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American Morning
New Year's Eve with the Marines in Kandahar
Aired December 31, 2001 - 08:33 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: In the meantime, let's go back now to Afghanistan and get a look at what's going on there now on this New Year's Eve. Once again, our Bill Hemmer is with the U.S. Marines who are in the trenches there around the airport in Kandahar -- Bill.
BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Leon, thanks again.
You know there's been a lot made of the Marines here. This is an expeditionary unit. Normally it sticks by the sea. It's considered amphibious, but right now they are sitting here in a land-locked country 400 miles inland. It's impressed a whole lot of people, and part of the reason the Marines are able to do this is to a program that's commonly referred to as Beans, Band-Aids and Bullets. Some Marines like the phrase, others do not, but we can talk more about it now as to how they pull off these logistics.
Lieutenant Mark Faulkner is now our guest here, U.S. Marine Corps, here live in Kandahar.
Good evening to you, sir.
LIEUTENANT COLONEL MARK FAULKNER, U.S. MARINES: Good evening, how are you?
HEMMER: Happy New Year to you.
FAULKNER: Same to you.
HEMMER: Right now you guys had been told previously that your unit, your MEU, could only attack a country if he had a beach to do it with. It's a land-locked country here, how'd you do it?
FAULKNER: Well we've heard that, and I think if nothing else, what this operation has shown is the versatility and the reach of the Marine Corps. Right now we're no less than 500 miles from our proverbial beachhead and we're supporting well over 2,000 joint and coalition forces, so I think we've put that myth to bed.
HEMMER: In addition to that, you've got 164 detainees and growing by the day, too, that you have to keep watch on, too.
I want to break down this Beans, Band-Aids and Bullets thing. You really don't like the phrase, but we're going to use it so we can show our viewers the best way we can. The beans represent the food. And we got some videotape to show you here. And we've 2,000 men and women here, a ton of Marines at this airport. You've got to feed these people, and I've got to think that is a very difficult thing to get done on a daily basis.
FAULKNER: It is, and really the challenge is not only sourcing, which we use amphibious shipping, which is down there off the coast of Pakistan, for the most part, but the transportation is another challenge. We're relying heavily on C-130 airlift to bring all that sustainment into this location.
HEMMER: You've got a water supply tapped into now that cuts down the drinking water that's required here.
FAULKNER: We do, exactly. We -- initially we relied on bottled water, but there's three Afghani wells that we've bought a -- brought a reverse osmosis water purification unit and we're purifying drinking water right now to take the load off of bottled water.
HEMMER: Now under the band-aid category, that's for medical. And certainly with a lot of people working here on a daily basis, doing a lot of dangerous work, too, you do have injuries and you do have people who get sick.
FAULKNER: That is correct. And we do have a -- not only a trauma stabilization capability, but we have an operation capability here as well.
HEMMER: Yes. And in the bullets category, this is ammunition. You're nothing in a fighting force unless you have that ammunition and the weapons behind you and certainly that is key in moving it here to protect the perimeter here at the airport.
FAULKNER: And not only the perimeter, to be prepared to take on whatever offensive operations come up. And right now we are well suited to support the myriad of combat operations the Marine Corps is libel to be engaged in.
HEMMER: In your answer three questions ago, you mentioned transport. This would be a logistics nightmare for just about everybody. Have you perfected it thus far?
FAULKNER: Oh no, not at all. We're learning lessons every day. This is so far inland -- this is a very long umbilical cord. But again, if nothing else, it just shows the flexibility and the reach and the versatility of the Navy-Marine Corps team.
HEMMER: Major Chris Hughes mentioned something to me a few days ago, he said if Napoleon had this system, the Americans would be speaking French. Do you agree with that?
FAULKNER: Well I -- it's a -- it's a -- it's a pretty good quote. I think what I'd really prefer to look at is just we're just continuing to rewrite history and capability and really doctrine for the Navy-Marine Corps team. We're going to learn a lot from this. I think we've shown a lot of people that we have more than just our littoral capability. HEMMER: Got some helicopters coming back in now from a mission nearby.
Lieutenant Colonel Mark Faulkner, thank you.
FAULKNER: Marine air-ground task force.
HEMMER: You got it. Happy New Year to you.
FAULKNER: Yes, sir, same to you.
HEMMER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) pleasure.
FAULKNER: Thank you. Thank you.
HEMMER: Leon, that's a look inside the Marines here. And again, eventually this crew will head out in about two weeks' time, we anticipate, back to sea and possibly another mission after that.
Leon, back to you now in Atlanta.
HARRIS: All right, Bill, you have to make sure you give them our wishes for a Happy New Year. All right, thanks much.
Bill Hemmer in Kandahar live this morning.
HEMMER: Yes (ph), you got it.
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