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American Morning
Military Moving Out
Aired February 13, 2003 - 09:06 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: Now we travel back to Kuwait where we find Bill Hemmer once again at Camp Virginia there.
Good morning again.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, Paula.
Some numbers quickly here -- 60,000 strong U.S. military forces here in Kuwait. We're under the impression over the next two weeks that number can grow again by 90,000. Here at Camp Virginia alone, the Army's 5th corps, 6,000 strong. In the past 24 hours, 1,200 new arrivals. In fact, we've run into a couple of them.
This gentleman right here.
Welcome, soldier. How are you? Your name?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Henderson.
HEMMER: And you're in from?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Germany.
HEMMER: Germany. How's it feel to be here in Camp Virginia?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It feels different, but I'm glad to be here.
HEMMER: It's home for a while, I guess?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it will be.
HEMMER: Well, listen, I think some of these guys have advice for you, including this guy over here on your opposite bunk.
What's your name?
Specialist Lula (ph).
HEMMER: Yes? How long you been here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Since November 30th.
HEMMER: November 30th. What do you tell the newcomer?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To sleep in the middle. You'll always be dry.
HEMMER: That's good advice. Sleep in the middle, you'll always be dry. Thank you.
Also, we talked about the troop buildup in this region. I mentioned 60,000 in Kuwait. We do anticipate that number to increase, and part of that increase will be handled by Kyra Phillips back at the CNN Center, who's watching troop deployments from the U.S. and overseas.
Kyra, good morning to you in Atlanta.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Bill. Great to see you.
Well, the Screaming Eagles of the 101st airborne division at Fort Campbell are moving out today, headed to the Persian Gulf. Throughout the day, we'll be bringing you live updates from Fort Campbell, Jacksonville Port, Scott Air Force Base, the Transcom, where the big move is coordinated, and Kuwait, the destination point. First up, we'll take you to Scott Air Force base in Illinois.
And to give you a little background, Scott is home to logistical infrastructure that moves personnel and machines overseas, even during peace time. It handles about 1,900 air missions and 25 ship movements a week.
Patty Davis, standing by at Scott Air Force Base.
Patty, let's start with you.
PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is U.S. transportation command post, Transcom. We're out here in the Hallway, because behind that door down there, the joint operations mobility command center, now that's where they're actually moving the troops, moving the tanks. This is the brains, the logistics center for all of those movements.
Now we got in there yesterday for a quick look. You can see the big board. They're moving those planes all across the world. They're also moving ships and they're moving by land as well.
And you can see, usually 25 ships at normal peace time moving per week. That's double that number every day right now. Also, for planes, 10,000 a week. It's almost 10,000 a day now, a big increase.
We're joined by Lieutenant General Gary Hughey here.
Now, is this big meeting going on behind those closed doors, and what are you talking about in there?
LT. GEN. GARY HUGHEY, U.S. ARMY: Well, good morning, Patty, and welcome to U.S. Transcom.
In simplest terms, U.S. Transcom provides this nation with the capability to deploy a military force anywhere in the world at any time. It enables us, when the president directs, to take the fight to the enemy, wherever they hide, wherever their source and supplied. We do that through three components -- the Army's military traffic management command, the Air Force's air mobility command and The navy's military sea lift command, along with a host of commercial partners that represent the entire spectrum of the transportation industry, both land, sea and air.
DAVIS: Big job here, obviously thousands and thousands of people involved. We'll take you inside that command center when we come back later this morning.
Now to Dave Mattingly at Fort Campbell.
DAVE MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The 101st airborne division is known for its ability to send troops anywhere in the world in 36 hours. In modern military standards, that is an incredible feat for them to do.
But when you have a deployment of this size, I mean -- just look at all this equipment that has to go. When you have a deployment of this size, the same rules don't apply. They have 18,000 troops. They have thousands of vehicles just like this that have to be loaded up and shipped out. They have hundreds of helicopters, all that equipment. Everything has to go. Now, fortunately, the 101st learned a lot about large-scale deployments back in the Gulf War.
Fortunately, right now, they have soldiers putting that to work. They are getting shots, they are putting finances in order, making legal arrangements for their family. They're gearing up, they're making sure that their desert uniforms fit. That's something that's very important right now. They've got the order to deploy a week ago, and any time now they're expecting the order to come down for them to load up on flights overseas.
Now their equipment, in the meantime, has already been on the go. And the top brass here says because of some new innovations, it's moving faster than they've ever moved it before.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJ. GEN. DAVID PETRAUS, 101ST AIRBORNE DIVISION: We have the ability to put 230 rail cars in here at one time, and load them on 10 different points simultaneously. and that was not here the last time this division went to war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: And, of course, nothing moves here without a shipping label on it. The shipping label here says it's going to Jacksonville, to the port, where it's all going to be loaded up on to ships, and John Zarrella is there to show us how it's done -- John.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: David, I'm standing the deck of the U.S. Navy ship "Dall." And a lot of that equipment has already arrived here. In fact, within the last week, about 250 helicopters showed up here, everything from Apaches to Blackhawks to the Chinooks that carry troops, and those choppers have been off-loaded, they're down here now at the port. I'll give you a quick look. What they do down here is, they shrink wrap all those helicopters to protect them. You can see them out there. They're getting ready to be loaded on to the Dall, where we are. Now directly below us here, is all a convoy of trucks, of humvees, a lot of the equipment that the 101st, the Screaming Eagles, are going to be needing in the weeks to come. And it is an unbelievable task, how quickly and how fast they are able to load all this.
Now, Captain Dick Paw (ph), who is the master of the Dall, has joined us.
And, Captain, unbelievable capabilities, these ships have.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The U.S. Army found out in Operation Desert Storm they had 5 million square feet of military equipment they couldn't move, except for a six-month routine. So they built these 20 large medium speed roll-on rollout ships, with the stern that just folds down, and now they can move the same amount of cargo within 60 days.
Now we're taking the 101st Screaming Eagles onboard in three days, strapping it down. It will take three weeks to get across the pond, and we'll offload them in 28 hours. These are wonderful ships, and it's revitalized the U.S. Merchant Marines.
ZARRELLA: Captain, thanks so much, and these are about eight baseball fields in size, is what you can actually accommodate here, of equipment they'll be taking across the pond, as the captain said.
Now, constant security, and we can take another camera view shot of the expanses here of Blood (ph) Island, the port of Jacksonville, the United States Coast Guard providing security. They have a couple of Zodiac fastboats and a cutter here, providing security. If you're found within the 100-yard restricted zone, you could forfeit your vessel and face six years in prison, and a $250,000 fine.
This is John Zarrella, reporting live from the deck of the U.S. Navy ship Dall -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, John Zarrella, David Mattingly and Patty Davis, within the whip as the military moves out, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 13, 2003 - 09:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Now we travel back to Kuwait where we find Bill Hemmer once again at Camp Virginia there.
Good morning again.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, Paula.
Some numbers quickly here -- 60,000 strong U.S. military forces here in Kuwait. We're under the impression over the next two weeks that number can grow again by 90,000. Here at Camp Virginia alone, the Army's 5th corps, 6,000 strong. In the past 24 hours, 1,200 new arrivals. In fact, we've run into a couple of them.
This gentleman right here.
Welcome, soldier. How are you? Your name?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Henderson.
HEMMER: And you're in from?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Germany.
HEMMER: Germany. How's it feel to be here in Camp Virginia?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It feels different, but I'm glad to be here.
HEMMER: It's home for a while, I guess?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it will be.
HEMMER: Well, listen, I think some of these guys have advice for you, including this guy over here on your opposite bunk.
What's your name?
Specialist Lula (ph).
HEMMER: Yes? How long you been here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Since November 30th.
HEMMER: November 30th. What do you tell the newcomer?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To sleep in the middle. You'll always be dry.
HEMMER: That's good advice. Sleep in the middle, you'll always be dry. Thank you.
Also, we talked about the troop buildup in this region. I mentioned 60,000 in Kuwait. We do anticipate that number to increase, and part of that increase will be handled by Kyra Phillips back at the CNN Center, who's watching troop deployments from the U.S. and overseas.
Kyra, good morning to you in Atlanta.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Bill. Great to see you.
Well, the Screaming Eagles of the 101st airborne division at Fort Campbell are moving out today, headed to the Persian Gulf. Throughout the day, we'll be bringing you live updates from Fort Campbell, Jacksonville Port, Scott Air Force Base, the Transcom, where the big move is coordinated, and Kuwait, the destination point. First up, we'll take you to Scott Air Force base in Illinois.
And to give you a little background, Scott is home to logistical infrastructure that moves personnel and machines overseas, even during peace time. It handles about 1,900 air missions and 25 ship movements a week.
Patty Davis, standing by at Scott Air Force Base.
Patty, let's start with you.
PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is U.S. transportation command post, Transcom. We're out here in the Hallway, because behind that door down there, the joint operations mobility command center, now that's where they're actually moving the troops, moving the tanks. This is the brains, the logistics center for all of those movements.
Now we got in there yesterday for a quick look. You can see the big board. They're moving those planes all across the world. They're also moving ships and they're moving by land as well.
And you can see, usually 25 ships at normal peace time moving per week. That's double that number every day right now. Also, for planes, 10,000 a week. It's almost 10,000 a day now, a big increase.
We're joined by Lieutenant General Gary Hughey here.
Now, is this big meeting going on behind those closed doors, and what are you talking about in there?
LT. GEN. GARY HUGHEY, U.S. ARMY: Well, good morning, Patty, and welcome to U.S. Transcom.
In simplest terms, U.S. Transcom provides this nation with the capability to deploy a military force anywhere in the world at any time. It enables us, when the president directs, to take the fight to the enemy, wherever they hide, wherever their source and supplied. We do that through three components -- the Army's military traffic management command, the Air Force's air mobility command and The navy's military sea lift command, along with a host of commercial partners that represent the entire spectrum of the transportation industry, both land, sea and air.
DAVIS: Big job here, obviously thousands and thousands of people involved. We'll take you inside that command center when we come back later this morning.
Now to Dave Mattingly at Fort Campbell.
DAVE MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The 101st airborne division is known for its ability to send troops anywhere in the world in 36 hours. In modern military standards, that is an incredible feat for them to do.
But when you have a deployment of this size, I mean -- just look at all this equipment that has to go. When you have a deployment of this size, the same rules don't apply. They have 18,000 troops. They have thousands of vehicles just like this that have to be loaded up and shipped out. They have hundreds of helicopters, all that equipment. Everything has to go. Now, fortunately, the 101st learned a lot about large-scale deployments back in the Gulf War.
Fortunately, right now, they have soldiers putting that to work. They are getting shots, they are putting finances in order, making legal arrangements for their family. They're gearing up, they're making sure that their desert uniforms fit. That's something that's very important right now. They've got the order to deploy a week ago, and any time now they're expecting the order to come down for them to load up on flights overseas.
Now their equipment, in the meantime, has already been on the go. And the top brass here says because of some new innovations, it's moving faster than they've ever moved it before.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJ. GEN. DAVID PETRAUS, 101ST AIRBORNE DIVISION: We have the ability to put 230 rail cars in here at one time, and load them on 10 different points simultaneously. and that was not here the last time this division went to war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: And, of course, nothing moves here without a shipping label on it. The shipping label here says it's going to Jacksonville, to the port, where it's all going to be loaded up on to ships, and John Zarrella is there to show us how it's done -- John.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: David, I'm standing the deck of the U.S. Navy ship "Dall." And a lot of that equipment has already arrived here. In fact, within the last week, about 250 helicopters showed up here, everything from Apaches to Blackhawks to the Chinooks that carry troops, and those choppers have been off-loaded, they're down here now at the port. I'll give you a quick look. What they do down here is, they shrink wrap all those helicopters to protect them. You can see them out there. They're getting ready to be loaded on to the Dall, where we are. Now directly below us here, is all a convoy of trucks, of humvees, a lot of the equipment that the 101st, the Screaming Eagles, are going to be needing in the weeks to come. And it is an unbelievable task, how quickly and how fast they are able to load all this.
Now, Captain Dick Paw (ph), who is the master of the Dall, has joined us.
And, Captain, unbelievable capabilities, these ships have.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The U.S. Army found out in Operation Desert Storm they had 5 million square feet of military equipment they couldn't move, except for a six-month routine. So they built these 20 large medium speed roll-on rollout ships, with the stern that just folds down, and now they can move the same amount of cargo within 60 days.
Now we're taking the 101st Screaming Eagles onboard in three days, strapping it down. It will take three weeks to get across the pond, and we'll offload them in 28 hours. These are wonderful ships, and it's revitalized the U.S. Merchant Marines.
ZARRELLA: Captain, thanks so much, and these are about eight baseball fields in size, is what you can actually accommodate here, of equipment they'll be taking across the pond, as the captain said.
Now, constant security, and we can take another camera view shot of the expanses here of Blood (ph) Island, the port of Jacksonville, the United States Coast Guard providing security. They have a couple of Zodiac fastboats and a cutter here, providing security. If you're found within the 100-yard restricted zone, you could forfeit your vessel and face six years in prison, and a $250,000 fine.
This is John Zarrella, reporting live from the deck of the U.S. Navy ship Dall -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, John Zarrella, David Mattingly and Patty Davis, within the whip as the military moves out, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
