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Nat Geo Airs Tragic Green Beret Special

May 2, 2007  •  Post A Comment

Doing a show about the Green Berets turned out to be dangerous for a television crew from the National Geographic Channel.
National Geographic Channel was following a special forces team in Afghanistan in October for “Inside the Green Berets” when an improvised explosive device went off, killing two soldiers, wounding five others and injuring the film crew.
The tragic event is part of a special that will air June 3 at 9 p.m.
The special is narrated by producer-director Steve Hoggard, who offers a first-hand account of being under attack and injured.
The show also documents the daily life of the Green Berets, from passing time on base to their dangerous missions.
For this film, the Pentagon waived its 48-hour limitation on embedded media and allowed the National Geographic crew to follow the Green Berets for days.
The network’s crew was with the Green Berets of Fire Base Cobra, moving in a convoy being tracked by the Taliban, when they found their path blocked by active IEDs. The Green Berets detonated all the devices they could find before advancing up a hill.
The camera crew’s vehicle went up the hill first, then got out to film the next two trucks. The third vehicle hit an unexploded IED.
“After the initial shock of the explosion wore off, I remember I felt up and down my arms and my legs and I was just terribly surprised that everything was still there,” Mr. Hoggard recounts in the special. “Once the shock wore off, a guy came up yelling to me, ‘They’re burning, they’re burning!'”
The crew was filming from only 35 feet away, well within the kill radius of an IED explosion. The blast was so strong that it burned the HD tape off the camera, destroying the image. Large pieces of shrapnel and metal were found more than 200 feet from the blast.
The injured soldiers and crew were airlifted out to Kandahar for medical treatment. The sound man, who suffered second-degree burns, stayed behind and returned to the Green Beret base, documenting the aftermath of the explosion with the only camera that survived.

14 Comments

  1. I really enjoyed to show but I am sorry for the US lose of life and the crew from NG. I know what they are doing is right and I know that all is for the good.
    THANKS FOR ALL THE ARMED FORCES DO AND I STAND BEHIND THEN 100%

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  14. Just watched this episode! The only thing I Don’t understand is WHY did the Afghan army truck turn on his headlights on the humvee that gets hit???

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