CBS TV correspondent Kimberly Dozier was never under any illusion that covering the war in Iraq was going to be a walk in the park.
But before her experience in Iraq was over, doctors were telling her she may never walk again.
May 29, 2006 Was Memorial Day here in the U.S. Dozier, her cameraman and her sound technician were with an Army patrol in a residential neighborhood in Baghdad.
That’s when a remotely detonated car bomb exploded. Dozier’s crew was killed, as well as an Army captain and an Iraqi translator. Dozier herself was gravely injured.
After being transported to Germany, then back to the U.S., Dozier underwent some two dozen major surgeries over the next two months. Doctors treated extensive head wounds, burns, and badly broken legs. They told her she may never walk again.
But Kimberly Dozier proved them wrong. By 20:08 she was participating in the Marine Corps marathon in Washington. And that’s also the year she wrote a searing memoir called Breathing the Fire.
I met with her at CBS News headquarters in Washington almost two years to the day after her injuries, to talk about the book.
So here now from 2008, Kimberly Dozier.
Kimberly Dozier is 59 now. Today she works as a contributor on CNN.