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A shi'ite militiaman patrols the streets of Al-Sadr city, August 6, 2004 while looking for any U.S. forces trying to enter the area. Militia loyal to the Shi'ite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr battled with U.S. and British forces across central and southern Iraq all night Thursday and Friday threatening a full scale Shi'ite uprising.
(Detroit Free Press/Knight Ridder/David P. Gilkey) (I) International On a highway outside of Al Tamar and Al Oubaidy, Iraq, a man in a bus looks at the soldiers passing by in a Humvee. The soldiers [with the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division, Apache Company 1-12 Cav. from Fort Hood Texas] are on daily patrols through the streets of Al Tamar and Al Oubaidy on the outskirts of Sadr City, neighborhoods in which, just days before, they were fighting. The reaction to their presence is varied from excitment to disgust to curiosity to indifference. The only constants are the vehicle's walls of steel and glass between the soldiers and the citizens.
(Detroit Free Press/Knight Ridder/David P. Gilkey) (I) International A shi'ite militiaman patrols the streets of Al-Sadr city, August 6, 2004 while looking for any U.S. forces trying to enter the area. Militia loyal to the Shi'ite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr battled with U.S. and British forces across central and southern Iraq all night Thursday and Friday threatening a full scale Shi'ite uprising.
(Detroit Free Press/Knight Ridder/David P. Gilkey) (I) International Soldiers with Alpha Troop, 3rd Squadron, 3-4 Cavalry Regiment based at Schofeild Barracks Hawaii, try to fight the 100 mph wind coming off the rotors of a CH-47 Chinook helicopter after it sling loaded in the units Humvee's high in the mountains of the Minashan Districct of Kandahar Province. Comanders of the 3-4 Cav consider Afghanistan just as dangerous as Iraq. The mission is in support of providing stability to the region for the upcoming presidential vote on October 9, 2004. as well as helping local Afghan officials take over security on their own in the areas.
(Detroit Free Press/Knight Ridder/David P. Gilkey) (I) International Story: U.S.-Iraq/ Tikrit Damage
Date: November 17, 2003.
Caption: A Iraqi boy looks through a room that was peppered with gunfire in one of three homes that was destroyed overnight in a neighborhood near the Tigris river by the U.S. Armys 4th Infantry Division during operation Ivy Cyclone II in Tikrit, Iraq Monday November 17, 2003. The homes that were targeted in the neighborhood were also the sights of last weeks arrests of the suspects captured in the shooting down of a Black Hawk helicopter. (Detroit Free Press/David P. Gilkey) (I) International Soldiers with the Long Range Surveillance Detatchment (LSRD) attached to with Alpha Troop, 3-4 Cav, stand over Malik, a 14 year old Afghan boy, and his father after he was shot during a gun battle in the village of Parle in the mountains of the Minashan Districct of Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan. Comanders of the 3-4 Cav consider Afghanistan just as dangerous as Iraq. The mission is in support of providing stability to the region for the upcoming presidential vote on October 9, 2004. as well as helping local Afghan officials take over security on their own in the areas.
(Detroit Free Press/Knight Ridder/David P. Gilkey) (I) International 20 year old Wasan Rishaq is carried away to a ambulance from a hospital in Shullah west of Baghdad after being shot during a gun battle between U.S. forces and Shi'ite militiamen August 6, 2004. Militia loyal to the Shi'ite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr battled with U.S. and British forces across central and southern Iraq all night Thursday and Friday threatening a full scale Shi'ite uprising.
(Detroit Free Press/Knight Ridder/David P. Gilkey) (I) International Story: Afghanistan Refugee
Date: October 16, 2001.
Caption: A Afghani refugee woman holds her crying child in the back of a of a car after a all day journey to escape the Taliban controlled areas after fleaing Kabul, about 25 miles away, to the town of Nowabad while on the only road that is open for travel to the Northern Alliance controlled areas of the Islamic State of Afghanistan Tuesday October 16, 2001. Only a trickle of people fleaing the bombings in Kabul have made the journey to the north but more are exspected if the U.S. attacks continue. (PHOTO BY DAVID P. GILKEY/THE DETROIT FREE PRESS/KNIGHT RIDDER) Pekay, 13, stands next to her father Mohammad Omar at the family home in Kabul, Afghanistan. Pekay bears the scars of her last beating from her husband Malik Mohammad who broke her nose and split her lip. Pekay was married to Malik Mohammad during the rule of the Taliban to settle a family loan when she was only 9 years old. Since the marriage she has been regularly beaten and sexually assulted over the course of the past 3 years before fleeeing back to her family. Over 60,000 Internally Displaced People (IDP) have fleed to refugee camps in Zalingei in west Darfur Sudan. The humanitarian crisis in Darfur is expected to last well in to next year as the delivery and production of food is becoming increasingly difficult due to the ongoing violence and insecurity across the Darfur region. Brig. Gen. Robert Neller (CQdg), who grew up in East Lansing, left, talks with Capt. Scott Huesing (CQdg), from Chicago, right, during a visit to units fighting in Ramadi Iraq. As the Deputy Commanding General, Operations, Multi-National Forces-West, Neller, 53, overseas the 1/24 reserve Marines and other forces in Anbar province.
(Photo by DAVID P. GILKEY/Detroit Free Press) 20 year old Wasan Rishaq is cared for by doctors at a hospital in Shullah west of Baghdad after being shot during a gun battle between U.S. forces and Shi'ite militiamen August 6, 2004. Militia loyal to the Shi'ite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr battled with U.S. and British forces across central and southern Iraq all night Thursday and Friday threatening a full scale Shi'ite uprising.
(Detroit Free Press/Knight Ridder/David P. Gilkey) (I) International Story: Army 3rd ID/One Year Later
Date: April 6, 2003.
Caption: Capt. John Whyte, bottom left, works with his soldiers from Alpha Company 1-30 Infantry while in a tunnel bellow the runways of Saddam International Airport, now Baghdad International Airport, during a search of the under ground network of tunnels that connects the airport buildings as U.S. troops continued to clear the area Sunday April 6, 2003. One year after the ground war in Iraq the soldiers with Alpha Company 1-30 Infantry recall memories of the hardships and combat in Iraq while trying to stay focused as they prepare to go back as early as this fall.(PHOTO BY DAVID P. GILKEY/DETROIT FREEPRESS) Detroit Free Press writer, Joe Swickard, left and Detroit Free Press photographer, David Gilkey, right, in Iraq. December 2006 Story: U.S.-Iraq/ IED
Date: November 7, 2003.
Caption: Lt. Jason O'Neal, with Alpha Company 1-16 Inf, 1st Infantry Division, mans a 50. Cal machine gun on the top of a 113 transport vehicle while searching for improvised explosive device's (ied's) on the highway leading out of Fallujah Iraq. Knight Ridder (Detroit Free Press/David P. Gilkey) (I) International A Iraqi woman looks back at the gunner on the roof of a Humvee in Al Tamar, Iraq. The soldiers [with the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division, Apache Company 1-12 Cav. from Fort Hood Texas] are on daily patrols through the streets of Al Tamar and Al Oubaidy on the outskirts of Sadr City, neighborhoods in which, just days before, they were fighting. The reaction to their presence is varied from excitment to disgust to curiosity to indifference. The only constants are the vehicle's walls of steel and glass between the soldiers and the citizens.
(Detroit Free Press/Knight Ridder/David P. Gilkey) (I) International Noraldien Abdula, 18, from the war torn village of Tawila, sets up a plastic shelter on the edge of the Abu Shouk refugee camp in northern Darfur Sudan Thursday November 25, 2004. Internally Dicplaced Peoples, IDPs, are still arriving in the camps after resent fighting between rebel forces and government soldiers in the areas around the Abu Shouk camp. Aaron McAlister, from Maypearl Texas, left, and Chuck Ayars, from Nashville Tenn., right, both snipers with the U.S. Armys 1st Cavalry Division, 1st Brigade, 1-12 Cav. from Fort Hood Texas, take aim at a suspected enemy observer looking in at Camp Eagle from a neighborhood outside of Sadr City Iraq in Baghdad Monday Aug. 16, 2004. (AP Photo//David P. Gilkey, Pool) Afghan Justice of the Supreme Court Sayeed Omar Munib ruled against the divorce between Pekay, 13, and Malik Mohammad despite the ruling of the lower family court to grant the seperation. The Supreme Court follows a more traditional set of rules based more on religion, tribal values and tradition. Pekay was married to Malik Mohammad during the rule of the Taliban to settle a family loan when she was only 9 years old. Since the marriage she had been regularly beaten and sexually assulted before fleeeing back to her family. Macedonian soldiers with ISAF work to install a razor wire fence in front of a voting station in downtown Kabul Afghanistan October 8, 2004. Security around Kabul is on high alert with Afghanistans first democratic presidential election a day away on Saturday October 9, 2004 with 18 candidates running for the office.
(Detroit Free Press/Knight Ridder/David P. Gilkey) (I) International (WJBK) - Southeast Michigan was lucky to have David Gilkey when he worked at the Detroit Free Press.
Gilkey had a talent for finding the human element in photography, and won many awards for his journalism.
"He was extraordinarily brave and extraordinarily talented," said Joe Swickard.
During his 11 years at the Detroit Free Press, Gilkey played a key role in putting together a video series in 2006 that won the newspaper its first national Emmy award.
"Michigan Marines: Band of Brothers" followed the largest unit of Marines from Michigan and recorded their daily lives in Fallujah.
"We were very insistent on getting the stories of these men and their families and that it was more than the 'bang, bang,'" Swickard said.
Now a retired writer, Swickard worked side-by-side with Gilkey on the documentary.
"He was a fantastic guy. I was very proud to have worked with him," he said.
Swickard tells us of a close call where Gilkey came close to losing his life in 2006.
While following the Marines on patrol, Gilkey remembers sitting one vehicle behind Gilkey when a rocket lifted Gilkey's vehicle into the air, as it burst into flames.
If he had to put a number on it, Swickard said Gilkey worked in the Middle East a dozen times since 9/11.
"Detroit was really lucky that he was here," he said.