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American Morning

Medal of Honor Impostors; Ford Tests Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car; Illusionist David Blaine's Water Stunt

Aired May 03, 2006 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(NEWSBREAK)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: You may or may not know this, but the medal of honor, the Congressional Medal of Honor, is the nation's highest military other than. There are 113 living recipients. They're outnumbered, believe it or not, by impostors.

Fred Ferguson is working with the FBI now to identify those impostors. He's in Phoenix this morning.

Nice to see you, Mr. Ferguson. Thanks for being with us.

MAJ. FRED FERGUSON (RET.), MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT: Good morning, Ms. O'Brien. Welcome to God's country.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, even if I have to do it kind of remotely, sir. Tell me how you received your Congressional Medal of Honor?

FERGUSON: I was a helicopter pilot with the First Air Calvary Division in Vietnam in June of '67, June of '68 and during the Tet Offensive January 31, 1968, the beginning of it. An aircraft was shot down inside the enemy control city of Hue and there were five survivors of the 11 folks onboard, and they were all wounded badly. And we, my crew and I, with a little gun ship help, were able to get back to the rescue and save those five folks.

S. O'BRIEN: It must really kill you when you hear stories, and actually meet, as you've done, some of these people who are impostors, who are pretending that they deserve recognition when they're just fakes?

FERGUSON: Well, it does. But it's not only the medal of honor, but any military badge or an award. You know, if you want to -- if want to wear a military badge, then join the military and earn the right to wear it. You know, winning the -- or receiving the medal of honor is rare. But anybody who fakes anything, society doesn't have a lot of use for.

S. O'BRIEN: How did you discover some of these fakes? I mean, I know you've been working with the FBI to find them and turn them over. But where do you discover them?

FERGUSON: Basically, I have a network. I'm in numerous veterans organizations, and I have a network all around the country, as well as does the FBI. And somebody will show up at an American legion post or a VFW Club or, in some cases, yes, as you're, I'm sure, aware of, there was sitting judge in Illinois claiming to be a medal of honor recipient. And once it's found out, I mean -- when there's only 113 of us, it's really easy to check, you know, who's who. So, you know, I called Tom Catone (ph) or Mikey Sanborne (ph), one of my friends in the FBI, and they visit them.

S. O'BRIEN: And you don't mean visit in the friendly way, do you?

FERGUSON: No, no, ma'am.

S. O'BRIEN: Are these fakers wearing fake medals, or are they real medals just sort of in the possession of someone who's a fraud?

FERGUSON: Generally, we find that the medals that they are -- that they have are medals made by large ship industries who had the contract, as a matter of fact, to manufacture them, for the United States government Department of Defense. And as you can probably understand, there's not a great deal of business for that, because since Vietnam, there's only been one medal of honor awarded to Sergeant First Class Smith in the Iraq war. So they weren't selling a lot to D.O.D. So they decided, well, you know, let's just start selling them on the side, which was against the law. And they were subsequently fined and forbidden from doing business with the government for some length of time.

S. O'BRIEN: We should note, too, that Sergeant Smith, that that medal was awarded posthumously. In a way, I can understand -- I mean, as you put, there's only 113 living award recipients, or medal recipients. So you can sort of understand why the business might be motivated to do something like this. You know, creepy as it is. But when you meet some of these fakers, what do they tell you is their rationale? I mean, what's the reason behind it?

FERGUSON: The few that I have talked to, it's always been, well, I just admired you guys so much, I wanted to be one of you. Now, I really don't believe that. I think that's "I got caught and I'm repentant now." But, you know, why does anybody fake anything? I don't understand phonies. I don't understand fakes. It's not in my makeup. It's not in the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines that I know that would do that.

S. O'BRIEN: Is it illegal to be in possession of a Congressional Medal of Honor that's not yours, or even be in the possession of a fake?

FERGUSON: It absolutely is, yes. It's, I think, a $100,000 fine or a year in jail if you actually have one of the medals.

S. O'BRIEN: Is it illegal to lie about it and say that you've got one, even if you don't actually have -- physically have the one?

FERGUSON: No, that's not illegal yet. Congressman Salazar, a Democrat from Colorado, has got a bill going hopefully through Congress that would make it illegal to have any badge or to say you have any badge, medal or decorations that you have not, in fact, earned. But that's a ways down the road, I think.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, maybe it's not illegal yet, but certainly is immoral. It's really quite a thing. How much fraudulent cases, if you had to guess, how many people are we talking about here?

FERGUSON: You know, the FBI doesn't really put it out. But they've got an exhibit in the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. of the ones that they had picked up. And there's been several hundred, as I have been told.

S. O'BRIEN: What a shame. What an embarrassment. Fred Ferguson, he is a real medal of honor recipient. Nice to see you, sir. Thanks for talking with us this morning. We certainly appreciate it.

FERGUSON: You betcha, Ms. O'Brien.

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: A look outside our window this morning. Gas prices on your mind. We're keeping tabs on what it's costing you to fill up. Time to check the CNN Gas Gauge. Today's average prices is just under $2.92 for unleaded regular. That's according to AAA's daily fuel gauge report. Easy for me to say. A month ago it was $2.58. A year ago it was $2.22. Drivers aren't the only ones frustrating with the Skyrocketing fuel prices.

Two hours away, we're going to hear from Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta. He's going to talk on Capitol Hill about the president's request to raise fuel economy standards. Those standards pretty easily could be bypassed by those new hydrogen cars. Don't rush out and buy one just yet.

CNN's Susan Candiotti takes us for a ride.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATL. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The woman driving this compact car is used to turning heads.

SUZANNE BURLESON, PROGRESS ENERGY: I would say it's like a George Jetson car, because it has a nice hum to it, and it handles well.

CANDIOTTI: It doesn't fly like the Jetsons, but with the spike in gas prices, this hydrogen fuel cell car being tested by Ford is receiving a lot of attention.

BURLESON: I'll actually have people slow down and have me roll down my window to ask me about the car. They're wanting an alternative fuel source.

CANDIOTTI: Suzanne Burleson test drives the car while working for a Florida utility company. She advises consumers how to make their homes more energy efficient. These days, talk quickly turns to gas prices.

FLORENCE LEIER, HOMEOWNER: It affects us quite a bit. That $200 a month, on top of all of our other expenses.

BURLESON: This is our hydrogen fuel cell vehicle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doesn't look any different. This, I think, is just fantastic. I don't know why it's taken so long.

CANDIOTTI: Ford says the handmade test cars cost $1 million each. The fuel cells on the prototypes are fitted underneath the body.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This tank holds four kilograms of hydrogen.

CANDIOTTI: Progress Energy says that's the equivalent of four gallons of gas, but this car gets 50 miles per gallon. The only thing coming out of the exhaust pipe? Watch closely. Water and hot air.

(on camera): The car is quiet, has good pickup and runs smoothly, with a range of about 200 miles. A fill-up takes just a couple of minutes. And here's a plus, the process is clean and odorless. We parked the H2 in front of a McDonald's. Within minutes, three people walked up, two of them hybrid car owners already.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have an interest in, you know, saving what little we have left for our grandkids and great-grandkids.

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Impressed? Yes. But how long can the public wait for the H2 to be mass produced?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now as we go over the threshold of $3 a gallon, I'm anticipating the pressure is definitely going to be mounting, and probably exponentially.

CANDIOTTI: Maybe. But Ford says is likely to take at least another 10 years for the H2 to hit the streets.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, Orlando.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(MARKET REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: "CNN LIVE TODAY" is coming up next.

Hey, Daryn, good morning.

KAGAN: Good morning, Soledad.

Warning: We are talking about falling, yes, falling gas prices, when CNN LIVE TODAY gets started.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. She's going down again. I have no idea what's going on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I should have waited 19 more minutes. I'd have saved 18 cents!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've seen it dropping down. It's dropping down into the $2.30 now. I've seen it drop down 10 cents in the past five minutes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: So how low did they go? A price war breaks out in Pennsylvania. Gas stations battling it out. The drivers loved it.

And good morning, mom. Hold that diaper change, wait until you find out what you'd be making if your motherly duties were a paying job. We're talking six figures, ladies. The numbers coming up straight ahead on "CNN LIVE TODAY."

S. O'BRIEN: I'd put it closer to like $17 million per mother, but that's me personally. Per mother, per month.

Thanks, Daryn. We'll check you out then.

Ahead this morning on AMERICAN MORNING, we're going to checking in live with illusionist David Blaine. It's day three of his latest stunt. We've been showing it to you right there, that big globe full of water, the human fish bowl. Miles gets in the fishbowl with him -- no, I'm kidding.

Hey, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm giving you the illusion of being in the man-bowl. This is Miles O'Brien, live from the man-bowl. We're going to talk to David Blaine in just a few moments. As a matter of fact, this is quite a scene over here, Soledad. Hundreds of people lining up just to take a gander at the man who's been in there 44 hours now. Wait until you see his hands. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Welcome back. I'm Miles O'Brien, and I am at Lincoln Center. You know, you could file this in the category of some of the wild things you see in New York City. Just when you think you've seen it all, you walk down the street. And here's a guy, as Soledad put it a little while ago, in the manbowl! It's not a fishbowl, it's a manbowl.

That's David Blaine in there. I'm going to put on these headsets so we can talk to him. With any good luck here, you're going to be able to hear this conversation.

Hey, David, how you doing? Can you hear me all right?

DAVID BLAINE, ILLUSIONIST: I hear you perfectly.

M. O'BRIEN: Excellent. Tell me this. How are you sleeping, first of all? You've been in there about 44 hours. How's that going?

BLAINE: Well, the first night was impossible to sleep. Last night I got a couple of hours. So, for once, I feel a little bit recharged, but it's not easy.

M. O'BRIEN: When we came up just a few moments ago, it looked like were you catching a nap. I'm sorry we woke you up. But I bet that's the hardest thing. Are there people coming through here all the time?

BLAINE: There's a continual throe of people. But that's not what makes it hard to sleep. What's difficult is when you're sleeping at 8-foot depth, the pressure in your head is like ringing at the bottom of a swimming pool. So it's pretty intense and you can't equalize it (INAUDIBLE), so it's a hard to deal with pressure.

M. O'BRIEN: Is that one of the hardest things you're contending with so far? I know you're having some problems with your hands, as well.

BLAINE: The hands are pretty bad and the feet are pretty bad and, of course, all of the fluids leave my legs and they rise to the upper body. So there's a lot strange things in the state of being weightless that are difficult.

M. O'BRIEN: It's a lot like what the shuttle astronauts had to contend with. It changes your whole circulation. Hey, can you show us your hands? (INAUDIBLE) I don't know what that noise is.

BLAINE: Say that again?

M. O'BRIEN: Can you show us -- can you show us your hands so we can see what they're like at this point?

BLAINE: They're pretty gross, but...

M. O'BRIEN: Oh, what the heck. Why not? But this is probably not one of the things that you can contended with or thought about. Here we go. Oh, yes. Oh, yes, kind of pruny there for sure. And you're 44 hours into it. You want to go until next Monday, right?

BLAINE: Yes. I don't end this until Monday, May 8th. At about 8:00 to 10:00 p.m., I go live on my show. And after being in here for a week, they're going to pull my body up, they're going to chain me up with 150 pounds of chains, they're going handcuff everything together, then they're going to drop me back into the bottom of the sphere, and I'm going wrestle with these chains for a total of nine minutes, and either escape or drown.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. That's -- a lot of people would tell you just being in the manbowl all this week is enough. Why are you doing that on top of everything else?

BLAINE: Well, the actual idea began when I wanted to hold my breath for the world record. So it evolved from that. And then I started thinking how I could make it a performance piece, and I started imagining a sphere in the middle of New York, and I figure if I was going to build this sphere, I might as well live in it first and get used to the situation.

M. O'BRIEN: I guess so. Let me ask you this. You've done some wild things. You've buried yourself alive, you've been suspended in boxes. You've done all kinds of endurance performances. How does this one compare?

BLAINE: This one is by far more difficult, just in the training, than in all of my other stunts combined together. This one is...

M. O'BRIEN: Really?

BLAINE: Yes, not just this part, but this, combined with the other part, which is the breath hold for nine minutes while escaping, is just a really bad combination.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, the question on so many people's minds is why? Why do you do these kinds of things?

BLAINE: I do them because it's like, for me, it's fun. You know? I love doing it. As a kid, I always would watch these images of Houdini getting chained up and thrown into a river. And the reaction of New York is amazing. And I like the idea of sparking an interest in things, because when I was a little kid, if I would have seen something like this, I'd have never forgotten it. So it's fun to provoke those thoughts.

M. O'BRIEN: You know, you say at the end, when you have to hold your breath, you're going to try to break the world record, which is 8 minutes 58 seconds.

BLAINE: Right.

M. O'BRIEN: And you say if you don't do it, you're going to die. Do you think much about the risks involved with all this?

BLAINE: I let the doctors think about those things. I just think about the possibilities of achieving my goals.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Big question, also, and this is a similar question also in the space program, and -- you know, do you have a catheter? How do you handle the necessary functions?

BLAINE: I got this -- yes, I got tucked in here now. It's getting messy, but I kind of -- I stick it into that filtration thing, which is a nightmare, because it's really strong and it sucks everything, almost my leg down into it.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. We'll leave it at that for sure. David Blaine, we wish you well. Be safe and we'll stay in touch and keep people posted. Soledad, now we know the answers to just about everything and then some that you wanted to know about the man in the bowl. Back to you.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes. But now I'm worried about him. Those hands look terrible, he says his feet are same way. And, then, of course, the big test coming at the end. I'm getting nervous. All right, Miles, thanks.

Coming up at the top of the hour, tight deadlines, outrageous demands. Unrealistic bosses. Did you know that you are burned out at work? We've got a new survey we're going to share with you.

And then, look before you sit. A Wal-Mart shopper was a captive customer, glued to a toilet seat. Cops aren't laughing, though. Much more AMERICAN MORNING right after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: We're out of time. Let's get right to Daryn Kagan. She's at the CNN Center, going to take you through the next couple of hours on CNN LIVE TODAY. Hey, Daryn, good morning.

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