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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Operation Lightning Continues; America Remembers Veterans

Aired May 30, 2005 - 22:00 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.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And good evening. I'm Rick Sanchez. Aaron's back tomorrow.
Every Memorial Day is supposed to be solemn. But Memorial Day in wartime seems especially so.

So, we're going to begin with news from the war, starting with a deadly crash. It happened in Eastern Iraq. An Iraqi military aircraft carrying four American G.I.s and one Iraqi went down suddenly. All are presumed dead. No word, though, on what caused this crash.

Elsewhere in Iraq, south of Baghdad, in Hillah, two suicide bombers killed 27 people today. Many were Iraqi police officers and recruits who were waiting at a clinic for their medical exams. Aside from the killings, there were also 118 people wounded, this in a month that has seen a surge in attacks by Iraqi rebels and insurgents. That may be why U.S. forces have launched a massive offensive joined by Iraqi forces. They call it Operation Lightning.

Here with more on that is CNN's Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. MILITARY AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): The operation may be dubbed Lightning, but it's getting off to a slow start, according to U.S. military sources, who say so far, most of the raids have been conducted by American troops, while Iraqi forces have been preparing. But the Pentagon has high hopes that in the coming days, Iraqis will begin to free their capital from the grip of insurgents by manning some 675 checkpoints and conducting massive sweeps of Baghdad streets. It's more basic cop work than combat.

GEN. RICHARD MYERS, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: The good news about it is it's cooperation between the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defense. It's important they cooperate. That's the police and the army, of course. It's important they cooperate, given the security situation they have. So that's all very, very encouraging.

MCINTYRE: The Pentagon says of the Iraq's 100 battalions, only about 25 can operate without a lot of U.S. support. Military sources tell CNN the government's boast that there will be 40,000 Iraqi forces on the street might be a little inflated.

But even if only half that number takes part, the U.S. believes it could make a big difference, both militarily and symbolically. BRIG. GEN. DANIEL BOLGER, U.S. ARMY: Because, frankly, a lot of the people who live in Iraq, the common folks who live here, are tired of getting their children blown up. They're tired of being shot at on the way to work or school. And they've just had about enough of this. And Operation Lightning is the Iraqi government's way of reinforcing that effort here in the city with their great new police forces and their army forces taking a really important leading role.

MCINTYRE (on camera): The U.S. really hopes Operation Lightning succeeds, not just because it would deal a blow to the insurgents, but because the more Iraqi forces show they're up to the job, the sooner the U.S. can begin to bring its troops home.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Here at home, their commander in chief did what commanders in chief do on Memorial Day. He traveled just across the Potomac River to Arlington National Cemetery. There, he laid a wreath, paid his respects and said a few words about this war and every war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In our national cemetery, we receive the fallen in sorrow. And we take them to an honored place to rest. Looking across this field, we see the scale of heroism and sacrifice. All who are buried here understood their duty. All stood to protect America. And all carried with them memories of a family that they hope to keep safe by their sacrifice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: About the war in Iraq, the president vowed to honor the fallen by completing the mission.

And, as this Memorial Day weekend draws to a close, we note that more than 1,600 Americans have died in Iraq. There's no way to tell each of their stories, though each has a story to tell.

Months back, NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissen proposed a story on one small group of soldiers who had died, a way to give meaning to a larger group.

Tonight, the product of her work and the work of a team of NEWSNIGHT producers led by Amanda Townsend (ph). There's a simplicity to this idea that makes it all the more powerful, as you'll note. This is a story of the Smiths, all 21 of them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In remembrance in honor of the U.S. troops who have died in Operation Iraqi Freedom, a list of 1,650 names, familiar American family names. Brown, Johnson, Martinez, Miller, Smith. Smith, the most common surname in the United States; 21 Smiths have died in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Like most of the American troops killed in this war, most serving in this war, these 21 soldiers and Marines were almost all young, 20, 21, 24. They came from mid-sized cities and small towns across the country. Anaheim, California, Troy, Montana, Rochester, New York, Tampa, Florida.

They came from the nation's heartland, mostly blue collar, steel toe towns in Ohio, and Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri. They came from the South: Arkansas, South Carolina, the back road parts where single mothers worked their whole lives in fan belt factories, raised whole families in trailer homes. Orenthial Smith known as "Smitty," grew up here, graduated from high school, enlisted 13 days later to make something of himself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wasn't going to, you know, try to tell him what to do. That was his choice. I just stood by him.

NISSEN: Many enlist for college money. Private 1st class Jeremiah Smith and Corporal Raleigh Smith both wanted to be history teachers some day.

Some enlisted to prove themselves, improve themselves like Private First Class Brandon Smith who dropped out of high school in Fayetteville, Arkansas, but went back, got his diploma, got into shape, lost 80 pounds so he could join the Marines.

Specialist Michael J. Smith also transformed himself. After high school, he'd had some no-future jobs around suburban Philadelphia, had screamed songs with a local heavy metal band, had an all-black wardrobe and bright red hair that hung to his waist. The Army gave him a buzz cut, a direction, a career.

It gave Brian Smith of McKinney, Texas, a change in career. He was a labor lawyer, had his own practice, quit just before he turned 30, because he thought he could make more of a difference in the world as an Army second lieutenant driving tanks.

A few of the Smiths were older, most career military. Like Chief Warrant Officer Eric Smith, 41, a 16-year Army veteran from Rochester, New York, who lived to fly helicopters. And First Sergeant Edward Smith, 38, a police reserve officer in Anaheim, California, and 20- year veteran of the Marine Corps.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Smitty had the qualities to be a very good Marine, an excellent Marine. He was a great cop. And a great -- good friend and a good man.

NISSEN: And Sergeant First Class Paul Smith, 33. A 13-year Army veteran who had served in the First Gulf War in Bosnia and Kosovo.

All three were part of the first wave of U.S. troops marching across the sands of Iraq in March of 2003 to Baghdad. All three were among the war's early casualties.

Eric Smith died April 2 when his helicopter crashed in an unspecified part of central Iraq. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They grew up and ended up wanting to fly helicopters and did so and fought for our country. And I want them to remember that.

NISSEN: Sergeant Edward Smith was wounded in combat in Central Iraq April 4, died the next day. Like an unprecedented number of U.S. troops, he was married, had children, three under the age of 12.

Sergeant Paul Smith's unit made it to Baghdad, seized part of the crucially important airport. On April 4, he and 15 fellow soldiers came under fierce fire from some 100 members of the Republican guard. As his comrades fell around him, Paul Smith took a wounded gunner's place at a 50 caliber machine gun. Firing and reloading three times covering the evacuation of the wounded before he was shot in the neck.

BUSH: We count ourselves blessed to have soldiers like Sergeant Smith who put their lives on the line to advance the cause of freedom and protect the American people.

NISSEN: Sergeant 1st Class Paul Ray Smith was posthumously awarded the nation's highest battlefield honor, the first Medal of Honor awarded in 12 years.

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE He has left his family and his country a life of great meaning and entrusted us with his faith in America and its mission.

NISSEN: Less than a week after Paul Smith's death, the statue and the regime of Saddam Hussein had fallen.

BUSH: My fellow Americans, major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.

NISSEN: On June 21, Orinthial's Smith's mother came home from the fan belt factory to a letter from her son.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Even though the president said that most combat operations in Iraq is over, the war still continues. There are still soldiers and Marines dying every day. Mom, read this letter to as many people as you can. We're still here fighting to help Iraq and also defending our great country."

NISSEN: The next day she came home to an officer in an Army uniform. Only a few of the words he said came through. Convoy, Baghdad, regret to inform.

Of the 21 Smiths, 18 died after major combat operations were declared at an end. Pockets of resistance turned out to be a lasting and widespread insurgency, attacking U.S. troops as they moved in long convoys, low flying helicopters.

CWO BRUCE SMITH, U.S. ARMY: Hi, this is CWO Bruce Smith with company F-106 Aviation from West Liberty, Iowa. I'd like to say hello to my family and friends in West Liberty and thank you for your support. NISSEN: Chief Warrant Officer Bruce Smith talked often about the joys and hazards of flying helicopters in a war zone.

SMITH: There's not a whole lot of protection, per se. It's made of aluminum stuff. So we try to hide behind this console as much as we can.

NISSEN: On November 2, he was co-piloting a Chinook helicopter carrying troops home on leave when a surface-to-air missile shot the chopper down near Fallujah. 15 of the 18 on board died, including Bruce Smith, 41, husband and father of two.

Five days later another surface-to-air missile, another helicopter, this one a Black Hawk over Tikrit. All six on board were killed, including Captain Benedict Smith, 29.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL BREMER, U.S. ADMINISTRATOR IN IRAQ: Ladies and gentlemen, we got him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NISSEN: When Saddam Hussein was captured in mid-December, the total number of U.S. war dead had not yet reached 500. Not all were killed in combat. Lance Corporal Matthew Smith, a Marine reservist, had survived that first push to Baghdad, still had grains of sand in the pages of his Bible. He and his family were relieved when he was redeployed to Kuwait.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The letter told me that he was going to be back before his birthday, which was in 20 days, and we were all very excited.

NISSEN: Matt, almost 21, was killed when the Humvee he was driving hit a parked trailer. More than 100 U.S. troops have died in motor vehicle accidents, in dust storms, at night, on dangerous roads, off-road.

Corporal Daryl Smith drowned when his vehicle overturned, plunged into one of Baghdad's network of rivers and canals. Private First Class Jeremiah Smith was killed when his Humvee ran over unexploded ordnance near Baghdad.

Explosives, mines and IEDs, improvised explosive devices, were a constant threat. Private 1st Class Brandon Smith was killed when his Humvee hit a land mine in Al Qaim in March of 2004.

Mining roads, setting traps, hiding, that was the way of the enemy that 2nd Lieutenant Brian Smith described in e-mails home. "The Iraqis prefer to pop out of cover, shoot and run," he wrote. "They are rarely accurate." He was shot and killed by a sniper in July in Habbaniyah.

Habbaniyah, Ramadi, Fallujah, hot spots throughout 2004 for U.S. troops, Army units, then the Marines. Lance Corporal Michael J. Smith Jr., Sergeant Benjamin Smith, Lance Corporal Antowain Smith were all lost there. Killed in the terse language of the Marines, in enemy action in al Anbar Province.

It was left to others to give their lives some detail.

Antowain, 22, played viola in his high school orchestra in Orlando. Lost his stutter when he joined the Marines.

Benjamin, 24, loved country music and rodeos. Had a fiance, Carrie, waiting for him in California.

Michael, 21, nicknamed All-Purpose Smitty by his high school football coach, because he'd play any position. His funeral was held in the Lutheran church in Steubenville, Ohio, where he was baptized, confirmed and married to Alicia, who was expecting their first child when he died.

Najaf, Mosul, Baghdad. U.S. troops here stayed on patrol, on edge. As he rode in a Humvee on patrol in Baghdad, Arkansas National Guard Sergeant Michael Smith was shot in the head. He was medevaced to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, then to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. His parents and sister kept vigil in the ICU for two weeks, but he never opened his eyes. He died last November 26th, the day after Thanksgiving.

Corporal Raleigh Smith wondered about being a good soldier. He told friends and family back home in Troy, Montana, he had mixed feelings about the war, had nightmares about all the bodies of women and children he'd seen in Fallujah, a ghost town, he told his mother. He was killed in action there two days before Christmas.

Lance Corporal Jason Smith also wrote home about seeing dead bodies and dead Marines. In a letter his family opened last New Year's Eve, the day Jason died on patrol in Al Anbar province, he wrote: "In some ways I don't think we should be here, but someone needs to do it. I'm glad to help these innocent Iraqis out. They are so happy that we are here to fix their country."

Because of U.S. troops, U.S. sacrifices, Iraq was to have free elections. On January 30th, millions of Iraqis went to the polls. Specialist Michael Smith had wanted to see election day -- the end of Iraq's dictatorship, he'd said. But a rocket-propelled grenade hit his vehicle in Ramadi January 11th.

The elections were important to Corporal Matthew Smith, too. His unit was on its way to secure a polling place in Fallujah the weekend before the elections when his helicopter went down in a sandstorm, killing him and 30 other U.S. troops. At his funeral back in Utah, Matthew's family agreed he'd lived his dream. Even as a toddler, he'd walk around with a toy gun saying, I'm going to protect you guys.

Since the elections, the war in Iraq has dropped from the front pages, the network newscasts. There have been only two Department of Defense reports on casualties named Smith. Lance Corporal Kevin Smith, 20, killed by a suicide car bomber near the Syrian border on March 21st, who when he couldn't sleep would call his fiance Christy back in the States at 2:00 a.m. She told his pastor at his funeral, she still listens for the phone.

And Sergeant John Smith, 22, who was on his second tour in Iraq, was training Iraqi National Guardsmen in Iskandariyah, when an IED exploded near his vehicle May 12th.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was the kind of guy that we'd take fire, people would be shooting at us, and he'd never panicked, always stayed calm, relaxed, and did his job.

NISSEN: John Smith was buried last weekend in the National Cemetery in Wilmington, North Carolina, with military honors, a 21-gun salute.

In remembrance, in honor of the 21 soldiers and Marines with the common name of Smith, who volunteered, who served, who gave their all, in all Americans' names.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: There are, in fact, many unexpected ways of remembering the sacrifices made in wartime, in a moment, another.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ (voice-over): In peacetime and war, he had a noble job, keeping the horses of Arlington National Cemetery on their feet.

Also, tonight, was it a case of loose lips?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a surprise for everybody, to be honest.

SANCHEZ: Two Americans accused of swearing allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

And later, how far we've come from this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROOKE SHIELDS, ACTRESS: You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: To this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SEINFELD")

MICHAEL RICHARDS, ACTOR: So you're still master of your domain.

JERRY SEINFELD, ACTOR: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: To this, 25 years of culture to go to war over, 25 years of CNN, but only one NEWSNIGHT. (END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: And welcome back.

The crash today in Eastern Iraq is a reminder that, where the essential facts of war are concerned, there's really nothing all that different about today, compared to any other day, or, for that matter, any other war. The place changes. So do the missions. But one thing stays the same. Young people die and good people remember.

With that in mind, a moment now to remember from November 2003, reported for us by Aaron Brown.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALES (singing): O, beautiful for spacious skies.

AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The facts are simple, as the facts at funerals usually are. In the desert night northwest of Baghdad, the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment gathered to say its farewells. A world away, it was morning at Arlington National Cemetery. Some things were different. It was raining there, not burned brown. Dress uniforms replace combat fatigues. But the important things, the essential facts, were the same.

In Iraq, 15 icons made of empty boots, rifles and helmet, stood in for those who died in the crash of a Chinook helicopter four days ago. In Arlington, more symbols. These caskets hold no bodies, only tiny bits of tooth and bone, fragments from another helicopter that fell to earth in another place, another war.

COL. DAVID TEEPLES, COMMANDER, 3RD CAVALRY: Their lives were lived in freedom. Their deaths were in the cause of freedom. They all were volunteers serving our country, answering our nation's call to fight a war against terrorism.

BROWN: Warrant Office Paul Black also answered his country's call. He was commanding a Huey gunship, call sign Jaguar Yellow Bird, when it nose-dived into a Cambodian rice patty that was 30 years ago.

His crewmates' bodies were found. Their families could grieve and go on. Paul Black's family had to wait hoping in vain until enough bits and enough tests sealed their loss.

In Iraq, soldiers came together, wept, and remembered, young men and women who now must go on to other battles. Those gathered in Arlington were older today, grayer certainly, but the need to honor the fallen was no different, the need for an end, an answer just as strong.

The facts are much the same tradition and ritual consoling the family, giving fellow soldiers the strength to go back to battle. There was this difference, though. Those were blanks fired over one ceremony. Live rounds were in the guns at the other. Aaron Brown, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Something now about something that happened a few days ago.

A man by the name of Pete Cote retired after 36 years on the job. Now, you probably don't know him or the job that he did or even the name of the job that he did. He worked at Ft. Myer, Virginia, caring for and shoeing the horses that draw the caissons at Arlington National Cemetery. Pete Cote was a farrier, was and always will be, we expect.

The story now from CNN photojournalist Bethany Chamberlain (ph).

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE COTE, FARRIER AND BLACKSMITH: Tremendous amount of pride here in the work and what you do.

Basically, I'm in charge of shoeing the horses. My name is Pete Cote. And I'm the only blacksmith farrier in the United States government. That is what my title is here. And I've been here for 36 years. And these guys are out in the cemetery working on concrete and asphalt. And they do it day in and day out.

No matter what you do here, five to seven years is all you're going to get out of a horse, because the asphalt and the concrete is so hard on their leg structure. The foot actually grows about a quarter inch per month. They grow just like a fingernail. Right now, this one's just on the loose side. So I'm going to pop out a few nails and put a few nails back in.

It's a manual trade. And it is not something that a machine can do. The average farrier will last about 20 years, because it's so hard on the body. It's a hazardous duty.

Come on.

I've got a pulled rib. I've had broken ribs. Both rotator cuffs have been operated on. Broken jaw. Broken nose. I had a horse fall on me. He collapsed my lung. And, last year, I had my knee taken out by a horse.

Yes, it gets tiring. But, you know, I enjoy it. Everybody wants a job that they enjoy. And 90 percent of people do not have that type of job. I got a job that I actually love. And working here is even better, because I love working on the horses and taking care of the horses and doing their feet. And I'm also helping the nation and serving the country and helping the fallen heroes go to their final resting place.

By the time I get out, I'll have 36 years, five months. There's no doubt about it. I love this job.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: In a moment, we're going to bring you a story about two Americans accused of selling out to al Qaeda.

First, though, as we look at the Iwo Jima memorial -- there it is -- not far, by the way, from Ft. Myer and Arlington National Cemetery, we're going to take a short break.

From Atlanta tonight, I'm Rick Sanchez, sitting in for Aaron. And this, as you've come to expect, is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: More on the remembrances today in just a moment.

First, on "Security Watch," though, a new twist in the tangled saga of Iraq's most wanted terrorist, a tape, in fact, reportedly made by Mr. Zarqawi himself. It surfaced on radical Islamic Web site, a voice denying reports that he was seriously wounded and fled the country. It was a light wound, the voice says, and we're back fighting them, meaning Americans in the lands of two rivers, meaning Iraq.

Meantime, back home, two alleged al Qaeda sympathizers have been arrested.

Here is CNN's Deborah Feyerick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): According to the criminal complaint, there was a lot of talk, talk of training al Qaeda terrorists in martial arts and hand-to-hand combat, talk of treating wounded Muslim fighters, talk that has two Americans facing charges of planning to help al Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden.

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (R), MAYOR OF NEW YORK: They clearly have said that they wanted to destroy our way of life and hurt the people of America. And if that's your definition of terrorism, I guess that certainly qualifies.

FEYERICK: The two men, friends for 20 years, were arrested over the weekend, Dr. Rafiq Sabir (ph) at his home in Boca Raton, Florida, Tariq Shaw (ph) at an apartment in the Bronx.

The complaint alleges Shaw did most of the talking, first to a convicted robber-turned-government-informant wearing a wire, then to an undercover FBI agent posing as a recruiter for Osama bin Laden. Prosecutors say Shaw scoped out a Long Island warehouse as a possible place for training, while Sabir was ready to go to Saudi Arabia this week.

Sabir graduated from Columbia University Medical School. He worked at Harlem Hospital, before moving several years ago to Florida to work as an emergency room doctor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a surprise for everybody, to be honest. They are nice people, you know?

FEYERICK: Both Sabir and Shaw allegedly swore an oath of allegiance to bin Laden.

BLOOMBERG: It doesn't look like they did very much. We saw what happens when you don't go after terrorists.

FEYERICK (on camera): Both men face one count of material support of terrorism. Repeated calls to their families and a lawyer went unanswered. Each faces a federal judge Tuesday to answer the charge.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: And we encourage you to stay tuned day and night to CNN for the most reliable information on your security.

On the news that we're following on this night, Vice President Dick Cheney is blasting Amnesty International for claiming that there are serious human rights violations that are being committed in Guantanamo Bay. In fact, in an interview with Larry King, Mr. Cheney denounced the agency's scathing report that compared the U.S. detention facility to a brutal Soviet gulag.

Here's just some of what the vice president had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Frankly, I was offended by it. I think the fact of the matter is, the United States has done more to advance the cause of freedom, has liberated more people from tyranny over the course of the 20th century and up to the present day than any other nation in the history of the world. Think about what we did in World War I, World War II, throughout the Cold War.

Just in this administration, we've liberated 50 million people from the Taliban in Afghanistan and from Saddam Hussein in Iraq, two terribly oppressive regimes that slaughtered hundreds of thousands of their own people. For Amnesty International to suggest that somehow the United States is a violator of human rights, I frankly just don't take them seriously.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: And here's the response. It comes from the executive director for Amnesty International USA, who accuses Vice President Cheney of not taking due process, torture or, he says, the Geneva Convention seriously.

Still to come tonight, remembering a peaceful man who could have finished his military service in Hawaii, but chose Iraq instead.

And then later, a beautiful way for anyone to pay tribute to everyone who went to war and never made it home.

Around the world this Memorial Day, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Memorial Day is, no doubt, a time to remember the sacrifices that so many have made in war. At the top of the program, we told you about the Smiths who have died in Iraq. Now two more stories of lives lost, Corporal Steven Rintamaki and Sergeant Patrick McCaffrey and those that they left behind.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MYRA RINTAMAKI, MOTHER OF KILLED U.S. SOLDIER: Steven was killed in Iraq September 16 of 2004. He was just finishing up what he called a keeping-the-peace mission. And that's where they go out with their Humvee.

And they were passing a donkey cart, kind of an innocuous situation, just driving along. And they were about five minutes from base, returning to base. And either -- it was either a suicide bomb or a remotely detonated bomb that exploded.

Last year, after coming home for Christmas, he went back to Hawaii and volunteered for Iraq and then went back down to Camp Pendleton and joined 31 and trained for Iraq, and then shipped out to Iraq in June of last year. It was kind of a shock to the family that he chose to volunteer, because he actually would have spent that fourth year in Hawaii. He had just gotten back off deployment just prior to Christmas. So, he would have had a pretty cush time, I think, for his fourth year.

But I think his Marine brothers called and his commitment to being a Marine, what he told us was that this is what he was trained to do. Daily, I actually think he's still alive. I think he's there and I have to remind myself that, no, he's not. I can pretend he's off on deployment. And that's why, actually, I'm going down to Camp Pendleton when the battalion comes in, in a way, to, number one, welcome the other guys home and to say thank you for, you know, being there with my son, working with my son, knowing my son, and also caring for my son while he was there, but also to make sure my son isn't going to get off that plane, you know?

I just -- just verification. When you know -- you know that's true in your mind, you know. But yet, visually, I need to see that.

I may look OK on the outside. I can function on the outside. I can get dressed. I can get up in the morning. I can go to work or I can go to school. But, on the inside, it's -- it's a daily turmoil, that you have to reconcile his loss for what was gained. And I'm not ever sure that you come to a conclusion on that reconciliation.

NADIA MCCAFFREY, MOTHER OF KILLED U.S. SOLDIER: The day he decided to enlist, the day after 9/11. He didn't thought a second that he would be one day deployed to Iraq and end up his life there. Patrick was the first combat death in 58 years, the first soldier, National Guard to be killed in action in 58 years from California. He believed in the goodness of his country and his people. And he stood up for that to the moment he was killed. He was attacked by both sides of his body, through his vest.

And even wounded, he run to the other soldier to make a shield of himself. This picture is the one that was taken 40 minutes before his death. And the flowers that he has, that he is holding were given by the children.

He also, I'll show you after, took a picture at the same time of a little girl from the Humvee who was giving him a big flower that he later will have in his hand, holding her little brother. And that says it all. He would say to us -- you know, he would call every day and he would say to us, the children are my highlight.

I think the gesture that we did, not just me, but the other parents, mothers, to go and meet with other parents and give the humanitarian aid of $600,000 for the children of Fallujah, that this was the most important thing, really. The children didn't start to war.

We all remember the day Patrick left for Iraq. The whole family does. He was a really cheerful person in his life. He had a smile practically all the time. He left to the plane, walking to the plane with this big smile on his face, waving at us. That's the way we will remember him.

The way Patrick came home was in that coffin with a flag on it. And that's the way I want my country to remember Patrick's coming home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Here's a side of Memorial Day you may not know about. It's a way of enjoying the holiday, which, war or not, is what most people do, while at the same time honoring it, at the dinner table.

Here's CNN's Jonathan Freed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Left, left, right, left.

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On Memorial Day in Milwaukee, after the ceremonies people have come to expect came one less familiar. It's called a missing man table, a tribute to prisoners of war and those missing in action.

JUDITH SINGER, SETS MISSING MAN TABLE: And we don't make it just a regular meal table.

FREED: Judith Singer has been setting one for the past few years, her way of remembering an old boyfriend and some others close to her who never made it back from Vietnam.

SINGER: Now, the table settings would be such that they get the large spoon and they get a knife.

FREED: Organizers say it's a tradition that started during the Vietnam War, a table serving up symbolism.

SINGER: The salt representing the tears; the lemon, the bitterness; the Bible, the faith; the red Rose, the blood; the white tablecloth representing the purity. The roundness, we'll never forget.

FREED: There's a place setting for each branch of the military and one representing America's allies. The chairs face outward.

SINGER: Chances are, those people are not going to come home. These families have no closure. And, every day, they live with the fact. They wonder, where is he? What happened? Was there pain? Are they OK? Are they dead? Are they alive?

FREED: Peter Tycz knows that uncertainty. His brother was reported killed in action in Vietnam in 1967. But they didn't find the remains until last year. Earlier this month, Marine Sergeant James Tycz was finally laid to lest at Arlington National Cemetery.

PETER TYCZ, VIETNAM VETERAN: We shouldn't forget any of our people. We have them left behind from World War I, Korea, all of them. We should continue to look.

FREED: Twenty thousand POW/MIA balloons are released.

SINGER: Memorial Day is a day to picnic and it's the beginning of summer, but it's also one day that we should really be able to set aside for all the losses. Freedom is not free.

FREED: Judith Singer hopes people will find a place in their backyards for a missing man table.

Jonathan Freed, CNN, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: And, in just a moment, nothing special, just some people who changed the world over the last 25 years.

Also, when it comes to culture and entertainment, who we are, how much has changed? How much will never change?

A break first.

We leave you with more images of Memorial Day around the country, in still photos this time, because this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: And welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez, sitting in for Aaron.

In searching for compelling ways of celebrating 25 years of CNN all this week, we're helped by a couple of facts. First, CNN cameras and correspondents have been present at some pretty memorable landmarks in human history, I think you'll agree. Second, as we look at 25 years of popular culture tonight, there is this, sex sells.

Just ask Aaron Brown and Brooke Shields.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, AD)

SHIELDS: You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN (voice-over): It seems almost demure now, but, in 1980, this ad with 15-year-old Brooke Shields was just hinting at being naughty. It was banned in many places.

There is no hinting in this ad starring the heiress Paris Hilton. And in a scene or two, it tells you just everything you need to know about cultural change over a quarter of a century.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brooke had to be sexy with her voice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHIELDS: Calvinized.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JERRY DELLA FEMINA, ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE: Paris doesn't have to use any words, that is, if she even knows words.

BROWN: Twenty-five years, the distance from the repressed rage and desire of "Dallas" to the full-throttled fantasy-as-reality of "Desperate Housewives."

BROWN: Only days after John Lennon was murdered 25 years ago, Christina Aguilera was born. Make of that what you will. Over the next 25 years, Ms. Aguilera, along with fellow megastar Britney Spears, would emerge from the relative innocence of the New Mickey Mouse Club.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "NEW MICKEY MOUSE CLUB")

BRITNEY SPEARS: Britney.

CHRISTINA AGUILERA: Christina.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: To performances that continually press the limits of taste.

LISA BIRNBACH, AUTHOR, "THE PREPPY HANDBOOK": We are very vulgar. The way we celebrate fame.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like that.

BIRNBACH: I think it's almost that vulgarity rises to the top more than talent or merit.

BROWN: From the music we listen to, to the TV hits we watch, yesterday's taboos...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SEINFELD")

JASON ALEXANDER, ACTOR: My mother caught me.

SEINFELD: Caught you doing what?

ALEXANDER: You know.

(LAUGHTER)

ALEXANDER: I was alone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: ... are long gone.

In that yesterday of our life, we read "The Preppy Handbook" perhaps only half seriously, but we read it. In 1980, we worried about who shot J.R. Today, "Dallas" is being turned into a movie and "Superman" is being remade for the stage.

And "Star Wars: Episode III..."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "STAR WARS EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH)

EWAN MCGREGOR, ACTOR: You were the chosen one!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: ... is on track to be this year's top grossing film, just as the earlier version was 25 years ago.

ANDREW COHEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF PROGRAMMING, BRAVO: Eighty was kind of the breaking point of the blockbuster imperative taking over Hollywood.

BROWN: Not everything in the culture has changed in a quarter of a century, of course. These guys haven't. Well, they are 25 years older and Mick Jagger is a grandpa. And he has also been knighted. But the Stones are establishment now, though don't tell them that.

Aaron Brown, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE) SANCHEZ: And now the story of a man who has known war, known it well enough to make peace his priority, in fact, and to do it, I think you'll agree, in a pretty rough corner of the world, the Middle East, Shimon Peres "Then & Now."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Known as a peacemaker, a warrior, and perennial statesman, Shimon Peres has held the office of Israeli prime minister two times and had his hand in building Israel's military arsenal. For years, with tongue-in-cheek, he referred to the country's secret nuclear facility as a textile factory.

SHIMON PERES, FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: The textile is out of business. You know, people are going for high-tech today. But the textile business achieved its basic aim as a deterrent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then there is the peaceful side of Shimon Peres. He won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for their roles in the Oslo Peace Accord. Peres established the Peres Center for Peace with the hopes of creating a new Middle East.

The father of three and grandfather of seven has also written several books. This year, 81-year-old Peres returned to the Israeli government as part of an Ariel Sharon-led coalition.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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 May 30, 2005 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And good evening. I'm Rick Sanchez. Aaron's back tomorrow.
Every Memorial Day is supposed to be solemn. But Memorial Day in wartime seems especially so.

So, we're going to begin with news from the war, starting with a deadly crash. It happened in Eastern Iraq. An Iraqi military aircraft carrying four American G.I.s and one Iraqi went down suddenly. All are presumed dead. No word, though, on what caused this crash.

Elsewhere in Iraq, south of Baghdad, in Hillah, two suicide bombers killed 27 people today. Many were Iraqi police officers and recruits who were waiting at a clinic for their medical exams. Aside from the killings, there were also 118 people wounded, this in a month that has seen a surge in attacks by Iraqi rebels and insurgents. That may be why U.S. forces have launched a massive offensive joined by Iraqi forces. They call it Operation Lightning.

Here with more on that is CNN's Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. MILITARY AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): The operation may be dubbed Lightning, but it's getting off to a slow start, according to U.S. military sources, who say so far, most of the raids have been conducted by American troops, while Iraqi forces have been preparing. But the Pentagon has high hopes that in the coming days, Iraqis will begin to free their capital from the grip of insurgents by manning some 675 checkpoints and conducting massive sweeps of Baghdad streets. It's more basic cop work than combat.

GEN. RICHARD MYERS, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: The good news about it is it's cooperation between the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defense. It's important they cooperate. That's the police and the army, of course. It's important they cooperate, given the security situation they have. So that's all very, very encouraging.

MCINTYRE: The Pentagon says of the Iraq's 100 battalions, only about 25 can operate without a lot of U.S. support. Military sources tell CNN the government's boast that there will be 40,000 Iraqi forces on the street might be a little inflated.

But even if only half that number takes part, the U.S. believes it could make a big difference, both militarily and symbolically. BRIG. GEN. DANIEL BOLGER, U.S. ARMY: Because, frankly, a lot of the people who live in Iraq, the common folks who live here, are tired of getting their children blown up. They're tired of being shot at on the way to work or school. And they've just had about enough of this. And Operation Lightning is the Iraqi government's way of reinforcing that effort here in the city with their great new police forces and their army forces taking a really important leading role.

MCINTYRE (on camera): The U.S. really hopes Operation Lightning succeeds, not just because it would deal a blow to the insurgents, but because the more Iraqi forces show they're up to the job, the sooner the U.S. can begin to bring its troops home.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Here at home, their commander in chief did what commanders in chief do on Memorial Day. He traveled just across the Potomac River to Arlington National Cemetery. There, he laid a wreath, paid his respects and said a few words about this war and every war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In our national cemetery, we receive the fallen in sorrow. And we take them to an honored place to rest. Looking across this field, we see the scale of heroism and sacrifice. All who are buried here understood their duty. All stood to protect America. And all carried with them memories of a family that they hope to keep safe by their sacrifice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: About the war in Iraq, the president vowed to honor the fallen by completing the mission.

And, as this Memorial Day weekend draws to a close, we note that more than 1,600 Americans have died in Iraq. There's no way to tell each of their stories, though each has a story to tell.

Months back, NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissen proposed a story on one small group of soldiers who had died, a way to give meaning to a larger group.

Tonight, the product of her work and the work of a team of NEWSNIGHT producers led by Amanda Townsend (ph). There's a simplicity to this idea that makes it all the more powerful, as you'll note. This is a story of the Smiths, all 21 of them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In remembrance in honor of the U.S. troops who have died in Operation Iraqi Freedom, a list of 1,650 names, familiar American family names. Brown, Johnson, Martinez, Miller, Smith. Smith, the most common surname in the United States; 21 Smiths have died in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Like most of the American troops killed in this war, most serving in this war, these 21 soldiers and Marines were almost all young, 20, 21, 24. They came from mid-sized cities and small towns across the country. Anaheim, California, Troy, Montana, Rochester, New York, Tampa, Florida.

They came from the nation's heartland, mostly blue collar, steel toe towns in Ohio, and Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri. They came from the South: Arkansas, South Carolina, the back road parts where single mothers worked their whole lives in fan belt factories, raised whole families in trailer homes. Orenthial Smith known as "Smitty," grew up here, graduated from high school, enlisted 13 days later to make something of himself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wasn't going to, you know, try to tell him what to do. That was his choice. I just stood by him.

NISSEN: Many enlist for college money. Private 1st class Jeremiah Smith and Corporal Raleigh Smith both wanted to be history teachers some day.

Some enlisted to prove themselves, improve themselves like Private First Class Brandon Smith who dropped out of high school in Fayetteville, Arkansas, but went back, got his diploma, got into shape, lost 80 pounds so he could join the Marines.

Specialist Michael J. Smith also transformed himself. After high school, he'd had some no-future jobs around suburban Philadelphia, had screamed songs with a local heavy metal band, had an all-black wardrobe and bright red hair that hung to his waist. The Army gave him a buzz cut, a direction, a career.

It gave Brian Smith of McKinney, Texas, a change in career. He was a labor lawyer, had his own practice, quit just before he turned 30, because he thought he could make more of a difference in the world as an Army second lieutenant driving tanks.

A few of the Smiths were older, most career military. Like Chief Warrant Officer Eric Smith, 41, a 16-year Army veteran from Rochester, New York, who lived to fly helicopters. And First Sergeant Edward Smith, 38, a police reserve officer in Anaheim, California, and 20- year veteran of the Marine Corps.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Smitty had the qualities to be a very good Marine, an excellent Marine. He was a great cop. And a great -- good friend and a good man.

NISSEN: And Sergeant First Class Paul Smith, 33. A 13-year Army veteran who had served in the First Gulf War in Bosnia and Kosovo.

All three were part of the first wave of U.S. troops marching across the sands of Iraq in March of 2003 to Baghdad. All three were among the war's early casualties.

Eric Smith died April 2 when his helicopter crashed in an unspecified part of central Iraq. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They grew up and ended up wanting to fly helicopters and did so and fought for our country. And I want them to remember that.

NISSEN: Sergeant Edward Smith was wounded in combat in Central Iraq April 4, died the next day. Like an unprecedented number of U.S. troops, he was married, had children, three under the age of 12.

Sergeant Paul Smith's unit made it to Baghdad, seized part of the crucially important airport. On April 4, he and 15 fellow soldiers came under fierce fire from some 100 members of the Republican guard. As his comrades fell around him, Paul Smith took a wounded gunner's place at a 50 caliber machine gun. Firing and reloading three times covering the evacuation of the wounded before he was shot in the neck.

BUSH: We count ourselves blessed to have soldiers like Sergeant Smith who put their lives on the line to advance the cause of freedom and protect the American people.

NISSEN: Sergeant 1st Class Paul Ray Smith was posthumously awarded the nation's highest battlefield honor, the first Medal of Honor awarded in 12 years.

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE He has left his family and his country a life of great meaning and entrusted us with his faith in America and its mission.

NISSEN: Less than a week after Paul Smith's death, the statue and the regime of Saddam Hussein had fallen.

BUSH: My fellow Americans, major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.

NISSEN: On June 21, Orinthial's Smith's mother came home from the fan belt factory to a letter from her son.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Even though the president said that most combat operations in Iraq is over, the war still continues. There are still soldiers and Marines dying every day. Mom, read this letter to as many people as you can. We're still here fighting to help Iraq and also defending our great country."

NISSEN: The next day she came home to an officer in an Army uniform. Only a few of the words he said came through. Convoy, Baghdad, regret to inform.

Of the 21 Smiths, 18 died after major combat operations were declared at an end. Pockets of resistance turned out to be a lasting and widespread insurgency, attacking U.S. troops as they moved in long convoys, low flying helicopters.

CWO BRUCE SMITH, U.S. ARMY: Hi, this is CWO Bruce Smith with company F-106 Aviation from West Liberty, Iowa. I'd like to say hello to my family and friends in West Liberty and thank you for your support. NISSEN: Chief Warrant Officer Bruce Smith talked often about the joys and hazards of flying helicopters in a war zone.

SMITH: There's not a whole lot of protection, per se. It's made of aluminum stuff. So we try to hide behind this console as much as we can.

NISSEN: On November 2, he was co-piloting a Chinook helicopter carrying troops home on leave when a surface-to-air missile shot the chopper down near Fallujah. 15 of the 18 on board died, including Bruce Smith, 41, husband and father of two.

Five days later another surface-to-air missile, another helicopter, this one a Black Hawk over Tikrit. All six on board were killed, including Captain Benedict Smith, 29.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL BREMER, U.S. ADMINISTRATOR IN IRAQ: Ladies and gentlemen, we got him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NISSEN: When Saddam Hussein was captured in mid-December, the total number of U.S. war dead had not yet reached 500. Not all were killed in combat. Lance Corporal Matthew Smith, a Marine reservist, had survived that first push to Baghdad, still had grains of sand in the pages of his Bible. He and his family were relieved when he was redeployed to Kuwait.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The letter told me that he was going to be back before his birthday, which was in 20 days, and we were all very excited.

NISSEN: Matt, almost 21, was killed when the Humvee he was driving hit a parked trailer. More than 100 U.S. troops have died in motor vehicle accidents, in dust storms, at night, on dangerous roads, off-road.

Corporal Daryl Smith drowned when his vehicle overturned, plunged into one of Baghdad's network of rivers and canals. Private First Class Jeremiah Smith was killed when his Humvee ran over unexploded ordnance near Baghdad.

Explosives, mines and IEDs, improvised explosive devices, were a constant threat. Private 1st Class Brandon Smith was killed when his Humvee hit a land mine in Al Qaim in March of 2004.

Mining roads, setting traps, hiding, that was the way of the enemy that 2nd Lieutenant Brian Smith described in e-mails home. "The Iraqis prefer to pop out of cover, shoot and run," he wrote. "They are rarely accurate." He was shot and killed by a sniper in July in Habbaniyah.

Habbaniyah, Ramadi, Fallujah, hot spots throughout 2004 for U.S. troops, Army units, then the Marines. Lance Corporal Michael J. Smith Jr., Sergeant Benjamin Smith, Lance Corporal Antowain Smith were all lost there. Killed in the terse language of the Marines, in enemy action in al Anbar Province.

It was left to others to give their lives some detail.

Antowain, 22, played viola in his high school orchestra in Orlando. Lost his stutter when he joined the Marines.

Benjamin, 24, loved country music and rodeos. Had a fiance, Carrie, waiting for him in California.

Michael, 21, nicknamed All-Purpose Smitty by his high school football coach, because he'd play any position. His funeral was held in the Lutheran church in Steubenville, Ohio, where he was baptized, confirmed and married to Alicia, who was expecting their first child when he died.

Najaf, Mosul, Baghdad. U.S. troops here stayed on patrol, on edge. As he rode in a Humvee on patrol in Baghdad, Arkansas National Guard Sergeant Michael Smith was shot in the head. He was medevaced to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, then to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. His parents and sister kept vigil in the ICU for two weeks, but he never opened his eyes. He died last November 26th, the day after Thanksgiving.

Corporal Raleigh Smith wondered about being a good soldier. He told friends and family back home in Troy, Montana, he had mixed feelings about the war, had nightmares about all the bodies of women and children he'd seen in Fallujah, a ghost town, he told his mother. He was killed in action there two days before Christmas.

Lance Corporal Jason Smith also wrote home about seeing dead bodies and dead Marines. In a letter his family opened last New Year's Eve, the day Jason died on patrol in Al Anbar province, he wrote: "In some ways I don't think we should be here, but someone needs to do it. I'm glad to help these innocent Iraqis out. They are so happy that we are here to fix their country."

Because of U.S. troops, U.S. sacrifices, Iraq was to have free elections. On January 30th, millions of Iraqis went to the polls. Specialist Michael Smith had wanted to see election day -- the end of Iraq's dictatorship, he'd said. But a rocket-propelled grenade hit his vehicle in Ramadi January 11th.

The elections were important to Corporal Matthew Smith, too. His unit was on its way to secure a polling place in Fallujah the weekend before the elections when his helicopter went down in a sandstorm, killing him and 30 other U.S. troops. At his funeral back in Utah, Matthew's family agreed he'd lived his dream. Even as a toddler, he'd walk around with a toy gun saying, I'm going to protect you guys.

Since the elections, the war in Iraq has dropped from the front pages, the network newscasts. There have been only two Department of Defense reports on casualties named Smith. Lance Corporal Kevin Smith, 20, killed by a suicide car bomber near the Syrian border on March 21st, who when he couldn't sleep would call his fiance Christy back in the States at 2:00 a.m. She told his pastor at his funeral, she still listens for the phone.

And Sergeant John Smith, 22, who was on his second tour in Iraq, was training Iraqi National Guardsmen in Iskandariyah, when an IED exploded near his vehicle May 12th.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was the kind of guy that we'd take fire, people would be shooting at us, and he'd never panicked, always stayed calm, relaxed, and did his job.

NISSEN: John Smith was buried last weekend in the National Cemetery in Wilmington, North Carolina, with military honors, a 21-gun salute.

In remembrance, in honor of the 21 soldiers and Marines with the common name of Smith, who volunteered, who served, who gave their all, in all Americans' names.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: There are, in fact, many unexpected ways of remembering the sacrifices made in wartime, in a moment, another.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ (voice-over): In peacetime and war, he had a noble job, keeping the horses of Arlington National Cemetery on their feet.

Also, tonight, was it a case of loose lips?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a surprise for everybody, to be honest.

SANCHEZ: Two Americans accused of swearing allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

And later, how far we've come from this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROOKE SHIELDS, ACTRESS: You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: To this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SEINFELD")

MICHAEL RICHARDS, ACTOR: So you're still master of your domain.

JERRY SEINFELD, ACTOR: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: To this, 25 years of culture to go to war over, 25 years of CNN, but only one NEWSNIGHT. (END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: And welcome back.

The crash today in Eastern Iraq is a reminder that, where the essential facts of war are concerned, there's really nothing all that different about today, compared to any other day, or, for that matter, any other war. The place changes. So do the missions. But one thing stays the same. Young people die and good people remember.

With that in mind, a moment now to remember from November 2003, reported for us by Aaron Brown.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALES (singing): O, beautiful for spacious skies.

AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The facts are simple, as the facts at funerals usually are. In the desert night northwest of Baghdad, the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment gathered to say its farewells. A world away, it was morning at Arlington National Cemetery. Some things were different. It was raining there, not burned brown. Dress uniforms replace combat fatigues. But the important things, the essential facts, were the same.

In Iraq, 15 icons made of empty boots, rifles and helmet, stood in for those who died in the crash of a Chinook helicopter four days ago. In Arlington, more symbols. These caskets hold no bodies, only tiny bits of tooth and bone, fragments from another helicopter that fell to earth in another place, another war.

COL. DAVID TEEPLES, COMMANDER, 3RD CAVALRY: Their lives were lived in freedom. Their deaths were in the cause of freedom. They all were volunteers serving our country, answering our nation's call to fight a war against terrorism.

BROWN: Warrant Office Paul Black also answered his country's call. He was commanding a Huey gunship, call sign Jaguar Yellow Bird, when it nose-dived into a Cambodian rice patty that was 30 years ago.

His crewmates' bodies were found. Their families could grieve and go on. Paul Black's family had to wait hoping in vain until enough bits and enough tests sealed their loss.

In Iraq, soldiers came together, wept, and remembered, young men and women who now must go on to other battles. Those gathered in Arlington were older today, grayer certainly, but the need to honor the fallen was no different, the need for an end, an answer just as strong.

The facts are much the same tradition and ritual consoling the family, giving fellow soldiers the strength to go back to battle. There was this difference, though. Those were blanks fired over one ceremony. Live rounds were in the guns at the other. Aaron Brown, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Something now about something that happened a few days ago.

A man by the name of Pete Cote retired after 36 years on the job. Now, you probably don't know him or the job that he did or even the name of the job that he did. He worked at Ft. Myer, Virginia, caring for and shoeing the horses that draw the caissons at Arlington National Cemetery. Pete Cote was a farrier, was and always will be, we expect.

The story now from CNN photojournalist Bethany Chamberlain (ph).

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE COTE, FARRIER AND BLACKSMITH: Tremendous amount of pride here in the work and what you do.

Basically, I'm in charge of shoeing the horses. My name is Pete Cote. And I'm the only blacksmith farrier in the United States government. That is what my title is here. And I've been here for 36 years. And these guys are out in the cemetery working on concrete and asphalt. And they do it day in and day out.

No matter what you do here, five to seven years is all you're going to get out of a horse, because the asphalt and the concrete is so hard on their leg structure. The foot actually grows about a quarter inch per month. They grow just like a fingernail. Right now, this one's just on the loose side. So I'm going to pop out a few nails and put a few nails back in.

It's a manual trade. And it is not something that a machine can do. The average farrier will last about 20 years, because it's so hard on the body. It's a hazardous duty.

Come on.

I've got a pulled rib. I've had broken ribs. Both rotator cuffs have been operated on. Broken jaw. Broken nose. I had a horse fall on me. He collapsed my lung. And, last year, I had my knee taken out by a horse.

Yes, it gets tiring. But, you know, I enjoy it. Everybody wants a job that they enjoy. And 90 percent of people do not have that type of job. I got a job that I actually love. And working here is even better, because I love working on the horses and taking care of the horses and doing their feet. And I'm also helping the nation and serving the country and helping the fallen heroes go to their final resting place.

By the time I get out, I'll have 36 years, five months. There's no doubt about it. I love this job.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: In a moment, we're going to bring you a story about two Americans accused of selling out to al Qaeda.

First, though, as we look at the Iwo Jima memorial -- there it is -- not far, by the way, from Ft. Myer and Arlington National Cemetery, we're going to take a short break.

From Atlanta tonight, I'm Rick Sanchez, sitting in for Aaron. And this, as you've come to expect, is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: More on the remembrances today in just a moment.

First, on "Security Watch," though, a new twist in the tangled saga of Iraq's most wanted terrorist, a tape, in fact, reportedly made by Mr. Zarqawi himself. It surfaced on radical Islamic Web site, a voice denying reports that he was seriously wounded and fled the country. It was a light wound, the voice says, and we're back fighting them, meaning Americans in the lands of two rivers, meaning Iraq.

Meantime, back home, two alleged al Qaeda sympathizers have been arrested.

Here is CNN's Deborah Feyerick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): According to the criminal complaint, there was a lot of talk, talk of training al Qaeda terrorists in martial arts and hand-to-hand combat, talk of treating wounded Muslim fighters, talk that has two Americans facing charges of planning to help al Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden.

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (R), MAYOR OF NEW YORK: They clearly have said that they wanted to destroy our way of life and hurt the people of America. And if that's your definition of terrorism, I guess that certainly qualifies.

FEYERICK: The two men, friends for 20 years, were arrested over the weekend, Dr. Rafiq Sabir (ph) at his home in Boca Raton, Florida, Tariq Shaw (ph) at an apartment in the Bronx.

The complaint alleges Shaw did most of the talking, first to a convicted robber-turned-government-informant wearing a wire, then to an undercover FBI agent posing as a recruiter for Osama bin Laden. Prosecutors say Shaw scoped out a Long Island warehouse as a possible place for training, while Sabir was ready to go to Saudi Arabia this week.

Sabir graduated from Columbia University Medical School. He worked at Harlem Hospital, before moving several years ago to Florida to work as an emergency room doctor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a surprise for everybody, to be honest. They are nice people, you know?

FEYERICK: Both Sabir and Shaw allegedly swore an oath of allegiance to bin Laden.

BLOOMBERG: It doesn't look like they did very much. We saw what happens when you don't go after terrorists.

FEYERICK (on camera): Both men face one count of material support of terrorism. Repeated calls to their families and a lawyer went unanswered. Each faces a federal judge Tuesday to answer the charge.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: And we encourage you to stay tuned day and night to CNN for the most reliable information on your security.

On the news that we're following on this night, Vice President Dick Cheney is blasting Amnesty International for claiming that there are serious human rights violations that are being committed in Guantanamo Bay. In fact, in an interview with Larry King, Mr. Cheney denounced the agency's scathing report that compared the U.S. detention facility to a brutal Soviet gulag.

Here's just some of what the vice president had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Frankly, I was offended by it. I think the fact of the matter is, the United States has done more to advance the cause of freedom, has liberated more people from tyranny over the course of the 20th century and up to the present day than any other nation in the history of the world. Think about what we did in World War I, World War II, throughout the Cold War.

Just in this administration, we've liberated 50 million people from the Taliban in Afghanistan and from Saddam Hussein in Iraq, two terribly oppressive regimes that slaughtered hundreds of thousands of their own people. For Amnesty International to suggest that somehow the United States is a violator of human rights, I frankly just don't take them seriously.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: And here's the response. It comes from the executive director for Amnesty International USA, who accuses Vice President Cheney of not taking due process, torture or, he says, the Geneva Convention seriously.

Still to come tonight, remembering a peaceful man who could have finished his military service in Hawaii, but chose Iraq instead.

And then later, a beautiful way for anyone to pay tribute to everyone who went to war and never made it home.

Around the world this Memorial Day, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Memorial Day is, no doubt, a time to remember the sacrifices that so many have made in war. At the top of the program, we told you about the Smiths who have died in Iraq. Now two more stories of lives lost, Corporal Steven Rintamaki and Sergeant Patrick McCaffrey and those that they left behind.

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MYRA RINTAMAKI, MOTHER OF KILLED U.S. SOLDIER: Steven was killed in Iraq September 16 of 2004. He was just finishing up what he called a keeping-the-peace mission. And that's where they go out with their Humvee.

And they were passing a donkey cart, kind of an innocuous situation, just driving along. And they were about five minutes from base, returning to base. And either -- it was either a suicide bomb or a remotely detonated bomb that exploded.

Last year, after coming home for Christmas, he went back to Hawaii and volunteered for Iraq and then went back down to Camp Pendleton and joined 31 and trained for Iraq, and then shipped out to Iraq in June of last year. It was kind of a shock to the family that he chose to volunteer, because he actually would have spent that fourth year in Hawaii. He had just gotten back off deployment just prior to Christmas. So, he would have had a pretty cush time, I think, for his fourth year.

But I think his Marine brothers called and his commitment to being a Marine, what he told us was that this is what he was trained to do. Daily, I actually think he's still alive. I think he's there and I have to remind myself that, no, he's not. I can pretend he's off on deployment. And that's why, actually, I'm going down to Camp Pendleton when the battalion comes in, in a way, to, number one, welcome the other guys home and to say thank you for, you know, being there with my son, working with my son, knowing my son, and also caring for my son while he was there, but also to make sure my son isn't going to get off that plane, you know?

I just -- just verification. When you know -- you know that's true in your mind, you know. But yet, visually, I need to see that.

I may look OK on the outside. I can function on the outside. I can get dressed. I can get up in the morning. I can go to work or I can go to school. But, on the inside, it's -- it's a daily turmoil, that you have to reconcile his loss for what was gained. And I'm not ever sure that you come to a conclusion on that reconciliation.

NADIA MCCAFFREY, MOTHER OF KILLED U.S. SOLDIER: The day he decided to enlist, the day after 9/11. He didn't thought a second that he would be one day deployed to Iraq and end up his life there. Patrick was the first combat death in 58 years, the first soldier, National Guard to be killed in action in 58 years from California. He believed in the goodness of his country and his people. And he stood up for that to the moment he was killed. He was attacked by both sides of his body, through his vest.

And even wounded, he run to the other soldier to make a shield of himself. This picture is the one that was taken 40 minutes before his death. And the flowers that he has, that he is holding were given by the children.

He also, I'll show you after, took a picture at the same time of a little girl from the Humvee who was giving him a big flower that he later will have in his hand, holding her little brother. And that says it all. He would say to us -- you know, he would call every day and he would say to us, the children are my highlight.

I think the gesture that we did, not just me, but the other parents, mothers, to go and meet with other parents and give the humanitarian aid of $600,000 for the children of Fallujah, that this was the most important thing, really. The children didn't start to war.

We all remember the day Patrick left for Iraq. The whole family does. He was a really cheerful person in his life. He had a smile practically all the time. He left to the plane, walking to the plane with this big smile on his face, waving at us. That's the way we will remember him.

The way Patrick came home was in that coffin with a flag on it. And that's the way I want my country to remember Patrick's coming home.

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SANCHEZ: Here's a side of Memorial Day you may not know about. It's a way of enjoying the holiday, which, war or not, is what most people do, while at the same time honoring it, at the dinner table.

Here's CNN's Jonathan Freed.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Left, left, right, left.

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On Memorial Day in Milwaukee, after the ceremonies people have come to expect came one less familiar. It's called a missing man table, a tribute to prisoners of war and those missing in action.

JUDITH SINGER, SETS MISSING MAN TABLE: And we don't make it just a regular meal table.

FREED: Judith Singer has been setting one for the past few years, her way of remembering an old boyfriend and some others close to her who never made it back from Vietnam.

SINGER: Now, the table settings would be such that they get the large spoon and they get a knife.

FREED: Organizers say it's a tradition that started during the Vietnam War, a table serving up symbolism.

SINGER: The salt representing the tears; the lemon, the bitterness; the Bible, the faith; the red Rose, the blood; the white tablecloth representing the purity. The roundness, we'll never forget.

FREED: There's a place setting for each branch of the military and one representing America's allies. The chairs face outward.

SINGER: Chances are, those people are not going to come home. These families have no closure. And, every day, they live with the fact. They wonder, where is he? What happened? Was there pain? Are they OK? Are they dead? Are they alive?

FREED: Peter Tycz knows that uncertainty. His brother was reported killed in action in Vietnam in 1967. But they didn't find the remains until last year. Earlier this month, Marine Sergeant James Tycz was finally laid to lest at Arlington National Cemetery.

PETER TYCZ, VIETNAM VETERAN: We shouldn't forget any of our people. We have them left behind from World War I, Korea, all of them. We should continue to look.

FREED: Twenty thousand POW/MIA balloons are released.

SINGER: Memorial Day is a day to picnic and it's the beginning of summer, but it's also one day that we should really be able to set aside for all the losses. Freedom is not free.

FREED: Judith Singer hopes people will find a place in their backyards for a missing man table.

Jonathan Freed, CNN, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: And, in just a moment, nothing special, just some people who changed the world over the last 25 years.

Also, when it comes to culture and entertainment, who we are, how much has changed? How much will never change?

A break first.

We leave you with more images of Memorial Day around the country, in still photos this time, because this is NEWSNIGHT.

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SANCHEZ: And welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez, sitting in for Aaron.

In searching for compelling ways of celebrating 25 years of CNN all this week, we're helped by a couple of facts. First, CNN cameras and correspondents have been present at some pretty memorable landmarks in human history, I think you'll agree. Second, as we look at 25 years of popular culture tonight, there is this, sex sells.

Just ask Aaron Brown and Brooke Shields.

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SHIELDS: You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.

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BROWN (voice-over): It seems almost demure now, but, in 1980, this ad with 15-year-old Brooke Shields was just hinting at being naughty. It was banned in many places.

There is no hinting in this ad starring the heiress Paris Hilton. And in a scene or two, it tells you just everything you need to know about cultural change over a quarter of a century.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brooke had to be sexy with her voice.

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SHIELDS: Calvinized.

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JERRY DELLA FEMINA, ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE: Paris doesn't have to use any words, that is, if she even knows words.

BROWN: Twenty-five years, the distance from the repressed rage and desire of "Dallas" to the full-throttled fantasy-as-reality of "Desperate Housewives."

BROWN: Only days after John Lennon was murdered 25 years ago, Christina Aguilera was born. Make of that what you will. Over the next 25 years, Ms. Aguilera, along with fellow megastar Britney Spears, would emerge from the relative innocence of the New Mickey Mouse Club.

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BRITNEY SPEARS: Britney.

CHRISTINA AGUILERA: Christina.

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BROWN: To performances that continually press the limits of taste.

LISA BIRNBACH, AUTHOR, "THE PREPPY HANDBOOK": We are very vulgar. The way we celebrate fame.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like that.

BIRNBACH: I think it's almost that vulgarity rises to the top more than talent or merit.

BROWN: From the music we listen to, to the TV hits we watch, yesterday's taboos...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SEINFELD")

JASON ALEXANDER, ACTOR: My mother caught me.

SEINFELD: Caught you doing what?

ALEXANDER: You know.

(LAUGHTER)

ALEXANDER: I was alone.

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BROWN: ... are long gone.

In that yesterday of our life, we read "The Preppy Handbook" perhaps only half seriously, but we read it. In 1980, we worried about who shot J.R. Today, "Dallas" is being turned into a movie and "Superman" is being remade for the stage.

And "Star Wars: Episode III..."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "STAR WARS EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH)

EWAN MCGREGOR, ACTOR: You were the chosen one!

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BROWN: ... is on track to be this year's top grossing film, just as the earlier version was 25 years ago.

ANDREW COHEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF PROGRAMMING, BRAVO: Eighty was kind of the breaking point of the blockbuster imperative taking over Hollywood.

BROWN: Not everything in the culture has changed in a quarter of a century, of course. These guys haven't. Well, they are 25 years older and Mick Jagger is a grandpa. And he has also been knighted. But the Stones are establishment now, though don't tell them that.

Aaron Brown, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE) SANCHEZ: And now the story of a man who has known war, known it well enough to make peace his priority, in fact, and to do it, I think you'll agree, in a pretty rough corner of the world, the Middle East, Shimon Peres "Then & Now."

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Known as a peacemaker, a warrior, and perennial statesman, Shimon Peres has held the office of Israeli prime minister two times and had his hand in building Israel's military arsenal. For years, with tongue-in-cheek, he referred to the country's secret nuclear facility as a textile factory.

SHIMON PERES, FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: The textile is out of business. You know, people are going for high-tech today. But the textile business achieved its basic aim as a deterrent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then there is the peaceful side of Shimon Peres. He won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for their roles in the Oslo Peace Accord. Peres established the Peres Center for Peace with the hopes of creating a new Middle East.

The father of three and grandfather of seven has also written several books. This year, 81-year-old Peres returned to the Israeli government as part of an Ariel Sharon-led coalition.

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