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CNN Live At Daybreak
The Bomb Farm
Aired February 18, 2003 - 05:44 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 COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Each day more U.S. troops are arriving in the Persian Gulf. The Pentagon has exceeded its goal of having 150,000 troops in the region by mid-February.
This morning we visit an aircraft carrier where sailors are loading deadly cargo and preparing for a worse case scenario.
CNN's Becky Diamond takes us aboard the USS Constellation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BECKY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This chunk of iron is about half the weight of a car and can take one out miles away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's interesting, you load it and sometimes they drop them, sometimes they don't. They practice a lot. And every day it's new, you never know what's going to happen.
DIAMOND: It's early morning on the USS Constellation in the Persian Gulf and 1,000 pound smart bombs are being loaded onto jets bound for no-fly zone missions in southern Iraq.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Make sure all of your rings are off, all of your breakers are off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have to build a quality product and send a quality product to the aircraft knowing that these pilots are going out and risking their life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No funny (ph), no funny, we install and secure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Check.
DIAMOND: Petty Officer Duncan Clayton is a quality supervisor on this aircraft carrier and his assembly line products aren't designed for a long shelf life.
PETTY OFFICER DUNCAN CLAYTON, ORDNANCE SPECIALIST: Every bomb we build we pretty much assume that they're not going to come back.
It's an electrical tail fuse. It provides the explosive charge for the bomb.
This fin here has GPS, global positioning system. Once it's hooked to the bomb bodies and once the bomb is released, its -- it steers itself.
DIAMOND: Devastating to its target while reducing the risk of injury to civilians, these smart bombs mean more combat pilots will come home alive because they can drop the bombs from higher and safer altitudes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't -- I don't think about who it's going to affect and what it's destroying because I just feel terrorism itself and a whole, I mean they don't care about the people that they killed in 2001 and beyond and from here on out so.
DIAMOND: While Iraq insists they have no connection with al Qaeda or September 11, many here aren't drawing any distinctions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys manned up?
DIAMOND: These bombs are headed up to a holding area on the flight deck known as the bomb farm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want to go to war, I don't think the American people want to go to war, but we're here for a reason. So the commander-in-chief says go to war, well, there you go, we're going to war.
DIAMOND: Duncan Clayton, like the bombs he and his crew assemble, wait for their orders.
Becky Diamond, CNN, on the USS Constellation in the Persian Gulf.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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 18, 2003 - 05:44 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Each day more U.S. troops are arriving in the Persian Gulf. The Pentagon has exceeded its goal of having 150,000 troops in the region by mid-February.
This morning we visit an aircraft carrier where sailors are loading deadly cargo and preparing for a worse case scenario.
CNN's Becky Diamond takes us aboard the USS Constellation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BECKY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This chunk of iron is about half the weight of a car and can take one out miles away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's interesting, you load it and sometimes they drop them, sometimes they don't. They practice a lot. And every day it's new, you never know what's going to happen.
DIAMOND: It's early morning on the USS Constellation in the Persian Gulf and 1,000 pound smart bombs are being loaded onto jets bound for no-fly zone missions in southern Iraq.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Make sure all of your rings are off, all of your breakers are off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have to build a quality product and send a quality product to the aircraft knowing that these pilots are going out and risking their life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No funny (ph), no funny, we install and secure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Check.
DIAMOND: Petty Officer Duncan Clayton is a quality supervisor on this aircraft carrier and his assembly line products aren't designed for a long shelf life.
PETTY OFFICER DUNCAN CLAYTON, ORDNANCE SPECIALIST: Every bomb we build we pretty much assume that they're not going to come back.
It's an electrical tail fuse. It provides the explosive charge for the bomb.
This fin here has GPS, global positioning system. Once it's hooked to the bomb bodies and once the bomb is released, its -- it steers itself.
DIAMOND: Devastating to its target while reducing the risk of injury to civilians, these smart bombs mean more combat pilots will come home alive because they can drop the bombs from higher and safer altitudes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't -- I don't think about who it's going to affect and what it's destroying because I just feel terrorism itself and a whole, I mean they don't care about the people that they killed in 2001 and beyond and from here on out so.
DIAMOND: While Iraq insists they have no connection with al Qaeda or September 11, many here aren't drawing any distinctions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys manned up?
DIAMOND: These bombs are headed up to a holding area on the flight deck known as the bomb farm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want to go to war, I don't think the American people want to go to war, but we're here for a reason. So the commander-in-chief says go to war, well, there you go, we're going to war.
DIAMOND: Duncan Clayton, like the bombs he and his crew assemble, wait for their orders.
Becky Diamond, CNN, on the USS Constellation in the Persian Gulf.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
