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CNN Live At Daybreak
7th Cavalry Rolling Without Hostile Contact for 10 Hours
Aired March 21, 2003 - 06:50 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: Well, let's head out to the war front right now to southern Iraq, the Seventh Cavalry and Walter Rodgers, who's been at it all night long -- Walter, are they on the move still?
WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, indeed, they are moving. The tanks you're looking at now have nearly full tanks of gas. They're rolling rapidly across southern Iraq, moving very quickly, unimpeded. It's been over 10 hours since there's been any hostile contact that I'm aware of and we're very well plugged in with the unit. So, again, they're rolling without any hostile contact for, as I say, about 10 hours.
As you look at these pictures of the main battle tanks, of the U.S. Army's Third Squadron, Seventh Cavalry. The pictures are somewhat misleading because you focus on one tank and a cloud of dust which goes across it. But imagine at least 10 miles in either direction, tanks rolling like this and behind us many, many more tanks.
This is the mission which is being conducted here, the military mission, and the end game in all of this, according to both Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W. Bush, of course, is to force a regime change in Baghdad by intimidation, this kind of military force, the pictures of this military force is one clear pressure.
And if that does not work, then they have made it clear, the British and the Americans, that they are going to take this war all the way to Baghdad to force a regime change there.
This, again, this unit moving across the desert is basically a scouting unit out ahead of the main force, but not nearly so far out in front as we were about 15 hours ago, 20 hours ago, as it is now. What these tanks are doing is looking for the Iraqis. They're heading for their main objective, which, of course, is classified, but once they get to that objective, they will clear any Iraqis in their path and then move on to Baghdad from there.
The mission is to find the Iraqis, persuade them to give up in the face of overwhelming force, but if they don't, the quote from the commander of the Seventh U.S. Calvary, Terry Farrell, Colonel Terry Farrell is, "If there is a demonstrably hostile force out there, then we are going to kill him.
There has been very little killing here. Indeed, these soldiers have been told they're coming to liberate the people of Iraq. But we're traveling such a desolate route that we haven't seen more than a handful of Bedouins the whole time and they generally tend to be apolitical.
So the people of Kuwait haven't seen much of the liberation, merely because this is such a large country and the section through which we're traveling is so desolate -- Anderson, Carol.
COSTELLO: Of course, you meant the people of Iraq.
Walter, a question for you that comes from our audience as far as ammunition is concerned. I know they carry only so much. How do they get more ammunition once they've run out?
RODGERS: Well, there's an enormous -- what you're looking at is the teeth of this fighting unit, the tanks, the Bradley fighting vehicles. The tail of this unit goes back miles. There are tanker trucks and there are supply units behind us. But every one of these tanks is carrying -- each one of these tanks is carrying more than three dozen 120 millimeter shells. There's a .50 caliber machine gun up there and boxes and boxes of 7.62 millimeter machine gun boxes down below in the carriage.
So they are carrying more than enough ammunition as it is for a very serious fight and in addition to that, there's a supply train not very far behind us. Good question, though.
COOPER: Walter, I've got a question for you here. One thing you said I think bears repeating, because I actually, as much as I have seen these pictures all in the last several hours, I had not realized, you said 10 miles on either side of you this steel wave, as the Army calls the Seventh Cavalry, stretches out. So this is, you are cutting a 20 mile swathe through the Iraqi desert.
Is that correct?
RODGERS: That, well, the Seventh Cavalry plus the Third Infantry Division, which is backing up the Seventh Cavalry, yes. When we went past some tanks ago and when you look out on the horizon, these tanks just go for miles in every direction. I used the phrase steel wave earlier and it is a steel wave heading inexorably towards Baghdad and it seems to grow in strength or at least in tanks every hour.
There's an enormous number of tanks in this unit and there's no other armor force in the world that's anywhere near the equal of what our viewers have been seeing here. Sadly, the camera's visual lens is limited to, let's say, oh a 45 degree angle. But if you had a full 360 degrees or 180 degrees, you'd see much, much more military hardware than is, than you're seeing in the limited angle of the camera's lens -- Anderson.
COSTELLO: Oh, Walter, but the pictures you're bringing us are just phenomenal. Phenomenal pictures. And talking about that great steel wave, I just wondered about the dust it's kicking up, because we always hear about the problems associated with the sand and the dryness out there. RODGERS: It is a problem. It is a problem in keeping the gear clean aboard the tanks. All the weapons you see will have to be cleaned and checked. Every soldier's rifle, every soldier's pistol is going to have to be cleaned. In this kind of climate, an M-16 rifle has to be cleaned at least twice a day.
Now, the tanks themselves are pretty well dust proof, that is to say, they have air filters which have to be cleaned. But the maintenance for these tanks is pretty good because after Desert Storm it was very clear that the U.S. Army would be fighting its battles in this part of the world for some time to come, so long as Saddam Hussein was in power. That being the case (AUDIO GAP) and there's no such thing as dust proof out here.
I was looking across the, at the face of one driver or -- it wasn't the driver, it was the commander of a Bradley fighting vehicle. And he had like layers and layers of pancake makeup on his face, except it wasn't makeup, it was caked dust. Each of us is literally choking from it and every bit of clothing we have at the end of this war is just going to be thrown away -- Carol.
COSTELLO: That's just totally unbelievable -- Anderson.
COOPER: Walter, how far ahead can you see? I don't mean you literally see, but in terms of, as you are moving rapidly through the desert, how much ahead of you do you know the landscape, do you know what lies ahead of you?
RODGERS: I know this section of Iraq because I was here before in about 1993 and 1994, and I was down here. And the contours change in this country. Remember, this is geographically as large as the state of California. It's not quite as diverse. Iraq is not quite as diverse as California, but we are in the southern section of it. And as you go farther north, particularly up into the Mesopotamian Delta, the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers (AUDIO GAP) that's extraordinarily alluvial and green because of the great rivers which flow through there.
And then you go further up into northern Iraq and you're talking about mountains and forests. So what we're seeing now is just a small portion of Iraq, basically, I would guess, about the southern third, southern and western third is all desert -- Anderson.
COOPER: But the...
COSTELLO: Yes, Walter, we were seeing where Brent Sadler was, beautiful green mountains.
COOPER: Right. But the troops you are with, they are able to see, whether it's via radar or whatever, they are able to see a fair distance ahead so they know what is coming in terms of whether or not there are Iraqi positions in ahead of them, is that right?
RODGERS: Well, there are three probing units which are out there, the helicopters, which are out, as I say, four to 10 kilometers, as much as six miles out in front of the armored unit, which is moving up behind them. They are the eyes of the eyes of the Calvary.
Behind them come the scout vehicles, the Bradley fighting vehicles. Soldiers can see no more than you can see if there's another vehicle in front of them.
Now, they don't tend to go in a column like we've swung behind now. They tend to travel abreast so they don't eat quite as much dust. But there's no such thing as sanctity from dust out here -- Anderson, Carol.
COSTELLO: And you're not kidding.
Walter Rodgers, thank you so much for your coverage this morning.
You're going to stick around.
We've got to stop right now because we want to join the next team coming in at 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
COOPER: All right, CNN's AMERICAN MORNING with Paula Zahn, Bill Hemmer, Leon Harris standing by.
COSTELLO: I think Leon Harris is standing by right now -- good morning, Leon.
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 21, 2003 - 06:50 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, let's head out to the war front right now to southern Iraq, the Seventh Cavalry and Walter Rodgers, who's been at it all night long -- Walter, are they on the move still?
WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, indeed, they are moving. The tanks you're looking at now have nearly full tanks of gas. They're rolling rapidly across southern Iraq, moving very quickly, unimpeded. It's been over 10 hours since there's been any hostile contact that I'm aware of and we're very well plugged in with the unit. So, again, they're rolling without any hostile contact for, as I say, about 10 hours.
As you look at these pictures of the main battle tanks, of the U.S. Army's Third Squadron, Seventh Cavalry. The pictures are somewhat misleading because you focus on one tank and a cloud of dust which goes across it. But imagine at least 10 miles in either direction, tanks rolling like this and behind us many, many more tanks.
This is the mission which is being conducted here, the military mission, and the end game in all of this, according to both Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W. Bush, of course, is to force a regime change in Baghdad by intimidation, this kind of military force, the pictures of this military force is one clear pressure.
And if that does not work, then they have made it clear, the British and the Americans, that they are going to take this war all the way to Baghdad to force a regime change there.
This, again, this unit moving across the desert is basically a scouting unit out ahead of the main force, but not nearly so far out in front as we were about 15 hours ago, 20 hours ago, as it is now. What these tanks are doing is looking for the Iraqis. They're heading for their main objective, which, of course, is classified, but once they get to that objective, they will clear any Iraqis in their path and then move on to Baghdad from there.
The mission is to find the Iraqis, persuade them to give up in the face of overwhelming force, but if they don't, the quote from the commander of the Seventh U.S. Calvary, Terry Farrell, Colonel Terry Farrell is, "If there is a demonstrably hostile force out there, then we are going to kill him.
There has been very little killing here. Indeed, these soldiers have been told they're coming to liberate the people of Iraq. But we're traveling such a desolate route that we haven't seen more than a handful of Bedouins the whole time and they generally tend to be apolitical.
So the people of Kuwait haven't seen much of the liberation, merely because this is such a large country and the section through which we're traveling is so desolate -- Anderson, Carol.
COSTELLO: Of course, you meant the people of Iraq.
Walter, a question for you that comes from our audience as far as ammunition is concerned. I know they carry only so much. How do they get more ammunition once they've run out?
RODGERS: Well, there's an enormous -- what you're looking at is the teeth of this fighting unit, the tanks, the Bradley fighting vehicles. The tail of this unit goes back miles. There are tanker trucks and there are supply units behind us. But every one of these tanks is carrying -- each one of these tanks is carrying more than three dozen 120 millimeter shells. There's a .50 caliber machine gun up there and boxes and boxes of 7.62 millimeter machine gun boxes down below in the carriage.
So they are carrying more than enough ammunition as it is for a very serious fight and in addition to that, there's a supply train not very far behind us. Good question, though.
COOPER: Walter, I've got a question for you here. One thing you said I think bears repeating, because I actually, as much as I have seen these pictures all in the last several hours, I had not realized, you said 10 miles on either side of you this steel wave, as the Army calls the Seventh Cavalry, stretches out. So this is, you are cutting a 20 mile swathe through the Iraqi desert.
Is that correct?
RODGERS: That, well, the Seventh Cavalry plus the Third Infantry Division, which is backing up the Seventh Cavalry, yes. When we went past some tanks ago and when you look out on the horizon, these tanks just go for miles in every direction. I used the phrase steel wave earlier and it is a steel wave heading inexorably towards Baghdad and it seems to grow in strength or at least in tanks every hour.
There's an enormous number of tanks in this unit and there's no other armor force in the world that's anywhere near the equal of what our viewers have been seeing here. Sadly, the camera's visual lens is limited to, let's say, oh a 45 degree angle. But if you had a full 360 degrees or 180 degrees, you'd see much, much more military hardware than is, than you're seeing in the limited angle of the camera's lens -- Anderson.
COSTELLO: Oh, Walter, but the pictures you're bringing us are just phenomenal. Phenomenal pictures. And talking about that great steel wave, I just wondered about the dust it's kicking up, because we always hear about the problems associated with the sand and the dryness out there. RODGERS: It is a problem. It is a problem in keeping the gear clean aboard the tanks. All the weapons you see will have to be cleaned and checked. Every soldier's rifle, every soldier's pistol is going to have to be cleaned. In this kind of climate, an M-16 rifle has to be cleaned at least twice a day.
Now, the tanks themselves are pretty well dust proof, that is to say, they have air filters which have to be cleaned. But the maintenance for these tanks is pretty good because after Desert Storm it was very clear that the U.S. Army would be fighting its battles in this part of the world for some time to come, so long as Saddam Hussein was in power. That being the case (AUDIO GAP) and there's no such thing as dust proof out here.
I was looking across the, at the face of one driver or -- it wasn't the driver, it was the commander of a Bradley fighting vehicle. And he had like layers and layers of pancake makeup on his face, except it wasn't makeup, it was caked dust. Each of us is literally choking from it and every bit of clothing we have at the end of this war is just going to be thrown away -- Carol.
COSTELLO: That's just totally unbelievable -- Anderson.
COOPER: Walter, how far ahead can you see? I don't mean you literally see, but in terms of, as you are moving rapidly through the desert, how much ahead of you do you know the landscape, do you know what lies ahead of you?
RODGERS: I know this section of Iraq because I was here before in about 1993 and 1994, and I was down here. And the contours change in this country. Remember, this is geographically as large as the state of California. It's not quite as diverse. Iraq is not quite as diverse as California, but we are in the southern section of it. And as you go farther north, particularly up into the Mesopotamian Delta, the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers (AUDIO GAP) that's extraordinarily alluvial and green because of the great rivers which flow through there.
And then you go further up into northern Iraq and you're talking about mountains and forests. So what we're seeing now is just a small portion of Iraq, basically, I would guess, about the southern third, southern and western third is all desert -- Anderson.
COOPER: But the...
COSTELLO: Yes, Walter, we were seeing where Brent Sadler was, beautiful green mountains.
COOPER: Right. But the troops you are with, they are able to see, whether it's via radar or whatever, they are able to see a fair distance ahead so they know what is coming in terms of whether or not there are Iraqi positions in ahead of them, is that right?
RODGERS: Well, there are three probing units which are out there, the helicopters, which are out, as I say, four to 10 kilometers, as much as six miles out in front of the armored unit, which is moving up behind them. They are the eyes of the eyes of the Calvary.
Behind them come the scout vehicles, the Bradley fighting vehicles. Soldiers can see no more than you can see if there's another vehicle in front of them.
Now, they don't tend to go in a column like we've swung behind now. They tend to travel abreast so they don't eat quite as much dust. But there's no such thing as sanctity from dust out here -- Anderson, Carol.
COSTELLO: And you're not kidding.
Walter Rodgers, thank you so much for your coverage this morning.
You're going to stick around.
We've got to stop right now because we want to join the next team coming in at 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
COOPER: All right, CNN's AMERICAN MORNING with Paula Zahn, Bill Hemmer, Leon Harris standing by.
COSTELLO: I think Leon Harris is standing by right now -- good morning, Leon.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
