CNN photojournalist David Rust has worked at CNN since the day the network launched in 1980. Over the years, he's collected hundreds of mementos from the major events he has covered. His collection includes this piece of the Berlin Wall, retrieved from Checkpoint Charlie.
Dave Rust/CNN
Nightly attacks during the first Gulf War in the early '90s were common in Baghdad. Early mornings for Rust meant time to hunt for debris around the grounds of the hotel where he was staying. One morning, he found this lens from a missile that struck across the street.
Dave Rust/CNN
During the first Gulf War, Rust was in Baghdad on the roof of a burning building, shooting a standup with reporter Peter Arnett. Rust recovered this piece from the roof, which had been painted green to conceal it from enemy fire.
Dave Rust/CNN
Rust retrieved packaged baby milk following the controversial bombing of a factory that the Iraqi government said was making baby formula, but U.S. intelligence officials said contained machines capable of producing biological weapons.
Dave Rust/CNN
On the first anniversary of the Gulf War, Rust was allowed onto the ninth floor of the Al Rasheed Hotel. CNN journalists had been working there before bombing began. All of their equipment was gone except this cable, which was stuck under a locked door.
Dave Rust/CNN
Following the verdict in the 1992 Rodney King beating trial, Rust was videotaping the chaos when he saw a rioter throw a baseball bat toward his van. A moment later, a second bat bent the van's window frame and landed inside the vehicle.
Dave Rust/CNN
Rust is still trying to find the owner of this jersey from the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Rust retrieved it from a house that had been ransacked in Bosnia and had it cleaned.
Dave Rust/CNN
Rust saved this window from an armored vehicle that was damaged by sniper fire in Bosnia.
Dave Rust/CNN
In 1995, Rust was assigned to a documentary about baseball in Cuba. He traveled with Hank Aaron, a now-retired National League Baseball player, to Cuba, where he had dinner with President Fidel Castro in the Presidential Palace. Rust later obtained this baseball signed by Castro.
Dave Rust/CNN
While Rust was covering the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, he picked up this small piece of the shattered building.
Dave Rust/CNN
Rust provided CNN with lots of live coverage after the Oklahoma City bombing. The bomber, Timothy McVeigh, practiced his plan for Oklahoma City in a car in Arizona. A CNN reporter assigned to the Arizona location retrieved debris from the practice run for Rust's collection.
Dave Rust/CNN
This T-shirt was worn during rescue operations by a member of the Oklahoma City Fire Department. Copies were printed and sold as a fundraiser after the bombing.
Dave Rust/CNN
Members of the Oklahoma City Fire Department, who rescued victims of the bombing, signed this helmet, which is now part of Rust's collection.
Dave Rust/CNN
In April 1999, Rust was assigned to document life on the USS Hawkbill, a Navy fast-attack nuclear-powered submarine. Before its decommissioning, scientists used the Hawkbill to map the ocean floor beneath the Arctic ice cap. Rust received a few items to document the trip, including this emergency lamp from the Hawkbill. He also received a piece of the hull and signal flag.
Dave Rust/CNN
The CNN crew headed to Afghanistan's White Mountains to investigate one of Osama bin Laden's training camps. While they were there, four international journalists on their way to Kabul were ambushed and killed. A while later, Rust obtained a Russian artillery shell and had local artisans engrave it with all of the locations he traveled to during the first year of the conflict.
Dave Rust/CNN
During Rust's time in Afghanistan, he was given this leather strap. The strap was previously used by the Taliban minister of vice and virtue to discipline those who didn't adhere to religious dress codes. Rust also saved a bin Laden "wanted" poster from the U.S. government.
Dave Rust/CNN
In 2003, when Rust was in Iraq, a rocket hit the hotel room beside him while he was preparing for work. The security team collected a box of remnants to identify the rockets. The U.S. military tank unit he was embedded with presented him with the base of an artillery shell they fired while entering Baghdad during the first days of the war.
Dave Rust/CNN
The armored unit that Rust accompanied during the Iraq War broke up a tile mosaic of President George H. W. Bush's face on the floor of the Al Rasheed Hotel entryway. Rust was given several pieces of the broken mosaic.
Dave Rust/CNN
Before arriving in Antarctica, Rust acquired several letters that had been mailed from the continent during the 1930s. He donated the items to the South Pole archives and was rewarded with a recently discovered piece of parachute that was used to airdrop supplies into the original camp during Operation Deep Freeze in 1956.
Dave Rust/CNN
In 2005, Rust was working with John King to detail the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Rust kept this chunk of cement from the levee that failed during the storm. He said it was an example of engineering that couldn't withstand nature's fury.
Dave Rust/CNN
After Hurricane Katrina devastated the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, a national brewery provided cans of water to the survivors for weeks. Rust found and saved a few for his collection of news artifacts.
Dave Rust/CNN
The U.S. military provided MREs (meals ready to eat) to Katrina survivors. Rust saved this MRE, a precooked and prepackaged meal typically given to troops at war.
Dave Rust/CNN
The Coast Guard was one of the rescue units deployed to help the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.Rust obtained this vest after it had been used in a successful rescue.
