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CNN Live Today
Interview With Pensacola Mayor John Fogg
Aired March 11, 2003 - 11:34 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.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. military carries out extensive testing of bombs on ranges in the pine barrens (ph) of the Florida panhandle not far from Pensacola, Florida. But today's testing reportedly involves a massive conventional bomb.
Mayor John Fogg is a retired Marine fighter pilot and a graduate of the Top Gun training school. He is with us now on the phone live. Good morning to you, Mr. Mayor. Thanks for being here.
JOHN FOGG, MAYOR, PENSACOLA, FLORIDA: Good morning, Heidi. I am glad to be here.
COLLINS: Great. I'm wondering if you can tell us -- first of all, I think we're looking at a time frame of just in the afternoon, from 12:00 to 6:00 Central time, is that right?
FOGG: That's correct. That was released by the Air Force, both in all of the TV and radio media, as well as in the newspaper this morning.
COLLINS: Right. And as we mentioned in the introduction to you, this is an area that is quite familiar with the Air Force and flying. We have Eglin Air Force Base there. What sort of support or activity, I guess I should say from the residents there? Are they worried about this, or are they well aware?
FOGG: Oh, we're very well aware. We have, probably, one of the strongest military presence in this part of Florida of any place in the country. As a matter of fact, we have a greater number of military retirees here than anywhere else in the country. We have a large array of both Navy and Air Force bases between here and Panama City. So we have a strong allegiance to our military, and support them as a community as much as we possibly can.
COLLINS: Right. Now, let's go ahead and talk a little bit about the bomb. We know it to be MOAB, and this is the Massive Ordinance Air Bomb. We are looking at a picture of it now on our screen, but the Bush administration, I believe, is calling it the mother of all bombs. Can you tell us a little bit about it, what you know?
FOGG: Well, I don't know much of the technical data about it. I served in Vietnam, and we had a similar bomb that was only 10,000 pounds. I understand this one is close to 22,000 pounds. It's obviously designed for air burst use, and looking at it, it looks like it may be some sort of fragmentation bomb as well as one designed to create a very significant overpressure on the ground. So I don't have technical data on it at this time. COLLINS: Right. You are absolutely right: 21,000 pounds, made to destroy targets above ground and very deeply buried targets as well. But they are saying that the psychological impact of a bomb like this would be the most damaging, perhaps, to the Iraqi soldiers.
FOGG: I would agree with that. A 22,000 pound conventional chemical explosion would be something on the order of at least 20 times larger than anything I saw on the ground in Vietnam. An 1,000 pound bomb is extremely humiliating.
COLLINS: Yes. I would imagine so. All right. Mayor John Fogg with us from Pensacola today, we appreciate that very much, sir.
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 March 11, 2003 - 11:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. military carries out extensive testing of bombs on ranges in the pine barrens (ph) of the Florida panhandle not far from Pensacola, Florida. But today's testing reportedly involves a massive conventional bomb.
Mayor John Fogg is a retired Marine fighter pilot and a graduate of the Top Gun training school. He is with us now on the phone live. Good morning to you, Mr. Mayor. Thanks for being here.
JOHN FOGG, MAYOR, PENSACOLA, FLORIDA: Good morning, Heidi. I am glad to be here.
COLLINS: Great. I'm wondering if you can tell us -- first of all, I think we're looking at a time frame of just in the afternoon, from 12:00 to 6:00 Central time, is that right?
FOGG: That's correct. That was released by the Air Force, both in all of the TV and radio media, as well as in the newspaper this morning.
COLLINS: Right. And as we mentioned in the introduction to you, this is an area that is quite familiar with the Air Force and flying. We have Eglin Air Force Base there. What sort of support or activity, I guess I should say from the residents there? Are they worried about this, or are they well aware?
FOGG: Oh, we're very well aware. We have, probably, one of the strongest military presence in this part of Florida of any place in the country. As a matter of fact, we have a greater number of military retirees here than anywhere else in the country. We have a large array of both Navy and Air Force bases between here and Panama City. So we have a strong allegiance to our military, and support them as a community as much as we possibly can.
COLLINS: Right. Now, let's go ahead and talk a little bit about the bomb. We know it to be MOAB, and this is the Massive Ordinance Air Bomb. We are looking at a picture of it now on our screen, but the Bush administration, I believe, is calling it the mother of all bombs. Can you tell us a little bit about it, what you know?
FOGG: Well, I don't know much of the technical data about it. I served in Vietnam, and we had a similar bomb that was only 10,000 pounds. I understand this one is close to 22,000 pounds. It's obviously designed for air burst use, and looking at it, it looks like it may be some sort of fragmentation bomb as well as one designed to create a very significant overpressure on the ground. So I don't have technical data on it at this time. COLLINS: Right. You are absolutely right: 21,000 pounds, made to destroy targets above ground and very deeply buried targets as well. But they are saying that the psychological impact of a bomb like this would be the most damaging, perhaps, to the Iraqi soldiers.
FOGG: I would agree with that. A 22,000 pound conventional chemical explosion would be something on the order of at least 20 times larger than anything I saw on the ground in Vietnam. An 1,000 pound bomb is extremely humiliating.
COLLINS: Yes. I would imagine so. All right. Mayor John Fogg with us from Pensacola today, we appreciate that very much, sir.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
