Fox31's Jeremy Hubbard reports from Afghanistan

[Colorado Media Newsroom]

From The Denver Post:


Fox31′s Jeremy Hubbard reports in Afghanistan

There’s Jeremy Hubbard doing a TV standup in front of snow-capped mountain peaks in a scene that could easily be mistaken for Colorado’s front range. A couple of things are different: Hubbard is wearing a keffiyeh, the traditional Afghan men’s scarf. And the mountains are the Hindu Kush range in an active war zone, in Parwan Province, Afghanistan.
Fox31 will launch an impressive week-long series, “Home from War: Assignment Afghanistan,” Monday within the 9 p.m. news, continuing through Thursday with a full half-hour special slated for Friday at 9:30 p.m. Not only does this series herald the February sweeps (when local ratings are measured to set future advertising rates), it serves as a powerful introduction to poised anchor-reporter Jeremy Hubbard, for those who haven’t yet embraced the veteran of ABC News who will slide into Ron Zappolo’s chair in April.
After a year of groundwork, Hubbard traveled to Afghanistan a few weeks ago to profile members of the 34th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. The squad is made up of reservists (mostly women) who work as emergency room nurses or in related jobs in Colorado.

Jeremy Hubbard and Noah Skinner in Jalalabad

Hubbard and photojournalist Noah Skinner got military clearance to fly along with the squad when they were deployed to Bagram Airfield to help evacuate injured soldiers. “Essentially, they operate an emergency room in the sky, flying into remote outposts, picking up war wounded, and treating them mid-air in a make-shift ER cobbled together inside the belly of a cargo plane,” Hubbard said. The Fox31 team followed as patients were flown to the hospital at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. (The military paid for the overseas flight; a government minder oversaw the visit but didn’t edit the report other than to withhold a couple of closeup images of Afghan Army personnel.)
Per Hubbard: “While we were at Landstuhl a rare thing happened. A soldier died. (They say 99 percent of patients who make it to Landstuhl make it out alive).” Army Staff Sergeant Nicholas Reid from Brockport, NY, who worked as an explosive disposal expert in Afghanistan (like the characters in “The Hurt Locker”) was mortally wounded in a bomb blast days earlier in Afghanistan. The report handles Reid’s death matter of factly, rather than using it to add suspense to the narrative.

Samantha Gonzalez, 455th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron

Many Colorado nursing and military personnel are featured, including Senior Airman Samantha Gonzalez (pictured), a medical technician. The series underscores the sacrifice these workers are making, as well as demonstrating how they stay in touch with family members half a world away via texting and Skype-ing, etc.
“The wifi in Afghanistan was better than in Germany and better than I get at home,” Hubbard said.


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