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CNN Live Today
Life as an Embedded Reporter
Aired March 28, 2003 - 11:18 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.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: In another part of Iraq right now, we want to check in with CNN's Gary Tuchman. He's embedded with the U.S. Air Force.
Gary filed this report on his movement inside the country a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I was informed by our international desk at CNN that they would like me to be an embed with the United States Air Force. And they asked me if I was interested. I said I was interested.
But I didn't know what to expect, because they've never done this before. The news media hasn't been embedded with troops. One of the things we think about a lot is that, as Air Force embeds, we are living on an Air Force base near the Iraqi border. And we've had at least 15 sirens signifying an Iraqi missile alert.
And you get the feeling, when you're staying an air base that, sometimes, you feel sometimes like you're a sitting duck.
Hey, it's Gary Tuchman. Hey, Vicki (ph). I'm in a bunker with soldiers right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, we've got an all-clear from the ICC (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All-clear?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All-clear.
TUCHMAN: We're just inside the lounge where fighter pilots go before they fly to get their intelligence reports.
As they sit down, as they rest, as they watch TV, as they read, as they get nervous, as they get excited, as they ready to go. And we're sitting there talking to them and they get the word to go and they scramble out the door and they go. And then we're literally with them as they get off the planes. We talk to them minutes after they get off the planes about their mission, what they did, what they bombed.
You can see inside, we have cots, beds, sleeping bags. We haven't really established a cleaning regimen for this tent yet. It would not win any "Good Housekeeping" awards.
The Air Force is a very proud service. And they want to serve their country and they want to serve their ground troops. They know that they need to protect the ground troops for the ground troops to do well. So, it's pained them to watch television coverage after their flights, especially pained them to see the two Army Apache helicopter pilots being taken prisoner.
We talked with them. They said they were angry. They said they were mad. They said they were frustrated. But they also said it would only make them do their jobs even better and that they forget about it when they get in the cockpit, because they have a job to do over the nation of Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Gary Tuchman, again, embedded with the U.S. Air Force.
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 28, 2003 - 11:18 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: In another part of Iraq right now, we want to check in with CNN's Gary Tuchman. He's embedded with the U.S. Air Force.
Gary filed this report on his movement inside the country a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I was informed by our international desk at CNN that they would like me to be an embed with the United States Air Force. And they asked me if I was interested. I said I was interested.
But I didn't know what to expect, because they've never done this before. The news media hasn't been embedded with troops. One of the things we think about a lot is that, as Air Force embeds, we are living on an Air Force base near the Iraqi border. And we've had at least 15 sirens signifying an Iraqi missile alert.
And you get the feeling, when you're staying an air base that, sometimes, you feel sometimes like you're a sitting duck.
Hey, it's Gary Tuchman. Hey, Vicki (ph). I'm in a bunker with soldiers right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, we've got an all-clear from the ICC (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All-clear?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All-clear.
TUCHMAN: We're just inside the lounge where fighter pilots go before they fly to get their intelligence reports.
As they sit down, as they rest, as they watch TV, as they read, as they get nervous, as they get excited, as they ready to go. And we're sitting there talking to them and they get the word to go and they scramble out the door and they go. And then we're literally with them as they get off the planes. We talk to them minutes after they get off the planes about their mission, what they did, what they bombed.
You can see inside, we have cots, beds, sleeping bags. We haven't really established a cleaning regimen for this tent yet. It would not win any "Good Housekeeping" awards.
The Air Force is a very proud service. And they want to serve their country and they want to serve their ground troops. They know that they need to protect the ground troops for the ground troops to do well. So, it's pained them to watch television coverage after their flights, especially pained them to see the two Army Apache helicopter pilots being taken prisoner.
We talked with them. They said they were angry. They said they were mad. They said they were frustrated. But they also said it would only make them do their jobs even better and that they forget about it when they get in the cockpit, because they have a job to do over the nation of Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Gary Tuchman, again, embedded with the U.S. Air Force.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
