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American Morning
Look at Military Training Mission
Aired December 12, 2001 - 09:37 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to turn back now to the war on terrorism. With the Taliban removed from power and the al Qaeda forces inside Afghanistan pinned down and perhaps fighting their last battle, we go back to part of where the U.S. military campaign really began, deep in the hills of Georgia, where some of the U.S. soldiers are trained.
CNN's Kyra Phillips has been keeping up with the troops.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Before combat...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Loyal to my unit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALES: Loyal to my unit.
PHILLIPS: ... they remember the creed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am a U.S. Army paratrooper.
UNIDENTIFIED MALES: I am a U.S. Army paratrooper.
PHILLIPS: In this war...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take off 16:15.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Six in, six out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALES: Six in, six out.
PHILLIPS: ... it's troops in the terrain...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I accept death before dishonor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALES: I accept death before dishonor.
PHILLIPS: ... and forces in flight...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Execute, execute, execute.
PHILLIPS: ... that will inevitably win this war against terrorism. MAJ. BROCK GASTON, 171ST AVIATION REGIMENT: We have the most advanced aircraft in the free world. We can use these aircraft to get our personnel equipment rapidly across the battlefield to whatever our objective is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our name is Swift Eagle. The number is...
PHILLIPS: Personnel, like these men...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) will be wearing basically mixed uniforms.
PHILLIPS: ... who are flying today's training mission.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The mission is to conduct insertion/extraction operations in the vicinity of Ringgold.
PHILLIPS: Georgia Army National Guardsmen are planning Operation Swift Eagle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Danger areas and reaction drills will be conducted in accordance with...
PHILLIPS: In the other hangar, LRS soldiers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The primary means will be Blackhawk. Our secondary means will be (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
PHILLIPS: The long-range surveillance team.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our mission for Company H...
PHILLIPS: Silent soldiers that paradrop into enemy territory.
Today's mission, surveillance of a high-traffic, high-threat bridge.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have got four different types of night vision.
PHILLIPS: Watching and recording everything the enemy is doing and transporting.
We're deep in the Georgia mountains, at the KATUSA Training Area. LRS soldiers safety checked every piece of equipment and initiate movement.
FIRST SGT. MIKE HURNDON, LRS TEAM, U.S. ARMY: The LRS goes in the backyard of the enemy and has to have the discipline and the training to remain right there amongst the enemy and never move.
PHILLIPS: Launching from friendly land is easy; crossing the forward line of enemy troops is not. These paratroopers must hit their drop zone perfectly. Within minutes, six soldiers in, six soldiers out, jumping into the danger zone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), Tango two-one, insertion complete -- over.
PHILLIPS: It's sunset at the cache point. These warriors link up, account for each other and equipment, and prepare to put eyes on the enemy objective.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is about all we've got. We don't have many weapons with it. It's mostly communications gear, because we're so far behind enemy lines typically. So we can't be seen, we can't be heard, and we can't let anybody know that we've been here, period.
PHILLIPS: Staff Sgt. Shawn Lewis (ph) leads his men with stealth and discipline through concealed paths of approach. Moonlight and instincts will reveal the route to reconnaissance and surveillance. Night-vision goggles illuminate a safe scroll to the road.
Now buried within enemy terrain, soldiers conduct SLLS: stop, look, listen, and smell, becoming accustomed to the sights and sounds of the battlefield.
LRS soldiers begin building their center of operation. Gilly suits, masks, and detection as each soldiers starts conducting the hide sites, manmade hideouts that will become home for days as these hidden soldiers wait to confirm or deny enemy action. And in this training mission, it won't take long.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was, evidently, an American pilot transferred from vehicles to the boats, and the boats then moved upstream along with arms we transferred from the vehicles to the boats.
PHILLIPS: Via an encrypted transmission with worldwide range, the situation report goes to the U.S. Military Intelligence Command, so ground troops did can initiate their battle plan, to rescue the downed pilot and destroy enemy forces.
The long-range surveillance team completes its mission. Blackhawks are signalled. LRS soldiers are extracted from enemy territory never seen, never heard.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALES: I am prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For my team and mission.
UNIDENTIFIED MALES: For my team and mission.
PHILLIPS: A mission of training today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anytime, anywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALES: Anytime anywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No questions asked.
UNIDENTIFIED MALES: No questions asked.
PHILLIPS: A will to fight this war always.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you asked us tomorrow if we wanted to go, everyone would say yes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: I understand, Paula, that you can hear us as we're taking a ground shot right now, from our photographer, as the paratroopers are coming down. We're up in the Blackhawk helicopters, airborne with the Georgia Army National Guard. And pretty soon -- I'm not quite sure how the picture is, but you are going to see the six men who are in the Blackhawk jumping into what is supposed to be enemy territory.
This is all a part of the training that they do in order to prepare for Afghanistan. These men that you are going to say paradropping down into enemy territory, or the simulated enemy territory, are the guys that waiting any day now to be called into Afghanistan.
And as I was saying in my piece, they are the silent warriors. They are never supposed to be seen, never supposed to be heard. They drop in in the night, conduct surveillance and reconnaissance, get all the intelligence on the bad guys, bring it back to special operations command, and then that's when the troops go in. For example, that's how intelligence gets special operations on Osama bin Laden, that's how they find these caves, in these certain areas, during war time.
Paula, I'm not quite sure if you can see the picture yet, but you can try to talk to me if you want.
ZAHN: Kyra, we can see the pictures. It's absolutely fascinating.
How many of these men might potentially be shipped to Afghanistan?
PHILLIPS: Right now, you've got about a dozen that have been going through training here in Georgia. But these long-range surveillance soldiers are all across the United States, Paula. And they are ready to go at any moment.
Here is another interesting thing I want it tell you, that they are soldiers right now, but they have their day jobs too. You've got bankers, mortgage lenders, teachers, engineers. This is their second job. It is pretty amazing.
ZAHN: Kyra Phillips, you did a great job. I think we are all stunned by the level of access you had there. I know this is the closest look we have ever gotten at a specific training mission underway as it prepares soldiers potentially to head off to Afghanistan.
Kyra Phillips, thanks for that live report. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
