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American Morning
America Strikes Back: Interview of Pathfinders' Capt. Ronald Franklin
Aired October 12, 2001 - 11:18 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: We want to check in on a thing called the Pathfinders. Training is continuing at Fort Benning, Georgia.
They are in action at this time, and CNN's Catherine Callaway is there to watch it.
Catherine, what's happening?
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Bill.
What our viewers are looking at now are a group of Pathfinder students who have just jumped out of a Blackhawk helicopter. This is part of a training exercise for the Pathfinders.
To give you an idea of what the Pathfinders do, they are the first, they are the last out in any airborne mission. They drop in, as you can see here, and then they will set up landing zones and drop zones for any airborne mission.
Joining me now is Capt. Ronald Franklin, who is going to tell us a little bit about this. We are seeing them come in now, in a daytime exercise. But this is usually done covertly and at night.
CAPT. RONALD FRANKLIN, PATHFINDERS: That's correct. This is usually done at night, into a location other than the final objective site. And these Pathfinders will jump in under cover of darkness, with stealth; get their organization together; move their unit stealthy into the objective area; establish the drop zone, the pickup zone, or the landing zone; and categorize that piece of terrain for the ground-unit commander and give him the flexible to achieve his mission.
CALLAWAY: They have to do this quickly. They have to scope it, adjust it, and embark all of this for the aviators. These are not aviators; these are professionals trained in the capabilities of aircraft, whether they be fixed wing or helicopters. They have to know all this to be able to hit the ground and establish these zones, right?
FRANKLIN: That's correct. Typically, they are infantrymen who best know how to support that ground-unit commander -- usually an infantry operation that they are going to execute. CALLAWAY: So people know, Pathfinder is not just the Army. This is Air Force, Marines, Navy. The only Pathfinder school in the entire Department of Defense is right here at Fort Benning in Georgia.
FRANKLIN: That's correct. And we also train some foreign nationals and the National Guard and Reserves.
CALLAWAY: Tell us why someone would want to be a Pathfinder.
FRANKLIN: An individual would want to be a Pathfinder because he wants to broaden himself and be a better tool for his unit and to assist his unit by being a liaison between the aircraft in the air and the commander on the ground, who has a tactical mission to accomplish.
CALLAWAY: They're jumping out with MC1-1 parachutes, steerable parachutes. You don't normally see them.
FRANKLIN: That's correct. Your standard mass exit technique used by, say, your 82nd Airborne, typically used the T-10 version of the parachute, a nonsteerable parachute. But for these smaller drop zones that they are accustomed to, they use the steerable parachute, to ensure the accuracy.
CALLAWAY: I think we're about to see another drop here.
FRANKLIN: I believe so.
CALLAWAY: Pathfinder Group, when it's sent into a mission like this, normally operates in a group of about 12, right?
FRANKLIN: That's correct. They can operate in much smaller units, but 12 is the ideal number.
CALLAWAY: We've seen smoke grenades go off down here, to give people up in the air an idea of what they are dropping into. They certainly won't have that luxury in nighttime, will they?
FRANKLIN: No, that's true. They have to rely on a lot of airborne experience and their best judgment to make the assessment.
CALLAWAY: Captain, we've been talking with these students all day, and they seem to say that this is actually the easiest part, what they are doing right now. It's all the studying and learning all the information that takes weeks -- all the capabilities and the limitations of the different aircraft, and they have to be skilled in some aircraft traffic control capabilities, to be able to predict how the wind will be at the time.
FRANKLIN: That's correct. And for many of them, this is easiest part. Really, it's just like jumping out of an airplane. Everything else requires math, calculations, and a lot of memorization.
CALLAWAY: Thank you very much. That's Capt. Ronald Franklin, here at Fort Benning Pathfinder School.
There are about 500 Pathfinder students that make it through this school every year, and that's relatively small. It tells you just how elite this group is.
I'm Catherine Callaway, at Fort Benning.
HEMMER: Thank you, Catherine.
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