Last weekend I had the opportunity to embed with BU’s ROTC cadets during their weekend-long Ranger Challenge at Fort Devens in Ayer, Mass. Ranger Challenge is sometimes considered to be the varsity sport of Army ROTC. Each year, the ROTC’s 1st Brigade/ Eastern Region (made up of schools from New England and New York) competes in a series of eight events over the course of the competition weekend. These squads are composed of the best cadets in each host school’s ROTC Battalion.

I photographed the cadets as they competed in events including an obstacle course, physical fitness tests, M16 marksmanship, M16 disassembly and reassembly, grenade training, and land navigation. As I experienced, journalists who live, eat, sleep and train with the troops risk jeopardizing the core values of unbiased, objective journalism. Is there such a thing as unbiased embedded journalism?

Embedded journalists — who rely on their troops for everything from food, supplies, and even protection from the enemy — put themselves in danger of creating relationships with the troops that threaten unbiased, objective journalism. I tried to remain as unbiased and objective as possible, knowing that my ethics would be put to the test. As the weekend’s events unfolded, I developed relationships with the cadets. I saw the cadets’ relationships with one another and the bonds they had formed. I interacted with them and began to see the people behind the uniforms.


As much as I hate to admit it, keeping an objective mindset was much easier said than done. In truth, I needed them more than they needed me. I depended on them to literally lead me out of the woods. They gave me food, a place to sleep and transportation. They told me when I needed to put my helmet on. I found I was relying on them not only for direction and guidance, but also for my story. I needed develop some sort of working relationship to document what they were doing. I wasn’t simply there on my own accord to photograph them; I was there because they were allowing me to be there. I was their guest. I needed their permission and their clearance to be there. Objective journalism was far gone by the end of the weekend.

The idea of journalists embedding with the military during operations to provide “accurate, unbiased reporting” does not exist and works against what we as journalists are trying to uncover — the truth. Still, the cadets at BU worked so hard and for so long. They finished in third place. I have a newfound respect for our military and the young men and women who plan to enter the armed forces.

OK, so maybe I wasn’t deep in the trenches with the enemy all around me, but nevertheless, is was a great experience of what an embedded photojournalist might encounter. Waking up at 4 a.m., working all day and night, eating MREs and being in the field all day wasn’t easy. Would I want to become a combat photographer? I doubt my mom would allow it, but then again, photojournalists need to go where the stories are.