David Bloom, 39; NBC Correspondent in Iraq

David Bloom, an NBC correspondent embedded with the U.S. Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, died Sunday of an apparent pulmonary embolism, the network said. He is the fifth journalist, and the second American reporter, to die in the war zone.

A husband and the father of three daughters, Bloom, 39, was traveling with troops about 25 miles south of Baghdad when he collapsed. He was airlifted to a nearby field medical unit, where he was pronounced dead, NBC said in a statement.

Bloom may be best remembered for the image of him flying across the sand-swept desert on a tank-recovery vehicle with his goggles and ruffled hair. NBC “Today Show” host Katie Couric said the shot was made possible because of what colleagues dubbed “the Bloom-mobile,” a modified vehicle he helped design that allowed him to file live reports during the division’s campaign from Kuwait to the outskirts of Baghdad.

On Sunday, colleagues remembered him as a tireless reporter who would volunteer for any assignment, especially if it was big news. “You couldn’t keep him away from a story,” said Tim Russert of “Meet the Press.” “Whenever something was breaking, he wanted to be there.”

A native of Edina, Minn., who attended Pitzer College in Claremont, Bloom covered the major stories of his era: the Unabomer, the trial of O.J. Simpson, Bosnia, Robert Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign, Kosovo, the impeachment of President Clinton, the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and the Washington, D.C., sniper story. For three years, he also co-anchored NBC’s “Weekend Today Show.” Soledad O’Brien, his co-anchor, said she was heartbroken at the news but she added, “He died doing what he loved, and doing what he did best.”

If colleagues remembered his competitiveness and his zeal, viewers recalled the visions of war he brought into their living rooms. Like Ernie Pyle, the famed World War II correspondent, Bloom made war personal, tracking individual soldiers doing ordinary things.

He tasted their ready-to-eat meals (MREs), sending his “compliments to the military chefs.” He pictured soldiers cleaning their weapons after surviving days of dust-clinging sandstorms. And Bloom put soldiers on the air, often handing a headset to a serviceman -- in one case to talk to the man’s wife, who had just given birth to their child, in another to let the soldier say hello to his parents.

“I thought his coverage was the best, the most gripping,” said Neal Shapiro, president of NBC News. “People who remembered World War II wrote me, saying that his work was in the best tradition of Ernie Pyle. He saw power and importance in everything from sleep to weapons. He was our storyteller.”

Bloom was also remembered as a reporter of substance, a digger who was not content to hide behind high Q ratings (recognizability and likability among viewers). He filed so often that the Washington Post media critic, Howard Kurtz, called him “Iraq’s unofficial travel guide.” On the Monday after the war started, the Post reported, Bloom delivered live reports at 2:22 a.m. EST for MSNBC, at 6:55 a.m., 7:09 a.m. and 8:04 a.m. for “Today,” at 10:43 a.m. for NBC, 10:47 a.m. for MSNBC, 11:12 a.m. for NBC, 12:31 p.m. for NBC, 12:36 p.m. and 2:33 p.m. for MSNBC, 6:37 p.m. for NBC’s “Nightly News,” and at 8:07 p.m. and 9:35 p.m. for MSNBC.

“Given the fact that we’re filing at all hours of the day and night, you try to pace yourself and get a little sleep,” he told the Post. “You’re sleeping with your knees propped up around you.” That may have been a risk factor: blood clots frequently form in the legs when the lower limbs have been immobilized and then travel through the body, said Dr. Harold Palevsky, chief of pulmonary critical care with the University of Pennsylvania health system.

Tim Goodman, TV critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, only recently praised Bloom’s coverage, while urging caution. “He’s everybody’s poster boy at the moment but has gone beyond that with solid reports,” Goodman wrote. “He’s getting a career spike here and may have a taste for the action. Some advice: Put on the helmet.”

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.