Boot Camp

Jennifer Brown participating in the Pentagon's boot camp for journalists at Quantico Marine Base

It's hard to say which was most unnerving: diving into a snowy ditch to seek cover from mortar fire or hearing the hiss of the gas chamber as it filled with haze. I learned many potentially lifesaving tips at the Pentagon's boot camp for journalists at Quantico Marine Base outside Washington, D.C. I hope I never need any of them.

As one of about 250 journalists the U.S. military trained to cover the war in Iraq, I learned how to seek cover from incoming fire and how to don a gas mask within nine seconds.

We tested the masks by stepping into a chamber filled with tear gas, which creates watery eyes, runny noses and a burning, tingling sensation on the skin.

The Marines dazzled us with helicopter rides and artillery demonstrations, and handed out camouflage face paint and Kevlar helmets and flak jackets.

To toughen us up, they made us sleep outside in freezing temperatures and fierce winds with nothing but our sleeping bags and tentmates for warmth. For dinner and breakfast, it was bland but calorie-packed MREs _ meals ready to eat.

The final mission of the weeklong boot camp in January was a five-mile hike through the snowy forest of Quantico. Marines hiding in the trees fired blanks at us along the way, and we ditched our rucksacks and crawled on our bellies for cover. We yanked our gas masks out of pouches strapped to our legs as we heard the military warning "Gas! Gas! Gas!"

The Pentagon held several boot camps to prepare journalists to be embedded with a military unit when the United States went to war with Iraq. The Associated Press trained about 20 writers for such assignments.

I didn't end up going. Two of my "platoon mates" from Quantico, David Bloom of NBC News and Julio Parrado of El Mundo newspaper in Madrid, died in Iraq.