Miami Herald
November 14, 2006
Pg. 1

A Coral Gables police officer went to Baghdad and brought back home video that is making its debut on cable TV this month.
By Carol Rosenberg
If there is any doubt that U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq, not just the journalists, are writing the first draft of American military history, consider this:
An ordinary soldier turned over a computer disk loaded with snapshots of U.S. troops humiliating Iraqi captives to blow the whistle on the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.
U.S. forces went to Iraq armed with technology that mirrored the media documenting the invasion -- digital cameras, mobile phones and laptop computers, which they tethered to Pentagon Internet portals set up to keep troops in touch with home.
And, in doing so, some soldiers emerged as self-styled journalists, telling their own stories, in their words.
Enter Coral Gables police officer Nelson Quintana, 32. He took a $200 video camera to Iraq with him two years ago for a nine-month U.S. Army stint and is now featured as star, narrator and amateur cameraman in Episode 1 of My War Diary -- a series making its debut this month on The Discovery Channel and The Military Channel.
''This is Baghdad, baby! This is what it's all about,'' he says to his wife in the opening sequence of a choppy home-made video. 'This is `separate the boys from the men,' baby. We're moving in. I love you. Bye.''
Quintana, a University of Miami graduate, was on active duty as an Army Reserve sergeant for nine months in Iraq in 2004, as was his brother, Mike, also a Coral Gables patrolman.
Nelson Quintana says he initially made the videos, which now take up about three gigabites on his laptop computer, to share his experiences with friends and family.
But he had tucked the camera in his desert camouflage trousers on May 17, 2004 -- the day his Humvee crew chased an explosion on the edge of Baghdad's Green Zone -- a moment of high drama on the program.
''The Lord is on our side,'' says Quintana, serving as segment narrator.
As it happened, the blast killed interim Iraqi Governing Council President Izzadine Saleem and six others.
The first two episodes -- in which Quintana is but one contributor -- careen between the sublime and the mind-numbing moments that are typical of any war. Soldiers goof off, play air guitar and desert football, then express awe at Iraq's first elections and ask Iraqis to wave their purple thumbs for the cameras.
Clips offer adrenaline and introspection, thanks to extra studio interviews that enhance frequently wobbly footage with some more thoughtful scenes.
''I just started feeling for the people,'' explains Quintana on realizing that the latest car bomb casualty was a political leader.
''He's the acting president at the time and wanted to make a difference along with his staff and all his bodyguards,'' he says. ``With one fell swoop they were pretty much wiped off the face of the earth. It was quite a scene, it was something I will never forget.''
The Military Channel is running consecutive episodes Friday nights. The first two episodes will be broadcast on The Discovery Channel at 9 p.m. Saturday.
Quintana is featured in the first episode in dusty desert battle dress, in sharp contrast to the crisp Coral Gables uniform he wears as a workaday road patrolman -- a job he started in September 2001.
Both brothers left the department for Iraq duty, then returned to civilian life in October 2004. ''From the first day back to the present he hasn't missed a beat,'' said Chief Michael Hammerschmidt, noting that both brothers returned as ``very productive officers. It's obvious that the military training has served them well.''
So well, in fact, that Nelson Quintana was named 2005 Officer of the Year, a distinction in the 186-officer force.
In an interview Thursday, he said he had not planned to share his footage with a wider audience, but reconsidered when he saw an ad on The Military Channel seeking raw footage. ''I just wanted to document my time over there, more for my family,'' he said. ``Every war goes down in history; I wanted to just bring back a little piece of what it was like over there in Iraq.''
There's almost no political edge to the film, although Quintana says he is now bitter about the way the war turned out, the fact that Iraq never did amass weapons of mass destruction.
But that doesn't come through, he explains, because that's not the job of a soldier.
''Even if you don't agree you have to put a smiley face on it,'' he says. ``You're just there mainly for your buddy next to you, to make sure you bring him back home.''

hey guys. im working with the Military Channel and saw the premiere of My War Diary and thought it was really cool. it's really amazing to see the iraqi warzone in what is truly from our soldiers point-of-view. this is pretty much the first time in history where technology has allowed soldiers to document the war themselves with video and photos -- before we waited for letters and stories from the front. there is so much hype lately about user generated content and this is one of the coolest applications i have probably seen of this yet -- this isnt the news, this is iraq from the soldiers' perspective.