Iraq Confidential With Jesse James

[voivod]

Good show, too bad they failed to get the rig running... Jesse appears to have walked away from the camera at the end, so as not to be recorded shedding a tear or two...

In Iraq, Jesse James sees action for a reluctant Discovery Channel
BY RICHARD HUFF
New York Daily News

Sandra Bullock wasn't so keen on the idea of hubby Jesse James going to Iraq.

Neither were the folks at the Discovery Channel, the network which airs his TV work (including "Monster Garage").

He listened, of course, but didn't take their advice. The results of his trip abroad air Sunday at 9 p.m. EDT in "Iraq Confidential With Jesse James."

"The whole family was concerned," said James. "They said, `What are you doing now? This doesn't sound like a good idea.' They supported me, though. They knew the reasons I wanted to go."

James said the people at Discovery even "threatened to fire me."

Still, he went, and is damn proud of it.

He spent 10 days in Iraq just outside of Baghdad, where he stayed with troops of the 181st Transportation Battalion. As part of the trip, James worked alongside a group of mechanics to soup up a war-damaged Humvee.

"It was totally, like, life-changing," James said of the trip. "There's so much stuff flying around, in every aspect of the media, everybody claims to know what's going on over there. I just wanted to go see what's really happening."

And did he.

In one scene, James is downright giddy while shooting a machine gun and hanging out of a helicopter. In another, he visits injured soldiers in a hospital. And in another, the air-raid sirens go off and the battalion is seen moving to a safe place.

"It's not safe," he said. "It's as safe as can be. We're sitting there laughing and joking during the mortar attack, but three soldiers were killed then. You can hear bombs and stuff like that going off."

Instead of worrying about his own safety - everyone but James was wearing a flak jacket - he said he focused on the men and women over there. "They don't have a choice about being there."

Interestingly, there's one point during the special when a soldier working on the Humvee admits to the camera that he didn't expect James to show up to work with them. Rather, he expected some underling.

"All those people know they could be me," James said. "I'm one of them. That's why I went over there to build a custom car. I'm not like a musician. I can't go over and play songs. I can go over and weld stuff."

It's James' second trip to Iraq. He visited just after the war started in 2003. This trip took a bit of planning, since he had to bring virtually everything needed to build the car to the base. For added hassles, the stuff got lost - and found - in Kuwait.

"If felt good to hang out with them, and give them a little bit of a break," James said. "Over there, you're stuck in Ground Hog Day. ... It's cool to have that little break in the action."

[Elwood P.]

Sounds like a cool dude. Never watch his show though.

[seenbad]

I watched this. I was amazed that they let it end that way. You do what you need to do and have that shit done. What a wanker. Those military folks were totally bummed out that the thing didn't work and that one dipshit will probably get his ass kicked for not adding the transmission oil. His life's ruined.