War in Iraq

If the U.S. military goes to war against Iraq, these reporters and photographers will cover the war for Army Times, Air Force Times, Marine Corps Times and Navy Times.
They will also provide coverage for our parent company, Gannett Co., and its flagship paper, USA Today, as well as the Gannett News Service, which sends stories to the other 95 Gannett papers.

Robert Hodierne

Hodierne, 58, is senior managing editor for Army Times Publishing Co., the number two position in a newsroom of 110 journalists. Hodierne began his career as the youngest, fully accredited journalist to cover the Vietnam War. He has worked in newspapers, magazines, radio, television and the Internet. He joined Army Times Publishing in 2000.

Hodierne will open the Qatar bureau.

C. Mark Brinkley

Brinkley, 28, is a senior writer and North Carolina bureau chief for Marine Corps Times. Brinkley, who joined the staff in 1998, has covered Marines and Marine operations around the world: during combat and humanitarian operations in the Balkans; as they conducted controversial amphibious training in Vieques, Puerto Rico; as they participated in war games in South Korea; when the fought forest fires in Idaho; and during combat operations in Afghanistan.

In 2001, Brinkley was one of the first print reporters to enter Afghanistan with U.S. troops, landing at the Camp Rhino desert airstrip during the deepest insertion of Marines in the Corps' history. He spent more than two months with Marines there.

In Iraq, Brinkley will be with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

Matthew Cox

Cox, 35, is a former paratrooper who's been with Army Times for four years. While covering the war in Afghanistan he was regularly the only print reporter invited along when the 82nd Airborne conducted operations. He has covered the military in the Philippines and Kosovo. He has appeared on CNN and Nightline.

In Iraq, Cox will be with the Army's 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).

Rob Curtis

Curtis, 31, started his career in photojournalism during high school in central Maine. After a three-year stay at his first staff job at the Lewiston Sun-Journal, where he picked up a few regional and national awards, Curtis joined the staff of Army Times Publishing Company. Since coming aboard in May 1998, he has covered U.S. military deployments and training exercises around the United States and in more than 20 countries, including Kosovo, and most recently, Afghanistan.

In Iraq, Curtis will be with the Army's 4th Infantry Division.

Mark Faram

Faram, 43, is a senior staff writer for Navy Times who specializes in covering issues pertaining to the lives and careers of enlisted sailors. Faram has also served as a staff photographer for Army Times Publishing Company, winning an award from the Naval Institute for his coverage of the Navy in 1996. He is now on his third tour of duty with the company, rejoining the staff in October 2002.

Faram spent nearly 10 years on active duty, first on the U.S. aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy, then in diving billets as a diver second class. During a portion of that time he served with the Navy's Underwater Photo Team. He also served as a salvage diver on the recovery of Air Florida Flight 90 in Washington, D.C., as well as the recovery of the Space Shuttle Challenger.

In addition to Navy Times, his writing and photography have been published in Time, Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report.

In Iraq, Faram will be with the Navy.

Alan Lessing

Lessig, 38, joined Army Times Publishing Company in 2002 as a senior photographer. He is a former staff photographer for The Detroit News, where he covered a wide range of sports and news assignments, including the three-time Stanley Cup-winning Red Wings hockey team, professional and college football, the 1996 and 2000 presidential campaigns and three World Cup Soccer Championships. His hockey photos were published in three books on the Red Wing's Championships.

In addition, Lessig photographed the Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan, and the Summer Olypics in Sydney, Australia, for The Detroit News and Gannett News Service. Before moving to Detroit, Lessig, worked as a newspaper photographer in San Bernardino, Calif., for The Sun, and in Louisville, Kentucky for The Louisville Courier-Journal, where he was part of the news staff that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for coverage of a tragic drunk-driving accident that killed 27 people on a church bus.

In Iraq, Lessig will be with the Air Force in Qatar and Kuwait.

Gordon Lubold

Gordon Lubold began his professional career at the Grunion Gazette, a community weekly in San Diego. After a stint as assistant editor at a Los Angeles-based book review magazine, he got what he thought was his big break: a job at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Randolph Hearst's gritty flagship paper. Three days later, the paper folded.

After working for about a year at a small weekly in the Fairfax area of Los Angeles, Lubold moved to Washington, D.C. He freelanced and worked on staff for a number of community weekly or monthly newspapers before getting a job at the Fairfax Journal, where he covered local and state politics. In 1999, he joined Marine Corps Times. He covered the last Marines to leave Panama in 2000 and was sent to Afghanistan for a month to cover Marines fighting the war on terrorism.

Jud McCrehin

McCrehin, a senior photographer, has been with Army Times Publishing Co. for five years. Before Army Times, McCrehin worked as a staff photographer at the Killeen (Texas) Daily Herald for two years. While in Killeen, Texas, he covered Fort Hood where his interest in the military began. Before the Killeen Daily Herald, McCrehin worked as a photojournalist for the Orange (Texas) Leader and the Livingston (Montana) Enterprise.

As a photojournalist with the Army Times, McCrehin has covered military missions and training exercises all over the world, including Afghanistan, Bosnia, Japan, South Korea, Bahrain, Singapore, Chile, Italy, Croatia and Guam.

William H. McMichael

When the bombing started in Afghanistan in 2002, McMichael, 52, was aboard the aircraft carrier Enterprise. McMichael, a senior writer who has been with Navy Times since 2000, operates a one-man bureau in Newport News, Va., from which he covers the large U.S. military presence in the Hampton Roads region. We detached him from his Navy coverage to do a major take out on the role the U.S. military plays in supporting the international trade in trafficked women.

Before joining Navy Times, McMichael spent seven years covering military affairs for the Daily Press of Newport News. He has written about the military since 1984 and has reported from locations in the United States, the Caribbean, Europe, the Asian rim and the Middle East. He has visited the latter eight times for stories that have ranged from desert training in Egypt and "no-fly" zone operations in Saudi Arabia to the Persian Gulf War, Operation Enduring Freedom and the current conflict.

In Iraq, McMichael will be with the Navy.

Gordon Trowbridge

Trowbridge, 33, is a senior staff writer at Air Force Times. Prior to joining the paper in 2002, he spent nearly four years at The Detroit News working primarily as a special-projects reporter. His work there won several awards, including recognition as a finalist for the Associated Press Managing Editors Public Service Award, that organization's top prize. He also has worked as a reporter and editor at The Jackson (Tenn.) Sun and the Lansing (Mich.) State Journal.

In Iraq, Trowbridge will be with the Air Force in Kuwait.

Warren Zinn

Zinn, 25, has been a photographer with Army Times Publishing Co. for three years. Before he came to Army Times, he interned with the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel and the Miami Herald. While employed at Army Times, Zinn has covered events all over the world, from uncovering stories about trafficked sex slaves in South Korean to being one of the few people who was at both the Pentagon and the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. Most recently he completed two trips to Afghanistan spending more than 100 days with the troops on the front lines.

In Iraq, Zinn will be with the 3rd Infantry Division.

Army Times Publishing Co. is owned by the Gannett Co. It has no official connection to the U.S. government or the U.S. military.