Photograph by Phillip Chester © National Geographic Television and Film

The soldiers of U.S. Army Special Forces and Auxillary at Firebase Cobra pose in front of the American flag for a group photo.
Inside The Green Berets premieres Sunday June 3, 9p et/pt.

With the premiere of Inside The Green Berets airing this Monday, the National Geographic Channel has asked Jerry Newberry of the Veterans of Foreign Wars to share his story of what it was like being embedded with troops in Afghanistan. Different then the troops at Fire Base Cobra, but still fighting for same cause.

Jerry Newberry - Special Contributor and Director VFW Communications

So it's about 0700 and the sun is just coming up over the 8,000 ft. ridge to the east of the Korengal Outpost – better known as the "KOP."

My t-shirt is still drenched with sweat from the exertion of climbing the steep ridgelines to the south of here. My hair plastered flat to my head from wearing a Kevlar helmet during the all-night patrol.

It feels good to sit down, drink some water and Gatorade. It's good to be back. It's good to be alive.

I've got a minimum of 30 years on the Joes of 3rd platoon – and I'll admit it ain't easy humping these mountains, keeping up with 'em. They've been at it for about 6 months, on an almost daily (nightly) basis, so they've grown accustomed to it.

But the old guy kept up, and I wasn't the last man in the column as we returned to the outpost when the nightlong patrol finally ended.

So I guess that's something.

The troops out here don’t have it easy. It isn’t much different than the conditions many of us who served in Vietnam experienced.

The "KOP" is a remote outpost located at about the middle of the Korengal Valley. Just a few ridgelines away is Pakistan, where al Quaeda, Taliban and foreign fighters re-supply, re-fit, and train for their almost constant operations against this outpost and the troops who patrol the valley and surrounding mountains.

It's dangerous here. This company has taken more casualties than any other in the battalion and the battalion has taken more than any other in Afghanistan. Ratio and percentage-wise, this unit has probably seen and sustained more action – taken more casualties – than any other military unit serving in the Middle East.

The troops live in tents. They’ve managed to run some electrical outlets, so in the very little downtime they have, they’re able to plug in their laptops and watch DVDs. The tents don’t have any lights, so flashlights with filtered lenses are used extensively – to dress, read, wash and eat.

Bottled water is used for drinking and a “water buffalo" provides the water used to wash clothes (by hand or in a bucket) or for showering.

Removed from the immediate company area are the latrines and "showers." Both are rough structures constructed of two-by-fours and plywood. In order to take a shower, you need to fill a 5-gallon jug from the water buffalo and then haul it down a steep, rocky path to one of two showers. You heft the jug and fill the canvas field shower and wash as fast as you can … before the water bag empties.

The latrines are a la Vietnam. Yes, they still have the barrels and yes, someone has to be the "burner."

The OP is pretty much unreachable by road. There is a road, but it’s narrow, rough, windy … prone to be mined with IEDs or ambushed with RPG, PKU and AK47 fire by the bad guys. So most supplies are air-dropped by C-130 aircraft.

Not all the drops go according to plan however. Sometimes supplies go wide of the DZ (“drop-zone") by several hundred meters, falling between the deep fingers of the mountain valley. The combination of distance, terrain and risk of enemy ambush render them "unrecoverable."

The food is predictable, unchanging. The cook makes do with the supplies that have been provided. One "hot" meal consisting of two dishes – an egg concoction with diced potatoes, shredded turkey bacon AND turkey link sausages – is prepared in a MKT (Mobile Kitchen Trailer). MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat) are favored over the "hot" meals because at least they offer a little variety.

Battalion and Division HQs are concerned and work hard to improve conditions for the troops. To be fair, to the higher-ups, this IS a remote outpost in every sense of the word.

So the troops get by with little sleep, constantly patrolling with almost daily contact with the enemy. "Short patrols” inadvertently stretch for hours because of this, so the troops grab what shuteye they can ... when they can.

The KOP is hot, dirty and dangerous. The troops live in extremely Spartan conditions, in continuous contact with the enemy. It’s amazing how they conduct themselves in light of all the difficulties they face daily.

They could use some support. In the way of entertainment to help relieve the stress and boredom between missions: portable DVD players, MP3 players would be a help. Also, food to supplement their rations: boxed prepared meals (macaroni and cheese, etc.), canned tuna fish, chili, peanut butter, jelly ... just about anything that is non-perishable.

From over here, I’m not able to make that happen. But it’ll be a priority once I return.

Believe me. Your help and generosity will go a long way in helping these great Americans. They deserve it more than you can possibly know.

For more information or to donate visit Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States

Inside The Green Berets Premieres Sun., June 3 9p et/pt Go inside Afghanistan with America's bravest. Watch a Preview >> Find Out More about this brave infantry. NGCGreenberets.com

In June of 2006, after working for almost a year to gain access, producer/director Steve Hoggard was given permission to embed himself with Green Berets in Afghanistan for 10 days, far longer than the Pentagon’s strict 48-hour embed rule. What started out as a mission to document what these brave soldiers experienced on a daily basis turned into a personal experience with the cost of war.

Before the 10 days was over, Hoggard himself was part of the costliest IED (improvised explosive device) explosion so far in the war in Afghanistan — killing two soldiers, wounding five others and injuring the NGC crew, including Hoggard. Here, Steve speaks about the blast:

“As a filmmaker, it is never your intention to become part of the story. But the way things unfolded, everything changed. After the initial shock of the explosion wore off, I remember I felt up and down my arms and my legs and I was just terribly surprised that everything was still there. Once the shock wore off, a guy came up yelling to me ‘they’re burning, they’re burning!

When we were medivaced out, the medivac was packed full of people and no one really spoke or said a word really and I remember then someone saying that the they were shooting RPGs at our helicopter, the Taliban were.”

Steve also brings a unique perspective to what these men face everyday on this base truly in the middle of no where:

“You go in with a sense that the us military is high tech and has endless resources… but what you realize when you’re out there on this extremely remote outpost is how truly alone, disconnected and low tech the outpost is…so they innovate and adapt. And although they get instructions from higher command, they plan most of their missions and structure their days all on their own.

Waging counter-insurgent war is incredibly complex – especially within the intricate ethnic and tribal disputes of Afghanistan. But here they are trying to impact and frankly manipulate this age-old culture all on their own. Most of the guys are in their twenties and early thirties make decisions that translate into life and death issues for an entire valley with the lives of thousands of locals in their hands…meanwhile they can’t speak the language and are dealing with a history and a culture that is completely removed from anything most Americans can comprehend. It is a leviathan task.

The other thing that strikes you – deeply – is their commitment to go outside the wire every day to try and turn around the situation. They see friends get hurt and die and yet, each day, they decide to go back out there as a matter of duty and honor and professionalism in an effort that probably about half of them believe and will tell you off the record cannot succeed. It’s an astonishing thing to witness.”

Penguin Safari Airs Fri., May 25 7p et/pt Migration Formation Watch as Penguins take on the elements. Watch a Preview >>

Nigel Marvin- Producer

Filming ‘Penguin Safari’ was a real logistical challenge. South Georgia, where the film is based, has no permanent inhabitants and no airstrip. In order to get there, we chartered a boat, ‘Le Sourire’, from a fantastic husband-and-wife team of Antarctic experts. Their 60-foot yacht became our home for seven weeks. We sailed from the Falkland Islands with a crew of five – a cameraman, an editor, a sound recordist, a production coordinator and me as producer. Additionally, the yacht owners’ two children were on board, Theo, aged 9 and Marilou, aged 12. Mature beyond their years, they helped keep the yacht running and assisted with filming where possible – when they weren’t occupied with their dreaded school work!

The 900 mile crossing from the Falklands took five days and initially seasickness confined virtually all of us to our bunks. But as time went by we gained our sea legs and were able to get up and about. Living conditions were very cramped – we all shared cabins and the edit machines filled half the space in the one saloon room. Due to the half ton of gear we carried, the boat could only take 400 gallons of water on board, so we were rationed to one shower a week!

Finally, after what seemed like an epic voyage, we sighted land – our first view of the island of South Georgia, where we would be staying for the next five weeks. We soon fell into a filming routine, getting up around 7am and going ashore in our Zodiac inflatable boat at 8. We carried the gear in specially designed waterproof rucksacks, which came in handy with the notoriously unpredictable weather on South Georgia.

Filming took us right through till sunset at 9pm – packed lunches and flasks of hot coffee enabled us to eat and drink in the field, which saved a lot of time, as ‘Le Sourire’ was often over an hour’s hike away from the shoot location. Dinner was served on board the boat at around 10pm and then there was a short time in which to check satellite emails and view the previous day’s edited material before falling asleep to the sound of distant seal and penguin calls at around 11pm.

We suffered biting cold, wet feet, rain and snow, acres of penguin droppings and thousands of aggressive fur seals, but every second was worth it to spend a month amongst the jaw-dropping scenery and spectacular wildlife of South Georgia. I hope that through watching ‘Penguin Safari’ you can enter this world too.

Photo by Jodi Cobb/NGS

From conquering Canadian rapids to Dolphins on the hunt, watch as NGC showcases the Most Amazing Moments caught on film. It all starts this Sunday at 7p et/pt.

Salt Flat Speedway Premieres Thurs., May 10 Putting The Pedal To The Metal Watch as speed barriers are pushed to the limit. Watch a Preview >>

Doug DePriest - Producer

Prior to producing the program my only experience with the Great Salt Flats was to ride through at the age of 14, in a station wagon with a family of six and a dog. I remembered the experience as hot, bright and everyone being fairly irritable. But who knows, it was a cross-country family vacation and I was one of three teenagers in the car, so we were all pretty miserable to begin with. However, this time I was heading to the Salts Flats with a film crew of six, five cameras and the nearly impossible mission of capturing people who were driving cars as fast as 300 mph on a white desert.

What we found was extraordinary. Every morning we would arrive in total darkness and drive onto the salt. The sun would come up and you felt as if you were on another planet. The beauty was breathtaking. Pure whiteness as far as you the eye can see. So far that you could actually see the curvature of the earth. As for the salt, it’ not your granular Morton’s, as you might imagine, but a very hard surface. And it was often moist. The salt is constantly drawing moisture from the earth. It is one of the strangest and most wonderful environments I have ever seen. So we went to work.

One of the most difficult tasks in a film like this is to capture speed on a white desert. There are no reference points to show you how fast the cars a racing. No picket fences, no winding mountain roads like the car commercials, no great shots of curvy flying women with their hair blowing back in the breeze, nothing, nada, zip. You can’t tell if a car is going thirty miles per hour or three hundred. So we mounted a lot of cameras on cars to capture the sense of speed. We would sometimes have as many as three cameras mounted on a single car. The fact that the racers at Bonneville would allow us to do this is a testament to what a great group of people they are. Imagine building a car for a year, coming to Bonneville and then having a film crew show up and ask “Hey do you mind if we attach a bunch of equipment to your car? We promise that it won’t slow it down.” But the racers on the flats were awesome and we were never turned down.

Once, however, we went too far. We had rented a very cool remote control helicopter. It’s about three feet long and has a little HD camera mounted in it. We were all excited about this piece of equipment and the network was really geeking over it, so this was going to be a lot of fun and give us yet one more great perspective. We flew the camera over a couple of cars and finally this one enormously large man comes over to where we were standing and asks “Is that your helicopter?” I answer proudly “Yes.” Now all of these racers build their own cars, they are really into cool machines and gadgets or they wouldn’t dedicate al of their free time to building a car and racing it on a slat desert. So the guys, says “Cool helicopter. If you fly it near my car again I will swat it out of the sky and come back over here and beat you senseless with it.” Of course he was joking, but we got the idea and landed the helicopter.

In the end, the experience of being at Speed Week on the Salt Flats was incredible. The people were some of the most friendly people I have ever worked with. It is very exciting to be around a few thousand people who are all so passionate about one thing….speed. I believe that everyone should take a trip to the Bonneville Salt Flats during speed week at some time in your life. Just don’t bother to bring your remote helicopter.

Jeff Darnell – Viewer Correspondence

Thank you to the folks who continue to write in to this blog and to our regular email: comments@natgeochannel.com. As we hit the nice weather outside, television viewing begins to decline, but there seems to be no end to questions and we wouldn’t have it any other way!

Scott writes: Thank you, a reason why I try to get people to question what they see and hear on TV is:

P.S. I use to subscribe to two of your magazines. My comments above are the reason why I no longer do. That and they are over priced!Also I should say I do like your channel I would say it is in my top 3.

NGC: We agree, researching a subject of interest is far more enlightening than watching on TV. Our programs, nor really any television programs, aren’t meant to be as indepth as books and articles – the medium doesn’t allow for it. If we get people excited about wanting to learn more about the world, researching animals, going to school, training to be a scientist, etc, than we’ve more than done our job. I can’t comment on the magazines, (although they’ll probably help you in your research), but thanks for watching the channel!

Sam wrote: Every once in awhile I get these irritating noises when watching your channel, they sound like a telephone dial, beeping like. Please STOP sending these noises, I can’t stand it!

NGC: Sam, we hear this off and on, you aren’t alone! That sound you hear is a cue we send to your local cable operator through our signal. Its never meant to be broadcast out and often we nor your cable operator knows its even happening until someone alerts them. Here’s the best course of action, write us at comments@natgeochannel.com with your zip code and cable provider. We can contact them directly and have the situation resolved so that you aren’t hearing that tone any longer.

rkoxford writes: I was wondering if all the episodes [of Dog Whisperer] are going to be repeats now. I watched Friday (4-20-07) and all 3 were repeats, are there no new episodes now? Thanks!

NGC: We have some surprises in store later this summer as we premiere 2 episodes from season 3 during a Best of Dog Whisperer Week. Cesar is busy right now in production with season 4, which will premiere probably in September of this year (still being finalized). Until then, we are in repeats on Friday nights – we had to give Cesar a little rest and it gives us the chance to allow new viewers to find the program as well.

Thanks again from NGC and please keep the email coming (comments@natgeochannel.com) and/or the posts to this blog.

Is It Real: King Arthur Premieres Mon., May 7 They Needed a Hero Go inside the greatest legend of all time. Watch a Preview >> A King and His Castle Tour the ruins of these once-great fortresses. Photo Gallery >>

Greg Chapman - Research

Excalibur. Knights of the Round Table. The Holy Grail. All of these things come to my mind when I think about the legend of King Arthur—but did he in fact exist? If Arthur existed, does that mean Merlin existed as well? What about the love triangle between Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere? Did Arthur's best friend really take his girl? If so, that's a made-for-TV movie right there.

Regardless of whether he existed, the legend had to come from somewhere or at least be inspired by some real world events—but from where? No clues, no artifacts and no proof—it's enough to make anyone's head spin trying to solve this mystery. That said, lets start at the beginning.

The legend has its roots in 5th century Britain—makes sense but the first mention of Arthur came almost 300 years later in the Dark Ages! That's a lot of time. Although, I think I have to give the benefit of the doubt to the people in the Dark Ages not being able to keep records about this; I mean c'mon they didn't even have the internet. The next major mention came during the 15th century with Sir Thomas Mallory's book Le Morte Darthur. Here we see the story of Arthur that we read about today. Boy pulls sword from stone, becomes king, assembles the Round Table in search of the Holy Grail then is betrayed by his wife and best friend, which shatters the Round Table and eventually Arthur's kingdom falls. Tragic.

In the 1960s, after a thorough examination of the lands mentioned in the Authurian legend—where he would have lived, fought, and died—no concrete evidence of an actual historical figure was unearthed. No King Arthur. No crown. No Tomb. No Excalibur.

Even if King Arthur did not exist as an actual historical figure, does that mean that the legend can't be inspirational or important? The first mention of Arthur came during a tumultuous time in Britain when their lands were constantly being invaded by surrounding kingdoms. Hope was in short supply. I understand the idea that they needed some type of icon or legend that would lift the British spirit and enable them to defend their homeland. Would the legend of George Washington or Alexander Nevsky be any less influential in their respective countries if they didn't exist? I say no. Both icons allowed their fellow countrymen to draw inspiration from them during a time that they needed to be fearless. People need legends in their lives, real or not, that they can look to for inspiration. It just so happens that this legend has persisted for the past fifteen hundred years.

After watching Is It Real: King Arthur I couldn't get an episode of the Simpsons out of my head. In the episode "Lisa The Iconoclast", Lisa researches town founder Jebediah Springfield and reveals that he wasn't the valiant frontiersman town lore paints him as, but actually a murderous pirate. A town struggle leads to the Springfield's mayor exhuming Jebediah's body to finally solve the conflict. Lisa, armed with proof of a pirate-past, is about to announce to the town that Jebediah is a fraud, but one cartoon epiphany later, she realizes that her desperate town needed this legend. It gave them a source of history—and most of all pride. Is the legend of Jebediah all that different from how the British looked at King Arthur? If you lived in Britain in the Middle Ages, under constant threat of grisly death from war and plague, would you need a source of inspiration? I bet most of us would—and most of us would rather have a king than a pirate.

Witness as Sicily's Mt Ena lights up the night sky as it erupts, spewing molten lava down the side of the mountain.

Photo by Carsten Peter

Explorer: Doomsday Volcano airs this Saturday, at 7p et/pt.