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Helping Wounded Troops and Their Families
Aired May 26, 2007 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: The news unfolding live this Saturday, May 26th. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, and you're in the NEWSROOM.
All Memorial Day weekend we're focusing on pride, sacrifice and service, honoring those who gave all for their nation.
Coming up, we'll talk with a celebrity who is also a big supporter of the troops. Actor Gary Sinise joins me live in just a moment.
And when a U.S. plane or helicopter goes down in Iraq or Afghanistan, that's when they go in. We'll give you an exclusive look inside the military's elite combat search and rescue teams.
Across America this Memorial Day weekend, many people are finding many different ways to honor America's war dead. In downtown Chicago, an unusually blunt exhibit to dramatize the impact of the war in Iraq - more than 3,400 pairs of combat boots, one pair for every U.S. military death.
The display is called "Eyes Wide Open: The Human Cost of the Iraq War," and it stretches across the equivalent of nearly two football fields.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL MCCONNELL, EXHIBIT CREATOR: We want people to walk through this exhibit and imagine the people that should be here and are not.
We have many boots that are tagged with memorabilia. Loved ones have wanted to tell the story of the life of their loved one who has been killed. And I think that makes this a living memorial.
And we feel it's very important that we should recognize, honor and remember those who have been killed in this war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Also, in downtown Chicago today, we're looking at live pictures of a more traditional Memorial Day weekend observance, this being a parade - one of the largest in the country - happening right now in downtown Chicago.
The U.S. military academy marked Memorial Day weekend with commencement ceremonies. Nine hundred seventy-eight West Point graduates heard Vice President Dick Cheney give the commencement address. He defended the Iraq war, saying the security of the nation depends on its outcome.
At the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, yesterday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates spoke to about 1,000 graduates there. He told them a leader must have the courage to act, often against the will of the crowd.
The Coast Guard Academy held its commencement on Wednesday, where President Bush spoke to 228 graduating cadets. The Air Force Academy's commencement ceremony takes place next Wednesday.
CNN's Iraq war Hummer, Warrior One, on the road this Memorial Day weekend. Right now, Warrior One is in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, as part of a nationwide fund-raising tour. Proceeds are being used to help wounded American troops.
Warrior One has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Fisher House Foundation. That group provides free or low-cost lodging to veterans and military families receiving treatment at military medical centers across the country.
Actor Gary Sinise doing a lot to help American veterans. He's a big supporter of the Fisher House, and he's also co-hosting the PBS National Memorial Day Concert tomorrow.
Gary Sinise joins me now from Washington. Good to see you.
GARY SINISE, ACTOR, WASHINGTON: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Well, I know this is the second year that you've been co-hosting this concert taking place in the nation's capital. How special is it for you?
SINISE: You know, it's a wonderful event. This will be my third year of being involved in it.
The first year I came, and I brought my band. We came back from overseas on a USO tour and we flew right to the capital. We participated in the National Memorial Day Concert.
And then they asked me to co-host last year. So, this is my third year involved, second year as a co-host.
WHITFIELD: Oh, I gotcha.
SINISE: It's a great event. It's a great event.
WHITFIELD: Oh, that's great.
Now, you mentioned your band. It's the Lieutenant Dan Band. And everyone remembers you as playing Lieutenant Dan in "Forrest Gump." So, how did it evolve your character into a band with that same namesake?
SINISE: You know what? I've been doing USO now for - going on trips. I've made eight overseas trips. I just back from Iraq the day before yesterday for my third time.
And wherever I go, they're always - the troops are always calling me Lieutenant Dan. So when I started taking the band down, I just thought it was kind of fun to embrace the character, some kind of - it has some meaning for the troops, I think, that character. They relate to him.
And so, I just embrace this and have some fun with it.
WHITFIELD: And you've been a tremendous advocate for military veterans for many, many years now. But a lot of folks would think that it was completely born out of the fact that you played Lieutenant Dan.
Was it? Or was it something that you had been devoted to doing for many, many years, even prior to the "Forrest Gump" movie?
SINISE: Well, yes, I was involved with veterans' groups years before that. I have veterans in my family, Vietnam veterans in my family.
And in the early '80s, I actually worked on some material in the theater that was based on the stories of a group of Vietnam veterans. So, I got involved with the local Vietnam veteran groups in the Chicago area, stayed involved with them over the years.
And then when I did "Forrest Gump," I got involved with the Disabled American Veterans, the DAV. They gave me an award for playing the part of Lieutenant Dan. He's a disabled Vietnam veteran.
And I stayed involved with Disabled American Veterans. And then when we started deploying our troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, I volunteered for the USO, and I just feel that it's important to support the troops, support our veterans. They sacrifice a lot for us, and their families sacrifice greatly for us.
So, I'm out there just doing what I can for them.
WHITFIELD: And you support service members in so many different ways. In addition to the Fisher House, I understand after one of your trips to Iraq, you met the founders of the Fisher House, and immediately got involved.
Tell me about that relationship and why that is so important to you, as well.
SINISE: Yes, on my - it was actually on my first trip to Iraq, I got involved with the Intrepid Foundation and met the Fishers and some of the folks that run those organizations. They do incredible things for our service members.
I got involved initially with them. They had something called the Fallen Heroes Fund, where they were helping to support the children of service members that had fallen in action, and I wanted to do something to help that out. Then I found out all about the Fisher Houses. The Fisher Houses are on our military hospitals. They are houses that are provided to the family members who are coming to live and stay with the service member who has been wounded.
If you think about it, you know, somebody gets hurt in action, where do they actually stay? Where do their families stay when they're going through rehabilitation?
So, the Fishers provide these houses. And I got involved with them and have raised some money for them and try to draw some attention to the fact that we need to support this worthy cause - especially in a time of war when we have a lot of wounded in the hospitals and their families are sacrificing for them.
WHITFIELD: And so many are so grateful of that kind of commitment that you and many others are devoting to helping in the healing process of so many service members.
Your impressions of Iraq - you've been there a few times, as you just underscored - your last visit there. What kind of improvements, or what have been your observations?
SINISE: Well, I was just there a few days ago. When I go with the USO, the important thing for me and for the USO and for the troops, is that I see as many troops as I possibly can in the limited time that I have there.
I was only there for three or four days, and we were humping it pretty good to try to get around the country to see as many troops as possible.
So, that's my main mission, not to necessarily go out and talk to the tribal sheikhs and find out what's going on in the neighborhoods.
But my mission there is to help the troops out, and just to relieve their - you know, the daily grind of what they do and to try to break up their day a little bit.
I probably saw about 3,000 troops when I was there, shook about 3,000 hands and took 3,000 pictures and as many autographs. That's the important thing, is that I get out there.
Generally, I found the morale to be very, very high, very good. They're trying to get through the deployment. Look, would they rather be here than there? Of course. They'd rather be home with their families. But they were focused on the mission. Generally, I found the morale to be very good. And they were - you know, certainly, when they see me, they're smiling.
WHITFIELD: Right.
SINISE: They're grateful that somebody has taken the time to come over there to visit them who doesn't really have to be there.
And I think this Memorial Day weekend is a good time to just take and remember all those who have sacrificed for us, the current service members who are on active duty and those who have fallen and gone before us.
And that's why I get involved with this Memorial Day concert on Sunday night. It's just a great way to take a moment to remember that a lot has been sacrificed so that we can live the way we do.
WHITFIELD: Well, I know a lot of folks are very grateful of that kind of reminder that you help provide there, and that we should all be so thankful for our military service members.
Thanks so much, Gary Sinise. And somehow, in between all of this, you are still acting. "CSI: New York," we enjoy you on that, as well.
SINISE: Thank you very much.
WHITFIELD: Thanks so much for your time.
SINISE: My pleasure.
WHITFIELD: Well, this Memorial Day weekend you can also do this. You can turn your frequent flyer miles into hero miles. Fisher House, as we've been talking about, will use those miles to help transport servicemen and women wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan, and their families, as well, to treatment centers around the country.
It is so simple. You just need to go to FisherHouse.org to find out how to donate your frequent flyer miles and to find a list of the airlines who will actually match your contributions this weekend.
A common phrase is, "War is hell." Bad enough for the soldiers, but what about for the people who come to their rescue when things really go bad?
We look at the dangerous world of combat search and rescue units. That's next in the NEWSROOM.
Also coming up in 45 minutes, Mexico is a frequent vacation spot for Americans. But we'll introduce you to one woman fighting the problems that tourists never see.
She's a CNN hero, when the NEWSROOM returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Our Memorial Day weekend coverage includes an exclusive, inside look at Air Force combat search and rescue teams.
CNN correspondent Alex Quade was given unprecedented access to these elite troops. As they share their stories and pictures, we identify them only by their call signs.
We begin with a race against time and the enemy as rescue crews rush to the aid of downed aircrews.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
ALEX QUADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT, AVON PARK AIR FORCE BASE, FLORIDA (voice-over): Downed aircrew.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sandy 1, this is Mud Hog 5-1.
QUADE: Looking for cover. Isolated in the middle of a war zone. Desperate for rescue before enemy insurgents find them first.
Training based on the real thing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
That's what happened to these soldiers, their Chinook in a sandstorm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were on a resupply mission, dust and the sand. The aircraft started to roll. We really didn't have time to think. We hit the ground. The aircraft rolled over on its right side.
QUADE: Two combat search and rescue helicopters, known as Jolly, responded. Pilot, call sign Shrimp.
QUADE (on camera): They worried that they - that you wouldn't come get them because of the sandstorm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had to.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That crashed helicopter is like a beacon. The insurgents, they will definitely descend on that, and they would have become POWs.
QUADE (voice-over): So Shrimp and the second Jolly, piloted by Chef, flew into the same sandstorm that took the Chinook out.
QUADE (on camera): How difficult were the conditions?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's kind of like being in a heavy rainstorm without the windshield wipers on.
QUADE (voice-over): The soldiers, injured but alive, waiting for the para-rescue men, or PJs - just like they'd learned.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The PJs run out, armed, you know, to the teeth. They kind of drag them back to the aircraft, because we need to go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The sight of these guys coming in, those two aircraft coming in to pick us up, that was one of the best sights I've ever seen in my life.
QUADE: It was the best sight, too, during a different incident for a shaken-up Master Sergeant Jeff Gore, cousin of former Vice President Al Gore.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we picked him up, he'd just watched a very close friend of his die. QUADE: Pilot, call sign Eeyore (ph), picked Gore up after a fatal convoy attack.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, he was just another serviceman on the field of battle who was injured. And it was our job to take care of him.
QUADE: PJs treated Gore in flight to the CASH - combat support hospital, Baghdad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He took the time as he went by to give me the thumbs-up, and I saw him say thank you as he passed the cockpit.
QUADE: Later, the PJs who treated Gore went on to ground rescue and recovery back home.
LARRY KING, HOST, LARRY KING LIVE: Tonight, breaking news, and it's tragic news from high atop Oregon's Mount Hood.
QUADE: Their photos of this high-risk mission seen now for the first time. PJ Mark.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It doesn't have to be overseas to make it dangerous. It's one of those careers where a few miles away from home base can be dangerous.
QUADE: The PJs' war experiences, from Iraq to the mountains of Afghanistan, prepared them for this challenge.
And the challenges don't end once they're back in the helicopter. Remember pilot Shrimp and Chef rescuing those soldiers in the sandstorm. They now face an insurgent ambush, the event sketched by one of their co-pilots.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're being engaged.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Multiple missiles fired from shoulder of insurgents.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Corkscrew missiles come up. I kind of break to the right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was being shot at. And the only thing I knew to do at that time was to turn back into it and put as many rounds in that area that I could.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He fired a 50 cal. A 50 cal is a very intimidating weapon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And being all I can be on the controls. I was trying to evade the missiles coming at me, you know, plus mach two.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Almost immediately, he gets to come out the left-hand side of his aircraft. I did the same for him. I just opened up a 50 cal. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We evaded the missiles, broke hard, banked, caught our breath and flew the rest of the way back to our base and delivered the five individuals to the hospital.
QUADE: These are their night-go (ph) photos landing at Balad Air Base, delivering the soldiers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It seemed like one of the longest nights of my life.
QUADE: The soldier most injured, Specialist Roxanne Shim, now back home with her daughter.
SPECIALIST ROXANNE SHIM, RESCUED BY COMBAT SEARCH AND RESCUE: It was wonderful. She walked in and she went, "Mom?" You know, she couldn't believe it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know that we're going to go through some hard stuff. But that's why we do it.
QUADE: They're doing it in Iraq and Afghanistan right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they say the two soldiers have been recovered. The crash site has been secured.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Both of the soldiers were recovered.
QUADE: Combat search and rescue men, ready for the next call.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a recovery operation going on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If it happened once, there's a very good chance it can happen again.
QUADE: Alex Quade, CNN, Avon Park Air Force Range, Florida.
(END VIDEO)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO)
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. troops in Iraq tonight are searching for a missing Air Force fighter pilot after his F-16 jet crashed near Fallujah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A U.S. Army Kiowa helicopter hit by ground fire near Samarra.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A U.S. helicopter is down in Baghdad.
ALEX QUADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Urban rescue. Hostile territory. Nightmare for trapped U.S. troops.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rescue, rescue.
QUADE: Challenge for combat search and rescue men trying to save them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the scariest thing I've ever done in my life.
QUADE: Helicopter pilot TC shares for the first time his urban rescue of special forces.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So we got the call to go in, and these guys were pretty busted up bad. Had it not been for the para-rescue men, these two Special Forces guys would have lost their lives.
QUADE: Para-rescue men, or PJs, like Kyle, who worked the urban recovery of a British aircraft in Afghanistan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were basically the first ones in on the ground. You've got the whole town is coming out, you know, to check you out. A lot of Taliban sympathizers, and basically you just have to keep your calm.
QUADE: Calm was key on a different Afghan mission for rescue pilot call sign Skinny.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a SEAL team executing their evasion plan and running a gun battle with the enemy that was out there.
QUADE: Skinny's crew went in to get an injured Navy SEAL, hiding in a village, out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They had taken an RPG in the middle of their group, and that's how he had actually gotten wounded. And then he had gotten separated from them.
QUADE: More on his story later.
With ongoing operations in hostile urban terrain, real-world training is crucial.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rescue, rescue.
QUADE: Wizzo (ph), a back-seater in an F-15, will soon deploy. Tonight, he plays survivor, shot down onto a building.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm right in the middle of an urban area where there's obviously enemy.
QUADE: Injured, stuck, his GPS broken.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have my radio, but I can't tell them exactly where I'm at, because I don't really know.
QUADE (on camera): How real is this for you? I mean, you are going to be deployed very shortly after this scenario.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's as real as it can get without being in enemy territory.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just set your goggles up, so all you have to do is slide them down off of your helmet.
QUADE (voice-over): Tips from survival evasion resistance and escape, or SERE specialist, Jesse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As far as enemy position, we need to have a fairly decent idea of location of these forces.
QUADE: So the rescue helicopter coming for them doesn't get shot down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Smokey 4-1 Bravo.
QUADE: Wizzo (ph) reaches Sandy, the A-10 fighter craft looking for him overhead with the helicopters.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you threatened, and are you hurt?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the ejection, my leg was potentially broken.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Copy that.
QUADE (on camera): Does it bring it any closer to home that, hey, you're going over there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It makes me think long and hard about it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) we're working it.
QUADE (voice-over): The voice on the radio is A-10 pilot Sandy, who's also about the deploy.
QUADE (on camera) : You're up there trying to watch out for these guys, but that could be you on the ground someday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely. And it could be on the ground while we're out there trying to pick somebody else up, too.
QUADE (voice-over): Jolly arrives. That's the helicopter team and the PJ, like Mark.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If it were easy, everybody would be doing it. The potential for disaster there is phenomenal, when you're looking at a 22,000-pound aircraft hovering within six inches of its position.
QUADE: They could be blown off the roof or, PJ Kyle says, get shot at.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very vulnerable. Everyone and their mom is going to come out, and they're going to want to, you know, take pop shots at you.
QUADE: In the middle of all this, they're medically assessing the survivor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got to be fast, you've got to be quick, and you've got to know what you're doing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The best feeling is probably once they get back onboard and you full power to get out of this thing.
QUADE: Which brings us back to the Navy SEAL hiding in a village in Afghanistan, waiting for Skinny's combat search and rescue men, after a gun battle killed the rest of his SEAL team.
QUADE (on camera): When you were flying into this Afghan village, you never felt at all that this might be a trap?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was always in the back of our minds that it could be.
QUADE (voice-over): Especially when his PJs jumped out and were met by men dressed in traditional clothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, the one Navy SEAL identified himself. And he had been wounded. They grabbed him, and we got out of town.
QUADE: Later, they recovered the bodies of the SEAL's teammates in a challenging, high-altitude mission.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We came into a hover, and basically this little, small hole in the trees, and hoisted, you know, their two bodies out.
I'll never forget when we landed back at Bagram, the rest of the SEAL team was all out there. And when we opened up the doors and the flags were on, you know, all these special operator guys all kind of stood to attention and saluted.
QUADE: From villagers in Afghanistan to cities in Iraq, from assisting Special Forces get POW Jessica Lynch out of town, to helping recover more than 100 wounded and dead in the 2003 U.N. compound attack.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not only do you have combatants, you also have civilians.
QUADE: This is urban combat search and rescue.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I see something like this, a mission this big, hey, that feels great, because I know that they're coming for me.
QUADE: Alex Quade, CNN, Avon Park Air Force Range, Florida.
(END VIDEO)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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