we were met with hand grenades, RPGs (rocket propelled grenades) and small arms fire,” Jensen said during a telephone interview from Iraq on Thursday morning.

Entering one of the apartment buildings, the team she was covering and about a company of other soldiers headed to secure the structure.

In one of the rooms, a bullet whizzed over her head, striking a wall about an inch or two above Jensen.

The heat of battle was between an enemy determined to remain in charge, and American and Iraqi forces more determined to make Haifa Street safe for its residents.

The end result of the battle, which lasted for three days, was that U.S. and Iraqi forces won.

The enemy in the predominately Sunni area also had snipers who tried to take out American and Iraqi troops, shooting at them at street level or aiming at people in the buildings. One soldier from the company Jensen was with was shot through the leg in one of the building’s apartments, and another on the street level was shot and killed by an Iraqi sniper.

Jensen and her battle buddy, Spc. Shea Butler, a print journalist and still photographer, focused on their sniper team.

Staff Sgt. Sean Milligan, of the combat team’s 1st Battalion of the 23rd Infantry Regiment, was one of the sniper team members.

His weapon was a .50-caliber rifle, the M107, which has an effective range against personnel as far as 1,600 yards. It was initially tested in Iraq and finally approved for full use as an urban weapon in early 2005.

Concentrating on Milligan’s actions and scenes of action below, Jensen’s video footage of that day’s battle, which lasted for hours on Haifa Street, with its warrens of alleys and from the rooftops of 10-story high apartment buildings, as Army helicopter gunships flew overhead, ended up on numerous television outlets, including CNN, NBC and CBS.

It also drew the interest of producers of the “My War Diary,” which is shown on The Military Channel.

Jan Lonsdale, producer of the show, said the company tracked Jensen down to see if she would be interested in being one of the subjects for the show.

The object of “My War Diary” is to have GIs tell their stories and show their photos.

On Saturday, the segment involving Jensen and some other soldiers from the January incident will be shown at 7:30 p.m. on The Military Channel. In Sierra Vista, the channel number is 104.

A series of older episodes of the half-hour show will start at 3 p.m. Saturday, with two new ones — one at 7 p.m. and the other at 7:30 p.m., Lonsdale said. Jensen’s segment starts off the last show that evening.

There are a number of segments, each lasting between three and six minutes. The Haifa Street fight is a longer segment.

“Holly is a very articulate person,” Lonsdale said about the soldier’s ability to describe what happened.

That January day, Jensen also found that the video camera comes in handy to help spot for areas where trouble is located.

With the camera’s zoom feature, she was able to look for potential enemy during the fight, seeing at least one sniper in a concealed position who disappeared before Milligan could get a read on him.

Another time she was able to look 500 yards down the street and concentrate on an area where some gunfire was coming from, but she found nothing for which counterfire could be used.

There were frightening times. But, she said, “I felt safe” because of the security of being with a well-trained infantry unit.

Almost a half day after starting, the unit pulled out and headed back to Camp Liberty.

The footage had to be reviewed, edited and made into packages, with voiceovers, and sent up to be provided to commercial outlets. The footage she shot had so many elements it was hard to decide how to package the video to tell the story of the sniper team she was assigned to cover.

Some of it can be seen today when watching CNN, where it is still used as part of a backdrop on the Wolf Blitzer show, she said.

Even after completing her work, Jensen and Butler continued to talk about the day’s activities long after getting to their billets, showering and relaxing.

Every soldier has a battle buddy. Jensen and Butler, having been through combat, “are true battle buddies.”

Both soldiers were awarded the Battle Action Badge for their part in the Battle of Haifa Street.

The badge, formally approved on May 2, 2005, has a number of requirements to be met before it is awarded, including a soldier must be personally present and actively engaging or being engaged by the enemy.

Jensen and Butler, members of the 7th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment from Fort Hood, Texas, were presented the badge by Lt. Col. Avanulas Smiley, commander of the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 2nd Infantry Division.

Jensen will soon be home. She arrived in Iraq in October and is expected back this October, not required to do 15 months as some units have been extended to do.

Jensen’s enlistment is up and she should have been discharged earlier this week, but like many soldiers she was caught up in the Army’s stop-loss program, meaning they have to remain beyond their discharge date.

The 1994 Buena High School graduate has an associate’s degree in journalism from Cochise College and a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Arizona. She enlisted in the Army four years ago.

She is married to a former soldier, Paul Criner, who is originally from Marana. She met him while assigned at Fort Irwin, Calif. He is now in the Army Reserves and lives Copperas Cove, Texas, near Fort Hood, where he works as a contract broadcaster.

During her two-week break, she and Paul plan to spend the time in Italy before she heads back to Iraq and he goes to Texas.

Jensen’s mother, Norma Degonzague, and her father, Ron, live in Sierra Vista. Her mom is a former soldier, and Jensen was born on Fort Huachuca.

The soldier has a sister, Lisa McClellen, who lives in Sierra Vista, and a brother, Mike, who resides in Omaha, Neb.

Jensen hasn’t just filmed combat footage. She also has filmed some happy times involving Iraqis, especially children, on the former battle street.

“They love the soldiers,” she said, especially since they know the GIs always have candy for them. “They love to do high-fives with the guys.”

Haifa Street is more lively today. Jensen said people walk around without as much fear as they had in the past.

Having the opportunity to meet with Iraqi women has been another plus for the soldier, who noted many times Iraqi men, who are getting used to seeing American female soldiers, would ask her to meet their wives.

But she will always remember there is much sadness coming out of Iraq. Much of that is centered around ceremonies involving honoring dead soldiers.

She and other public affairs soldiers record the ceremonies for a GI’s unit and that person’s family.

One of the most difficult things to film is a soldier, tears streaming down his face, saying a final farewell to a buddy who died, as Jensen said.

It is emotional for everyone. She has to hold back her tears during a memorial ceremony because she must be a professional in filming the event.

“I cry when it’s over,” Jensen said of the five ceremonies she has filmed.

herald/Review senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.

Sgt. Holly Jensen videos combat action during a battle in Baghdad. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Shea Butler

Maybe, just maybe, our reverence for life. And our tradition that the loss of life is not a time to whip up a crowd into a frenzied mob of murderers...but it is a time to be repectful, dignified and introspective has been noticed by some Iraqi’s

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