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Remembering, With Respect

CBS News' Dan Rather shares his memories of colleagues Paul Douglas, James Brolan and Kimberly Dozier.



In these first hours since word came of what happened to our CBS News colleagues in Baghdad, memories rush in and linger.

Paul Douglas and James Brolan were not your average pros. They were among the best in the world at what they did, and among the bravest. Kimberly Dozier still is, as she fights for life. They proved their mettle and their professionalism time after time, in one dangerous dateline after another.

Paul was a tall, strapping Brit of African heritage, a great bear of a man with a smile as wide as the Thames. He looked like an athlete, and moved like one. He had the broad shoulders and thick legs of an American football tight-end or British rugby lineman. But he was quick and agile, and could (and often did) run fast for long distances carrying heavy equipment.

He started with CBS News in London as a sound technician — a soundman, in the parlance of the craft. I remember once back in the early-to-mid 1990s when he was working sound as part of a three-man team — cameraman, soundman, correspondent-anchor. We were in the hellhole that was Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia.

On the outskirts of the city, we had made our way through a maze of trenches, then through dense woods and finally to an overlook to record some heavy fighting. On the way back in, an opening along the backside of the hill, we heard the eerie, slight "woosh" of an arching, incoming shell.

We stopped, dropped and rolled trying for cover. There was none. The incoming ordnance hit the ground right in the midst of us, within a few feet of us. It hit with a thud and a sizzling, fizzling sound. Paul, with his sound gear still hanging on his neck and chest, rolled over and tried to cover me with his body as the weapon sizzled. Lucky for all of us, it never exploded. For whatever reason, it turned out to be a dud.

We didn't stick around to find out why. Back at our partially bombed-out old downtown hotel, Paul and I shared an adult beverage and talked about what had happened. I asked him why he had done it.

"Don't exactly know," he said with a smile. "Except ... well, you know, there's a bond. In this kind of place, in this line of work, there's a bond. We look after one another, we cover for each other."

Paul already had a reputation of being one of the best soundmen anywhere in television news. He was a whiz with anything and everything electronic. He was tough, durable, courageous and strong. (Cameramen always like strong soundmen, the better to carry more equipment!) He was also very intelligent and a quick learner.

One of the things he wanted to learn was how to be a cameraman. Not just any cameraman — he wanted to be a staff cameraman for CBS News and he wanted to be the best. He watched, read and practiced. And he made it.

During the years in Afghanistan and Iraq and many other places, Paul nurtured "the bond" — he did with me and with every other person with whom he worked. Not just in London, Iraq and Afghanistan, but also in Pakistan and Rwanda. When it came to cameramen, Paul was "The Man," the "go-to guy."

He loved to cook and was good — very good — at it. In Baghdad, in the wee hours after the last CBS Evening News feed, he would take whatever was available and make a sumptuous meal of it. He also often cooked breakfast and lunch for the whole bureau. In the countryside combat zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, with only a tiny "sterno" field stove to work with, he'd whip up something hot and filling.

Back in England, he had a motorcycle and loved to ride it back and forth to the bureau. He had restored an old Bentley car. How he loved to drive it through the streets of London!

He loved his family and talked about them often, on long plane rides and in the shanks of evening.

He was a gentle man, and a gentleman.

Writing of death in "Death Be Not Proud," John Donne said, "... and soonest our best men with thee do go." So it is now with our beloved Paul. His body is gone, but he is among us still in memory, a nurturer of "the bond."



About James Brolan I know less. But I knew him and know how good he was. As a freelancer he was highly regarded and respected throughout the industry. Among CBS people, he was especially respected for his willingness to "take his turns" in Afghanistan and Iraq.

He was also liked for his sunny personality, and his ability as a guitar player. Late at night and on the road, he livened and lightened everybody's loads with exceptional, heartfelt guitar playing.

Bureau Chief Larry Doyle once opined to him, "Brolan, with that guitar you are amazing!" Brolan responded: "You ought to hear my son. He's even better." James' son was a special pride — as was all of his family.

Freelancers have a particularly rough go in the news business. With James, you'd never know it. He never complained, never bitched or moaned. He just did his job and tried to bring sunshine wherever he went. In the dark holes where he had been working a lot the past year, it was never easy.



Kimberly Dozier is a top-rank, world-class television and radio news correspondent. She has been for quite awhile. Somehow, she's never gotten full credit for her ability and her guts. She deserves it. She earned it — the hard way.

She began as a radio reporter for CBS News. For a long time, she filed from combat zones and other dark, dangerous places of the world but couldn't, didn't crack through to television.

Once, shortly after Kabul fell to U.S. and allied forces in the present war, we were holed up together with other news people in a shambles of a hotel in the Afghan capital. Kimberly was ailing, had a high fever and a terrible throat.

She tried to file a voice report for New York. She just couldn't get through it. I offered to file for her. She reluctantly agreed, but insisted that she do all of the writing. She wasn't about to go to bed and take herself off line — stop working.

She continued to make telephone calls to sources (she had some of the best sources of anyone — electronic news or print — of anyone working the story) and pounded out copy.

Her break for television came a few years ago when an American government plane was forced to land on a Chinese island off the China coast. With speed, contacts and wits, she wound up being the only CBS reporter — and one of the few of any description — to get on the island early. Using a then-new sat-phone transmission device, she could get both sound and picture out.

This and her previous record finally won over the CBS News executives of the time. She was finally made a CBS News television "reporter." Later, because of her war work, she was made a full CBS News correspondent for radio and television.

No reporter — no person — is totally, completely fearless. But Kimberly Dozier is as close to fearless as anyone, man or woman, that I know. She would jump a buzz saw if she thought it would get her a story.

Besides her courage, her work ethic has become a rightful legend. She works harder than a lumberjack or oilfield roughneck. This is one strong woman. People rarely think of a woman as pretty as Kimberly as being strong. She is. Strong of body and spirit.

She loves the news. So much so that she comes close, very close, to being all news all the time. For news, she has a heart the size of a locomotive.

But there are other sides to her. She loves the outdoors, especially anywhere she can kayak. She bought a kayak a few years ago, studied and learned to use it. She kept one in her room in Baghdad. Her goal was to kayak the Tigris River. The military wouldn't allow it. But you can bet she's never stopped dreaming of doing it.

Kimberly speaks some Arabic. She's been constantly trying to improve it.

She's an expert on the regions around Iraq and Afghanistan. Few, if any, American reporters, print or on-air, know as much about these regions as she does.

She is especially good at winning the respect and confidence of military people, American and otherwise. As a result, her sources are wide, varied and exceptional. Besides being so obviously knowledgeable about the war regions, her courage and work ethic win over even the most skeptical and wary soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. (OK, being a tall, blond beauty no doubt helps some, especially with first meetings. But the troops and commanders learn quickly that Kimberly is all business and wind up respecting her all the more for it.)

Kimberly is widely known among fellow pros for being a team player. She gives of her information, even sometimes her hard-gotten radio tape and/or television footage to CBS colleagues (she's done it for me any number of times), and sometimes even to competitors who are in a bind.

She has spent more time in Iraq than any other CBS news reporter. I doubt that any reporter for any television network or any other news outfit has spent as much time in Iraq as Kimberly.

She has always refused to be "hotel bound," going to every part of Iraq, specializing in covering in person, on the ground, the worst sections of Baghdad and the most dangerous areas all around the country.

There is a candle burning in my room for Kimberly as I write this. If determination and guts can do it, Kimberly Dozier will make it through this terrible ordeal. Her record whispers to us that she's earned our hopes and prayers.

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