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CNN Live Today

America's Fallen Soldiers on Minds of U.S. Forces

Aired May 27, 2002 - 14:34   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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: America's fallen soldiers are on the minds of U.S. forces in Afghanistan today. CNN's Mike Boettcher is spending this memorial day with troops in Bagram air base.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A long way from home on a holiday weekend back in America, a U.S. Army helicopter sets down in a hot, dusty and potentially lethal place: Afghanistan. Aboard is the man in line to be the next chief of staff of the Army, General John Keane.

He has a reputation of being a soldier's soldier and, as he inspects his troops this Memorial Day weekend, his soldiers are on his mind. Here in Afghanistan, more names have been added to the roll of U.S. war dead.

(on camera): You've had an illustrious 35-year career. You've had, I'm sure, lost a lot of friends over that time, a lot of men.

GEN. JOHN KEANE, ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF: Every single year for my 35 years, we've lost soldiers. And it's something that you never, ever get used to. We have -- we have to honor them. We have to take time and set it aside and remember who they are and what they did for us.

We've lost 46 in this war right here, on terror. Twenty-six of those were soldiers. And it is so painful to let them go. We lost 75 Army family in the Pentagon itself on the first day of the war. And after close to 60 funerals, you still have an ache in your heart with all of that.

BOETTCHER (voice-over): At Bagram air base, small attempts at a holiday observance. There was a Memorial Day cookout and an international volleyball tournament, of sorts. Teams from the anti- terror coalition: Poles, Americans, British, Italians and others -- a holiday diversion. Small attempts at normal life for soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors, wearing many flags, who have known nothing normal since September 11th.

KEANE: I have been an (UNINTELLIGIBLE) all my life. And I am today, as I'm out here visiting these soldiers. Because fundamentally, what our soldiers are doing is they're willing to risk everything that they care about in life, everything. They risked the opportunity to have a full life, the opportunity to be a parent, to have friends. They risked the opportunity to have love in their life, to be loved. And they risk all of that, for what? What do they risk it for? They risk it for one another and for the sake of mission. And you can't put a price tag on that kind of devotion.

BOETTCHER: A lot of important dates have passed since coalition forces landed here. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and now Memorial Day. Many here have missed all of them and know they will miss many more. Will a nation aroused after September 11th but possessing a notoriously short attention span remember this sacrifice? General Keane believes it will.

KEANE: Patriotism is about commitment. And it's about resolve and it's about sacrifice. It's about a willingness to commit to something that's larger than yourself. And it's also about our capacity as a nation it face our fears.

And the American people are displaying all of that in ways that I have not seen at any time in my adult life. And they are committed and they have that resolve and they're willing to make those sacrifice. And they are facing their fears.

BOETTCHER: Here there is only a semblance of a holiday. The war did not take a day off. And neither did the troops. Mike Boettcher, CNN, Bagram air base, Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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