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CNN Live At Daybreak

War in Iraq: Military Update

Aired March 27, 2003 - 05:48   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: We want to get more of an update on what's been happening overnight and into the morning on the war front.
CNN's Renay San Miguel has made it in this morning, and he's joined by General Grange.

Good morning -- Renay.

RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

And our job is to give the big picture of -- from taking what all the correspondents have given us and put it on the maps and let you know exactly how it fits into the overall scheme of things.

Joining us is CNN military analyst, retired Army General David Grange.

And for the second straight morning, we're talking about more of a northern front. We've got some satellite imagery from EarthViewer.com and DigitalGlobe.com to show us about the paratroop drop that happened overnight. The U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade parachuting out of C-17s into the Kurdish-controlled territory. And we'll be zooming in on this airfield. It's Karid (ph) I believe is the way that they're pronouncing this, not far from Bashur in northeastern Iraq. And I'll give you more of an idea of what we're talking about right here. There is the airfield right there.

General, 1,000 U.S. paratroops, the sight of them coming out of those C-17s must have been -- must have been an awesome sight for anybody who was able to see it.

BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Absolutely. And their jump altitude was probably around 500 feet above ground level. Could have been a little bit higher, but I think that was the altitude. So that means they get on the ground very quickly. And it's key to do that. If there was any fire, it's less exposure for the troops as they're under canopy drifting to the ground. And then they get on the ground faster in a tighter formation on the ground and then they go ahead and take their parachutes off and get ready to move to the fighting positions after they account for their people.

SAN MIGUEL: What do you know about the 173rd? Have you had a chance, in your experience, to deal with this brigade?

GRANGE: Yes, the 173rd has a history of combat through many wars with the United States of America. My last experience with them out of -- they're out of Vicenza, Italy, was working in Germany, working with heavy units, mechanized units, armored tank Bradley units, training for things just like this.

SAN MIGUEL: OK. And then of course that airfield is going to be key for helping it resupply when the northern front really gets going.

Let's come back to the map table here and talk about some other things that were going on. In addition to the paratroop drop, there was some bombings from coalition aircraft. Let's go ahead and put the C-17 right there, just show you that's what they jumped out of there, those paratroopers. But also some bombings going on near Mosul in the town of Kalak. And again, just to help soften things up, some air cover for the -- to get rid of some of those Iraqi positions there.

GRANGE: Right, and not only the Iraqi positions, but in this area by Mosul there the Iraqis are firing missiles -- some missiles out of that location as well into Kurdish-occupied territory. So there's artillery targets there, there's missile targets as well as troop concentrations that these airstrikes are going after.

SAN MIGUEL: We want to make sure everybody knows this is kind of their -- to this point right here is the Kurdish-controlled territory right up -- backing up against those big mountains there that are near Iran.

And now we were also talking about you know there's been a lot of activity, as we just heard, 14 Iraqi tanks and 4 armored personnel carriers destroyed down here near Basra. This is, you know, again, it's very intense and those paramilitary seem to be dug in pretty tight there.

GRANGE: Right, and I think what you saw the other day when they said why would these armored vehicles be moving to the south, they're moving actually down to the southeast. And I think what it was was a breakout towards Iran. It's hard to say, but a breakout or either a spoil in an attack against some of the British commando units that are down there.

But again, once they assemble, once they move on roads and try some type of maneuver, they are game for coalition aircraft and coalition armor, the Desert Rats, the British 7th Armored Brigade and they can take them down pretty quick.

SAN MIGUEL: And the weather has been more -- a little bit more accommodating over the last few hours in that respect.

And then quickly here, just to talk more engagements around Nasiriya, Iraqis seem to be unwilling to give this up, really also dug in there as well.

GRANGE: Right. Continue to have contacts throughout Najaf and Nasiriya area as the units move north.

SAN MIGUEL: OK. General David Grange, thanks for your time. We'll talk to you next time we visit with you.

Anderson, back over to you.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Actually, General Grange, I want to look at your video monitor for this next thing. You're about to see perhaps the luckiest man in the world. Take a look at this photo. His name is Erik Walderman (ph). He's a Royal Marine Commando.

He was shot in the head four times. Those are the bullet holes there. Apparently pierced the cloth covering helmet, went into his Kevlar. He was caught by enemy gun sights during a fight in -- a firefight in Umm Qasr apparently. His wife and their son obviously very relieved. His wife says I can't believe it. He is so lucky to be alive. He is the luckiest man out there. I am just so glad he is still alive. Erik Walderman.

COSTELLO: He joined the Marines three years ago only.

COOPER: Amazing.

COSTELLO: He is. And he's had 30 weeks of training. He went to the Gulf on January 15.

General, can you comment on this helmet and how it saved his life?

GRANGE: I sure can. The four bullet holes, if there are four hits, I don't see four, but I take their word for it, is amazing. I've seen many helmets with one bullet hole that went through it. The U.S. helmets, like the Brit's, are lifesavers. And one of the hardest things to do in the field, a discipline challenge, is make soldiers and Marines wear their helmets all the time. And it's uncomfortable, it's hot and people don't want to do it. But as you can see from this picture, it'll save you.

COOPER: And apparently Kevlar is like 25 to 40 percent -- I'm just reading this -- 25 to 40 percent more resistant to projectiles than steel.

GRANGE: Yes, much better than the old what they called the steel pot. The steel pot, it did not have the protection the new Kevlar helmets have. The only draw down is troopers used to like to use the old steel pot to wash in and put hot water in and do some other things in. And so there's some downside to it; but in combat, Kevlar is better.

COOPER: Right.

COSTELLO: Well a question for you, will he go back to the battle lines now?

GRANGE: Why not? He's -- he looks good to me and just change his helmet out.

COOPER: Well my question is will his -- will his comrades want to be close to him or far away from him that's... GRANGE: Well you can look at it two ways. You know I was wounded twice and both times on a 13th of the month and it happened to be a -- 13th of the week and it happened to be on a Friday and people said boy are you unlucky. I said why, I'm standing here. So they may want to all be around him.

COOPER: All right.

COSTELLO: Wow!

COOPER: His name, Erik Walderman. He's a Royal Marine Commando shot four times in the head, lived to tell the tale.

We'll be right back.

COSTELLO: Yes, and to fight again.

COOPER: Yes.

COSTELLO: We will be right back. Stick around.

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 27, 2003 - 05:48   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We want to get more of an update on what's been happening overnight and into the morning on the war front.
CNN's Renay San Miguel has made it in this morning, and he's joined by General Grange.

Good morning -- Renay.

RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

And our job is to give the big picture of -- from taking what all the correspondents have given us and put it on the maps and let you know exactly how it fits into the overall scheme of things.

Joining us is CNN military analyst, retired Army General David Grange.

And for the second straight morning, we're talking about more of a northern front. We've got some satellite imagery from EarthViewer.com and DigitalGlobe.com to show us about the paratroop drop that happened overnight. The U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade parachuting out of C-17s into the Kurdish-controlled territory. And we'll be zooming in on this airfield. It's Karid (ph) I believe is the way that they're pronouncing this, not far from Bashur in northeastern Iraq. And I'll give you more of an idea of what we're talking about right here. There is the airfield right there.

General, 1,000 U.S. paratroops, the sight of them coming out of those C-17s must have been -- must have been an awesome sight for anybody who was able to see it.

BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Absolutely. And their jump altitude was probably around 500 feet above ground level. Could have been a little bit higher, but I think that was the altitude. So that means they get on the ground very quickly. And it's key to do that. If there was any fire, it's less exposure for the troops as they're under canopy drifting to the ground. And then they get on the ground faster in a tighter formation on the ground and then they go ahead and take their parachutes off and get ready to move to the fighting positions after they account for their people.

SAN MIGUEL: What do you know about the 173rd? Have you had a chance, in your experience, to deal with this brigade?

GRANGE: Yes, the 173rd has a history of combat through many wars with the United States of America. My last experience with them out of -- they're out of Vicenza, Italy, was working in Germany, working with heavy units, mechanized units, armored tank Bradley units, training for things just like this.

SAN MIGUEL: OK. And then of course that airfield is going to be key for helping it resupply when the northern front really gets going.

Let's come back to the map table here and talk about some other things that were going on. In addition to the paratroop drop, there was some bombings from coalition aircraft. Let's go ahead and put the C-17 right there, just show you that's what they jumped out of there, those paratroopers. But also some bombings going on near Mosul in the town of Kalak. And again, just to help soften things up, some air cover for the -- to get rid of some of those Iraqi positions there.

GRANGE: Right, and not only the Iraqi positions, but in this area by Mosul there the Iraqis are firing missiles -- some missiles out of that location as well into Kurdish-occupied territory. So there's artillery targets there, there's missile targets as well as troop concentrations that these airstrikes are going after.

SAN MIGUEL: We want to make sure everybody knows this is kind of their -- to this point right here is the Kurdish-controlled territory right up -- backing up against those big mountains there that are near Iran.

And now we were also talking about you know there's been a lot of activity, as we just heard, 14 Iraqi tanks and 4 armored personnel carriers destroyed down here near Basra. This is, you know, again, it's very intense and those paramilitary seem to be dug in pretty tight there.

GRANGE: Right, and I think what you saw the other day when they said why would these armored vehicles be moving to the south, they're moving actually down to the southeast. And I think what it was was a breakout towards Iran. It's hard to say, but a breakout or either a spoil in an attack against some of the British commando units that are down there.

But again, once they assemble, once they move on roads and try some type of maneuver, they are game for coalition aircraft and coalition armor, the Desert Rats, the British 7th Armored Brigade and they can take them down pretty quick.

SAN MIGUEL: And the weather has been more -- a little bit more accommodating over the last few hours in that respect.

And then quickly here, just to talk more engagements around Nasiriya, Iraqis seem to be unwilling to give this up, really also dug in there as well.

GRANGE: Right. Continue to have contacts throughout Najaf and Nasiriya area as the units move north.

SAN MIGUEL: OK. General David Grange, thanks for your time. We'll talk to you next time we visit with you.

Anderson, back over to you.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Actually, General Grange, I want to look at your video monitor for this next thing. You're about to see perhaps the luckiest man in the world. Take a look at this photo. His name is Erik Walderman (ph). He's a Royal Marine Commando.

He was shot in the head four times. Those are the bullet holes there. Apparently pierced the cloth covering helmet, went into his Kevlar. He was caught by enemy gun sights during a fight in -- a firefight in Umm Qasr apparently. His wife and their son obviously very relieved. His wife says I can't believe it. He is so lucky to be alive. He is the luckiest man out there. I am just so glad he is still alive. Erik Walderman.

COSTELLO: He joined the Marines three years ago only.

COOPER: Amazing.

COSTELLO: He is. And he's had 30 weeks of training. He went to the Gulf on January 15.

General, can you comment on this helmet and how it saved his life?

GRANGE: I sure can. The four bullet holes, if there are four hits, I don't see four, but I take their word for it, is amazing. I've seen many helmets with one bullet hole that went through it. The U.S. helmets, like the Brit's, are lifesavers. And one of the hardest things to do in the field, a discipline challenge, is make soldiers and Marines wear their helmets all the time. And it's uncomfortable, it's hot and people don't want to do it. But as you can see from this picture, it'll save you.

COOPER: And apparently Kevlar is like 25 to 40 percent -- I'm just reading this -- 25 to 40 percent more resistant to projectiles than steel.

GRANGE: Yes, much better than the old what they called the steel pot. The steel pot, it did not have the protection the new Kevlar helmets have. The only draw down is troopers used to like to use the old steel pot to wash in and put hot water in and do some other things in. And so there's some downside to it; but in combat, Kevlar is better.

COOPER: Right.

COSTELLO: Well a question for you, will he go back to the battle lines now?

GRANGE: Why not? He's -- he looks good to me and just change his helmet out.

COOPER: Well my question is will his -- will his comrades want to be close to him or far away from him that's... GRANGE: Well you can look at it two ways. You know I was wounded twice and both times on a 13th of the month and it happened to be a -- 13th of the week and it happened to be on a Friday and people said boy are you unlucky. I said why, I'm standing here. So they may want to all be around him.

COOPER: All right.

COSTELLO: Wow!

COOPER: His name, Erik Walderman. He's a Royal Marine Commando shot four times in the head, lived to tell the tale.

We'll be right back.

COSTELLO: Yes, and to fight again.

COOPER: Yes.

COSTELLO: We will be right back. Stick around.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com