Newspaper Publishes Iraq War Photographer's Story

(EUGENE, Ore.) - The story of a freelance photographer that I traveled to Iraq with recently is now published in the Eugene Register Guard Newspaper. Justin King had never been in the military, nor had he spent time in a war theater, but this Eugene resident known throughout the world for his guitar skills, showed us all that he had exactly what it takes to shoot amazing images under less than ideal conditions.

Justin spent time with a number of units under the Army's 101st Airborne attached to the air base at Balad known as Camp Anaconda. He traveled to Baghdad as well, spending part of a day learning the history of some of the city's sites that many people are familiar with, through television coverage of the war.

Justin's guitar work is world famous, though you could spend days with him and not even know he plays. In the war zone Justin was a photographer, that is unless people recognized him; then he was a guitar virtuoso again.

One day we were standing in the Baghdad International Airport, trying to catch a helicopter ride to an LZ near the media credentialing office. As we had handed over our ID, the guy from the Air Force said, "Man, there is a guitarist named Justin King who is really amazing".

This was just one of the moments along those lines that I experienced while hanging around with Justin in Iraq.

On another day we flew back to Balad in a helicopter, and were trying to find our way back across base to our living quarters at 3:00 AM, when a soldier came driving along and offered us a ride. The guy had a guitar, and Justin played a mesmerizing rift that I suspect, very very few guitar players are capable of. The soldier and I were blown away as Justin performed complicated music in a casual way under a starless Iraqi sky.

Please check out Justin's article in the Eugene Register Guard. His experience was very similar to mine and he notes the changes taking place with the Sons of Iraq under the Sunni Awakening Councils.

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Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor.
Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 in Afghanistan with Oregon troops. Tim recently returned from Iraq where he covered the war there while embedded with an Oregon Guard aviation unit. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website, affiliated with Google News and several other major search engines and news aggregators.
You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com

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Henry Clay Ruark November 27, 2008 9:32 am (Pacific time)

m-t: Yours rung gamut from rumor to fantasy, missing any

Henry Clay Ruark November 27, 2008 9:32 am (Pacific time)

m-t: Yours rung gamut from rumor to fantasy, missing any "truth" except what resides within your own mind. Many demand something rational rather than that alone. Appreciate your apparent plight from past painful position with similars, so suggest you seek counselor you can trust and lay it all out there in depth for what it may mean to you. Owe you whatever taste of reality we can offer, and best wishes for wise consideration.

muchtruth November 26, 2008 7:49 pm (Pacific time)

by the way Tim.. I asked you about the Uganda soldiers and you never got back to me. I searched myself and found nothing. But I was so curious that, maybe something out there helped me. I heard about it today.. The REAL truth.. see my last post. Hear if from someone who actually got access. But no, its too dificult to click a link, its easier to fly across the planet to make you feel like you did something big. wake up. Truth needs NOT an airplane to take you somewhere that lies abound. Learn the truth. Even if it hurts.

muchtuth November 26, 2008 7:43 pm (Pacific time)

Jason needs so simply go to www.infowars. com Click on the radio show windows media. Right in the middle of the page. It streams. so 9pm, 11pm, 1am etc. Find out what is happening on bases that they wont let YOU see with your frigin camera and good intentions. By the way, I could keep up and pass you by on the guitar..I play 15 other instruments also.it simply doesnt matter to me anymore. This country is less than 2 years away from being 3rd world country. Please people..wake up! Turn off your tv, and quit following the status qou that too many are following. Well, COMEX has something comin, lets just see where that leads before I make a butt of myself. COMEX will have to deliver if people ask for it. Lets see what happens.

Henry Ruark November 25, 2008 7:53 am (Pacific time)

Tim et al: Am amazed but not surprised at your close contact with this other skilled King. Clipped R/G story since his photos were so solidly at top of professional production. Can so state after ten years of Annual Report Photography surveys of 400-600 AR's. His stuff great, love to have a print if ever opportunity offers. Again, unique life experience --yours, this time !-- report here shares fine thing with all. Thanks, and relay to "the other King" congratulations on both his images and his music.

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