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War Stories with the 101st Airborne

Aired April 21, 2003 - 11:54   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.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: After spending several grueling weeks risking their lives covering the war in Iraq, some of our reporters have actually had a chance to return home.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And that includes Ryan Chilcote. He was embedded with the 101st Airborne. Here are some highlights from his reporting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Elements of the 101st Airborne Division have moved out of a camp in Kuwait into an assembly area here in the Kuwaiti desert. I'd like to show you a bit of the assembly area now. We're going to go into what's called a "hasty," in other words, a fox hole that the soldiers have hastily dug. It's a defensive position, gives them cover, should there be some kind of incoming missile.

The entire fleet of the 101st Airborne has been grounded. So in terms of -- this is an air assault division. They specialize in moving troops to the battlefield with their helicopters. So they obviously can't do that right now. In addition to that, a lot of -- when this kicked up, the sandstorm began, and I don't think if you're getting an idea, but it's just snowing sand (ph) right now. When this began, it came up so quickly and so violently that a lot of the pilots that were out there, they had to put their helicopters down on the ground right away, wherever they were.

Military convoy was moving through the city today, actually trying to make its way to the mosque to establish contact with the cleric of the Ali mosque here in the city of An-Najaf, when, for various reasons, it had to stop. And people around the convoy -- this is primarily a Shi'a Muslim city -- really just starting chanting pro- American and anti-Saddam slogans. Obviously, there's very little love lost for President Saddam Hussein here in southern Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And joining us now, you see him there on the screen and no longer encrusted.

KAGAN: Cleaned up.

Let's get right to the e-mail.

HARRIS: All right, Ryan, here we go. Go ahead, Daryn. KAGAN: The first one comes from the Panama Canal: "Ryan, you're reporting from the 101st was outstanding. At any time during your experience did you fear for your life. What was it like traveling with the 101st through Kuwait and southern Iraq?

CHILCOTE: Well, sure, I did fear for my life on a couple of occasions, maybe not at the times you would expect. There was one occasion when we were up on a hill in just north of the Iraqi city of Hala (ph) in central Iraq, and the city had fallen to the 101st that day. It was also when the city of Baghdad was falling, and I was waiting to do a live shot.

But obviously, I wasn't the most important story out there that the -- Hala (ph) wasn't the most important story. So it basically as I was standing up on this hill, it got dark, and we decided to use white light to light me up. So as far as I could see out of the -- basically I had a view of all of the ruins of ancient Babylon from where I was north of Hala (ph). All I could see was black but, anyone that was below me, all they could see was me lit up, so I was a big, shiny target. And sure enough, someone did take some pot shots at both myself and the cameraman Greg Danydanuka (ph) and the engineer Brad Timcox (ph), who was out there.

And I felt a little bit vulnerable at that time, because we weren't actually with the troops. We'd decided for the backdrop, which worked as long as it was light, that we would stay up on the hill, but there weren't any troops up there.

And of course it wasn't even so much the mortar fire up there that bothered me, but the fact that there weren't any troops around us, that we were so vulnerable to an ambush.

And then of course we decided to come down the hill to try to get back to the troops that we had been embedded with the 101st Airborne's 3rd Brigade, and what really made me nervous about that was the fact we had no way of telling them that we're coming to them. So I was very fearful of the fact that they might think that we were Iraqis and might open fire on us.

KAGAN: Glad they didn't.

CHILCOTE: Absolutely, I did get a little fearful, yes.

HARRIS: That makes perfect sense. We've got time for one more. Let's get to this one from Mildred: "As a mother of a Marine, I first want to say thanks for all your coverage. What was the most heartbreaking story that you could not report on while it was happening? And would you do this assignment again after having gone through it?

CHILCOTE: Well, starting with the last question, I would absolutely do the assignment again. You know, when I left the 101st Airborne's 3rd Brigade in Baghdad, I really was the last reporter with them, and they're just really starting to get into their part of the story. They are effectively the cops of southern Baghdad, and there will be a lot to report on, so I did feel bad about leaving and would love to be there.

However, to respond to the other question about -- I guess there were a lot of stories that I couldn't report immediately on for various reasons, not just because of the embed rules, but for technical reasons, maybe our equipment wasn't working, or we had to move in our car, but just the day before I left, I did learn about one soldier who not from the 101st Airborne's 3rd Brigade, but from another brigade of the 101st Airborne, who committed suicide, and he had just received a "dear John" letter, what the military calls a "dear John" letter, meaning he had received from a loved one saying, hey, I'm just being anonymous here, but it basically said hey, John, I don't want to be with you anymore, and this soldier took his life, and that really shook me up. It was one of the things that the 101st was really concerned about the whole while, and it did happen, so -- but...

KAGAN: We'd love to talk to you all day. So many stories, and sorry to end on a sad note there, but we're glad you're back we're glad you're cleansed and we're glad your safe. Ryan Chilcote.

CHILCOTE: Thank you. As is my family.

KAGAN: Yes, I bet, your wife. Thank you so much.

HARRIS: Thanks, Ryan. Good to see you, pal.

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 April 21, 2003 - 11:54   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: After spending several grueling weeks risking their lives covering the war in Iraq, some of our reporters have actually had a chance to return home.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And that includes Ryan Chilcote. He was embedded with the 101st Airborne. Here are some highlights from his reporting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Elements of the 101st Airborne Division have moved out of a camp in Kuwait into an assembly area here in the Kuwaiti desert. I'd like to show you a bit of the assembly area now. We're going to go into what's called a "hasty," in other words, a fox hole that the soldiers have hastily dug. It's a defensive position, gives them cover, should there be some kind of incoming missile.

The entire fleet of the 101st Airborne has been grounded. So in terms of -- this is an air assault division. They specialize in moving troops to the battlefield with their helicopters. So they obviously can't do that right now. In addition to that, a lot of -- when this kicked up, the sandstorm began, and I don't think if you're getting an idea, but it's just snowing sand (ph) right now. When this began, it came up so quickly and so violently that a lot of the pilots that were out there, they had to put their helicopters down on the ground right away, wherever they were.

Military convoy was moving through the city today, actually trying to make its way to the mosque to establish contact with the cleric of the Ali mosque here in the city of An-Najaf, when, for various reasons, it had to stop. And people around the convoy -- this is primarily a Shi'a Muslim city -- really just starting chanting pro- American and anti-Saddam slogans. Obviously, there's very little love lost for President Saddam Hussein here in southern Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And joining us now, you see him there on the screen and no longer encrusted.

KAGAN: Cleaned up.

Let's get right to the e-mail.

HARRIS: All right, Ryan, here we go. Go ahead, Daryn. KAGAN: The first one comes from the Panama Canal: "Ryan, you're reporting from the 101st was outstanding. At any time during your experience did you fear for your life. What was it like traveling with the 101st through Kuwait and southern Iraq?

CHILCOTE: Well, sure, I did fear for my life on a couple of occasions, maybe not at the times you would expect. There was one occasion when we were up on a hill in just north of the Iraqi city of Hala (ph) in central Iraq, and the city had fallen to the 101st that day. It was also when the city of Baghdad was falling, and I was waiting to do a live shot.

But obviously, I wasn't the most important story out there that the -- Hala (ph) wasn't the most important story. So it basically as I was standing up on this hill, it got dark, and we decided to use white light to light me up. So as far as I could see out of the -- basically I had a view of all of the ruins of ancient Babylon from where I was north of Hala (ph). All I could see was black but, anyone that was below me, all they could see was me lit up, so I was a big, shiny target. And sure enough, someone did take some pot shots at both myself and the cameraman Greg Danydanuka (ph) and the engineer Brad Timcox (ph), who was out there.

And I felt a little bit vulnerable at that time, because we weren't actually with the troops. We'd decided for the backdrop, which worked as long as it was light, that we would stay up on the hill, but there weren't any troops up there.

And of course it wasn't even so much the mortar fire up there that bothered me, but the fact that there weren't any troops around us, that we were so vulnerable to an ambush.

And then of course we decided to come down the hill to try to get back to the troops that we had been embedded with the 101st Airborne's 3rd Brigade, and what really made me nervous about that was the fact we had no way of telling them that we're coming to them. So I was very fearful of the fact that they might think that we were Iraqis and might open fire on us.

KAGAN: Glad they didn't.

CHILCOTE: Absolutely, I did get a little fearful, yes.

HARRIS: That makes perfect sense. We've got time for one more. Let's get to this one from Mildred: "As a mother of a Marine, I first want to say thanks for all your coverage. What was the most heartbreaking story that you could not report on while it was happening? And would you do this assignment again after having gone through it?

CHILCOTE: Well, starting with the last question, I would absolutely do the assignment again. You know, when I left the 101st Airborne's 3rd Brigade in Baghdad, I really was the last reporter with them, and they're just really starting to get into their part of the story. They are effectively the cops of southern Baghdad, and there will be a lot to report on, so I did feel bad about leaving and would love to be there.

However, to respond to the other question about -- I guess there were a lot of stories that I couldn't report immediately on for various reasons, not just because of the embed rules, but for technical reasons, maybe our equipment wasn't working, or we had to move in our car, but just the day before I left, I did learn about one soldier who not from the 101st Airborne's 3rd Brigade, but from another brigade of the 101st Airborne, who committed suicide, and he had just received a "dear John" letter, what the military calls a "dear John" letter, meaning he had received from a loved one saying, hey, I'm just being anonymous here, but it basically said hey, John, I don't want to be with you anymore, and this soldier took his life, and that really shook me up. It was one of the things that the 101st was really concerned about the whole while, and it did happen, so -- but...

KAGAN: We'd love to talk to you all day. So many stories, and sorry to end on a sad note there, but we're glad you're back we're glad you're cleansed and we're glad your safe. Ryan Chilcote.

CHILCOTE: Thank you. As is my family.

KAGAN: Yes, I bet, your wife. Thank you so much.

HARRIS: Thanks, Ryan. Good to see you, pal.

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