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Several U.S. Soldiers Killed in Baghdad; Positive Sign for Florida Wildfire Crews; Graduation Weekend at Virginia Tech; Progress on the Catalina Island Fire; Hapas Culture and Identity

Aired May 12, 2007 - 10:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Well, under attack in Iraq, several U.S. soldiers killed and some now missing at this hour. We've got a live report from Baghdad coming up on this breaking story.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Actually we have a statement right now coming up through CNN from Major General William Caldwell. We're going to show that to you right now as it's taking place live, let's take a listen.

MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL, U.S. MILITARY SPOKESMAN: But without success. At 4:59 a.m., an unmanned aerial vehicle observed two burning vehicles. Coalition forces arrived within an hour, secured the site and immediately initiated a search. The names of the soldiers are being withheld pending final identification and notification of next of kin.

Coalition forces are currently using every means at our disposal to find the missing soldiers and we will continue these efforts until all are accounted for.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those killed in this attack and for the missing soldiers and their loved ones back home.

Here are the specifics. Coalition forces heard an explosion at 4:44 a.m. this morning approximately 12 miles west of Mahmudiya. After an unobserved vehicle observed two burning vehicles, a quick reaction force dispatched, arriving on scene at 5:40 a.m.

The quick reaction force reported finding five members of the team killed in action and three others whose duty status and whereabouts are unknown.

Helicopter, unmanned aerial vehicle and fixed wing assets are being used to search in the vicinity. Checkpoints have been established throughout the area and a concerted effort to focus the search and prevent potential movement of missing soldiers out of that area.

Coalition forces have engaged with local leaders to elicit their support in providing any information they can and these engagements continue. Make no mistake, we will never stop looking for our soldiers until their status is definitively determined and we continue to pray for their safe return. HOLMES: And, again, spokesperson Major General Caldwell out of Iraq this morning, giving the statement on that breaking story we've been watching this morning that eight U.S. military personnel on a mission this morning ambushed, attacked five dead three missing now.

Their duty status unknown. Intensive search going on, massive search trying to find those three missing soldiers. CNN's Hugh Riminton is in Baghdad for us following the story. Hugh, what do you have for us?

HUGH RIMINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well indeed, you just heard that from Major Caldwell. We can clearly start to get a picture coming through now that this was an attack, an ambush, it would appear in the predawn darkness in this area, which is a known area for insurgent activities, but an extremely hot area.

This is part of the zone that earned the name the triangle of death back in 2004 and as the Baghdad security plan has gone into effect, the general commanding this area, major general Rick Lynch told me just in the course of the past week was that his job was to try to keep these insurgents from this area getting into Baghdad.

There's been a displacement also of terrorists out of Baghdad. This is a natural area for them to accumulate. It appears that these active insurgent groups have conducted an ambush, an explosion, two vehicles destroyed, five dead at the scene.

This group of eight who are in these two vehicles included seven American soldiers and one Iraqi interpreter. It is not clear of the three still unaccounted for if they are three American soldiers or two American soldiers and the interpreter.

That is still not clear to us at the moment, but an enormous search right on at this moment, using every bit of the resources they can bring to bear in this area to the southwest of Baghdad.

It should be noted that the U.S. military, the United States in general here, including the civilian authorities are totally aware always of the risk of hostage taking, of people going missing and being taken as prisoners of war.

They have people standing by immediately to address these issues. I went to a briefing at the U.S. embassy with some of their officials just in the last couple of days, it was an off the record briefing.

I can't tell you much about that but I can say that it is the absolute rule that it is the early hours are the key to locating and trying to recover people if they are taken as prisoners of war or taken as hostages in an event like this -- T.J.

HOLMES: All right, Hugh Riminton for us in Baghdad. Hugh, thank you so much.

NGUYEN: Let's get you some military perspective now. Joining us by phone is retired brigadier general David Grange, he is a CNN military analyst and let me ask you this, they were traveling in a small number here, about eight people in two vehicles. Does that tell you this particular group was on a mission?

BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, it may have been a patrol. It may have been a civil military operation where they were going someplace to coordinate. I don't know. I don't know at this time. Usually if it's two vehicles, that's the minimum number that would travel together.

NGUYEN: Are you surprised at all that there were just two vehicles and eight people?

GRANGE: Well, again, I don't know what kind of mission it was. Quite often it's four vehicles. I don't know why there would be two. I'm sure that they wouldn't just take off on their own without a specific mission that required this two.

But the key thing is that what was stated, if somebody gets in trouble there is a quick reaction force and you can argue whether how quick it was or not on the response in an hour. I mean, you can argue that.

NGUYEN: Well why do you think it took about an hour? I mean I know it's all speculation right now, but it took about an hour for that quick reaction force to get to the attack site. Is that because lack of communication?

GRANGE: It could be lack of communications, it could be the unknown of the situation. One thing you have to be careful of in a reaction force, if you race in there kind of half blinded by not having all the information you need, it could be a baited ambush or the response.

They know -- the enemy knows we respond immediately to these things and so quite often they set up the second ambush to take out the rescuers.

NGUYEN: This happened about 12 miles west of Mahmudiya. Talk to us about the danger in that particular area.

GRANGE: Well, it's stated to be a very dangerous area, one of the most dangerous in Iraq from what I understand, and, you know, talking about insurgents, it could have been al Qaeda.

I mean right now, you know, we don't have that information but a very dangerous area and it'll be interesting to see why two vehicles, why not four, whatever the case may be. At this point I don't even know what kind of vehicles they are. I assume they were humvees.

NGUYEN: All we know right now, eight coalition forces, seven Americans, one Iraqi interpreter. Five people killed, three missing, it's not known if the Iraqi interpreter is among the dead or the three who are missing. And I want to ask you this though, when it comes to the search for those who are missing, time is critical. Time is crucial. What's going on right now? You've dealt with some of these search and rescue operations.

GRANGE: Yes, regrettably. As was stated, the first several hours are the most important, first 12 hours.

And what you have to keep in mind also is that those that did this, whether they killed the three and they just hid the bodies or to then react to any kind of reaction you have search incumbent rescue or if they were taken prisoner. Or it could be the soldiers are evading, in other words, they're on their own hiding somewhere. We don't know that yet.

But keep in mind as we talk and we explain this to the American people and the coalition, the listeners, so is the enemy. They're watching to see how we react to this through the media so they're watching this very closely, if, in fact, they're doing this to set up something different.

NGUYEN: Well what we do know is the U.S. military has set up checkpoints. There are drones flying in the area to gather information via video and, of course, obviously they're doing as much as they can on the ground to try to find these three missing coalition force members. Retired brigadier general David Grange, we appreciate your insight and time with us today. Thank you.

HOLMES: Well, another big story we're following this morning. Wildfires spreading across several fronts right now. The worst may be in Florida. That fire started in Georgia and quickly advanced further south. Now maybe some good news. CNN's John Zarrella live in Lake City this morning with some possible good news as we say. I don't see John Zarrella there. John, are you there? Tell us what's going on?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm here, T.J. We wanted to -- if you had come to me about 30 minutes ago and we were on live, you wouldn't have been able to see me at all from where I'm standing next to the fire trucks here, but the smoke and the fog has lifted just a little bit.

And yes, you said the good news and that's what we're hearing. This weather is actually good because the humidity is up, the winds have laid down considerably.

It's given the firefighters a big chance to start to make some headway, build in those fire breaks and we're here with along this line of fire trucks, these guys are all waiting for their orders out of Marion County and near Ocala. Still waiting on your assignment today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Still waiting.

ZARRELLA: Yesterday, I guess what did you do, you were protecting houses out there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

ZARRELLA: So you did a lot of that yesterday. So what they're doing is just waiting like everybody else to get their assignment after the commanders figure out what they need to do inside there.

Now we're also expecting a briefing in just a little while from the forestry officials and from Florida highway patrol officials, and we understand, T.J., there's going to be announcements about road closures.

This may be good for fighting the fires, but it may not be good for what's happening out on the highways. Interstate 10 back there in the fog, interstate 75, off to the west of me, so there may be some issues with some road closures today.

And if anybody is traveling this way today, they really need to pay close attention to the information that will be provided throughout the day on what's happening here. But, again, the good news is that these fires at least the forestry folks will be able to get a handle on it today, building the fire breaks.

And what they told me late yesterday was that they need to build 80 to 100 miles of fire break and they're averaging seven miles a day, T.J., so they still have a heck of a lot of work to do to make sure they can contain a fire that's really burned about 85,000 acres.

The other piece of good news, only one structure has been destroyed in this fire, and that was a hunting camp. So guys like these folks from Marion County have been able to protect all the houses that may be in the line or the path of these fires. T.J.?

HOLMES: Well, as tough as it's been and as tough as the work still remains, at least you are able to report a bit of good news, as you say there, our John Zarrella in Lake City. Florida. We'll see you again, John.

NGUYEN: We want to move to now to California because firefighters there, they are making some progress with the fire on Catalina Island. Look at these pictures and what that is doing is clearing the way for residents to finally return amid all of the smoke that you just saw there. Well CNN's Kara Finnstrom is live in Catalina Island this morning and she joins us with what's happening on the ground. I don't see as much smoke today as we did yesterday.

KARA FINNSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, definitely not. We're coming to you from the harbor city of Avalon. The fire did burn right up to the edges of this historic city.

But right now what's burning and the smoke that we're seeing intermittently is actually beyond the hillsides right behind us. You can see some of the charring on the hillsides. That's where the fire came close to the city yesterday.

Now, actually we did speak with firefighters and leaders within the L.A. County fire department just about an hour ago. They were going into a briefing, and they tell us they have made some progress in fighting this fire overnight. They say coming out of this meeting they're about to update the containment numbers. We've been reporting that about 35 percent of the fire is contained. They say that number is now closer to 50 percent and again they plan to officially update that as they come out.

They also tell me firefighters had been on the lines overnight. A couple of crews working to dig trenches and to try and make sure that that fire is not creeping back to businesses or to shops here.

Now, the big break for firefighters here has been the weather. You can see there is a fog over this island this morning. The temperatures are cool and the winds have actually been cooperating, as well, helping to push back those flames away from the city. It's the hot, dry weather that we've been more accustomed to here in southern California that has been a problem for firefighters because the brush and the trees here are so dry that it did create some problems as far as fueling this fire.

Only two inches of rain here since January. About 700 firefighters have been out here fighting this fire. And we have learned that about ten structures in all have been affected. We took some pictures of the one private home that was affected in all of that. A house that was burned to the ground and the homeowner himself actually stood by and watched as his house went up in flames.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRAD WILSON, LOST HOME IN FIRE: We were evacuated at 2:30 yesterday afternoon, and we could see the fire come, you know, back behind this ridge line and we knew at that point in time that, you know, there was a chance but, you know, you're sitting here. It's a beautiful day like it is today. You drive your car up, and they say, well, you need to get out of here. OK, so we load our -- what valuables we had, we really needed to take pictures and those kinds of things. You never think you'll come back to this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FINNSTROM: Now, today is going to be a day about a lot of the people who were evacuated coming back. We actually expect to see some ferries starting to come in within the next hour. Some of those homeowners and business owners started coming back yesterday and actually some of the businesses are opening up today mainly catering of course to the media and the firefighters and the residents are back.

But they won't have a very big clientele today because as it still stands, outside visitors are not allowed back yet to Catalina. Reporting live in Avalon, Kara Finnstrom for CNN.

NGUYEN: Thank you, Kara. T.J.?

HOLMES: Well looking inland from there, even better news in Los Angeles. That 800 acre Griffith Park fire now just about out. Governor Schwarzenegger toured the burned out area yesterday and he echoed earlier promises to rebuild that park. Authorities say the fire may have started when a homeless man fell asleep while smoking.

NGUYEN: Well there is yet another fire front. This one in northern Minnesota along the Gunflint Trail right at the Canadian border. Nearly 50 square miles just destroyed. Dozens of homes, cabins, well they're wiped out too and hundreds of people have been evacuated from nearby areas. Weather is cooperating right now. That is the good news as firefighters try to protect a couple hundred homes in the fire's path.

HOLMES: As you heard there, weather is cooperating in some instances it is still hurting in others. Coming up next from Florida to California, we'll tell you what is expected.

NGUYEN: And still to come, what do all of these people have in common? Take a good hard look, you might be surprised to find out the answer when we "Uncover America" in 10 minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Well, if you're stepping outside and you smell smoke in the air, you are not alone. Wildfires, Bonnie, are burning on both sides of the coast and some places in between. I understand you've got some news coming out of northern Florida.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HOLMES: All right, as we just heard her talking about there, a little flooding in Missouri. Concerns now rising with the water line along the Grand River, whether experts are warning of moderate to severe flooding near Sumner. So far, many are faring better than expected. Also, no injuries or deaths have been reported from this week's flooding. A number of levees across the state failed under the stress.

NGUYEN: Well as Virginia Tech says good-bye to the class of 2007, we want to honor one of the heroes of that tragic day in April. Zach's story is coming up next.

HOLMES: Then coming up at the top of the hour, Oprah Winfrey scheduled to address the graduating class at Howard University. We'll bring you her speech live. You're looking at a live picture happening right there. Everybody waiting for Ms. Winfrey to hit that stage. And again, we'll bring it to you live when it happens. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: We want to show you these pictures out of San Antonio, Texas, where it took some time to rescue a man who was trapped in this vehicle. This vehicle is a Ford Explorer that got wedged between two ramps and an overpass around the area of I-37 north in San Antonio. This all started actually in Corpus Christi, Texas, where there was a report of a stolen vehicle. That gives you better perspective of what was going on here. The person...

NGUYEN: ... How does that happen?

HOLMES: ... in that vehicle -- yes, took the ramp a bit too fast according to investigators and ended up in that position, some kind of way.

The vehicle was stolen and that's why the vehicle was being followed in the first place. When the person driving was alerted that he was being I think followed, took this ramp a little too fast in the San Antonio area. Ended up just like that for two hours.

It took sometime to get the driver out. The driver was a teenager, an 18-year-old we understand who was actually pretty panicked according to firefighters because he was stuck and it was a pretty bad and scary situation to be stuck in that position.

Never mind what issues you might have afterwards dealing with the stolen vehicle you're driving, but the driver was stuck like that for two hours. A couple of highways in the San Antonio area had to be closed while this rescue took place. But, a picture you may not have ever seen before. You certainly don't see every day of a vehicle stuck in that particular position.

NGUYEN: Well, they're lucky they got him out because it's quite a drop down below that overpass there.

HOLMES: He got wedged just in there, just right and.

NGUYEN: Believe it or not, he was probably a lucky guy to be wedged the way he was despite the accident that you're seeing there.

All right, well the emotions, they are running high at Virginia Tech this weekend. It is graduation time and the joy at commencement ceremonies is tempered by sadness over last month's senseless killings. Some 3,500 seniors graduated last night at Virginia Tech. The school also issued diplomas and class rings to the families of the 27 students killed. They university's president said they won't be forgotten.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLES STEGER, VIRGINIA TECH PRESIDENT: The most important aspect of the gravestone is not the name or the dates of birth and demise but rather the dash between those dates, because that symbolizes the person's life, their impact on this earth is not a function of the number of years that they lived, but how they lived. Although so young, they had managed to accomplish much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, one of those would picked up his diploma was a math major whose quick thinking of April 16th prevented 11 more deaths. Zach Petkewicz is today's CNN hero.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZACH PETKEWICZ, CNN HERO: After the initial gunshots, I heard a scream. I didn't know if it was gunshots at first until I heard that scream and it all kind of sunk in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand by.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Unbelievable pictures.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 9/11 emergency call.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's going on?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gunfire at Virginia Tech.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gunman loose on campus.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did we hear you correctly, 20 fatalities?

PETKEWICZ: Two of the girls in my class peeked out in the hall and saw a gunner come out of a classroom, just gun pointed down. They immediately slammed the door shut. Told us, everybody kind of went into a frenzy, a panic. I hid behind the podium and then just kind of looked up at the door. It was like there's nothing stopping this guy from just coming in.

And so I said we need to barricade this door. We had a long rectangular shaped table that me and another one of my classmates had on either side the door. The gunner tried the handle, couldn't get in because we were pushing up against it. Tried to force his way in, got the door to open up about six inches and then we just lunged at it and closed it back up. He backed up and shot twice into the middle of the door.

Thankfully we weren't in front of it when he did shoot through it. He just turned and kept firing down the hall and didn't try to get back in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The worst mass shooting in U.S. history ever.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your quick thinking may have saved so many lives. What do you say when people are calling a hero today?

PETKEWICZ: I'm just glad I could be here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Zach there is just one example of an everyday hero, people whose spontaneous acts of courage save lives. For more, you can visit CNN.com/Heroes.

NGUYEN: He indeed is a hero.

HOLMES: I remember watching that interview live that morning.

NGUYEN: How he got choked up about being called a hero, but that's indeed what you are, Zach and many people are thanking you today for that.

HOLMES: We're going to continue and talk about our big story here today. We've got U.S. service members missing and at least four killed following an attack in Iraq.

NGUYEN: We're going to have the latest details on this breaking story. That's next, plus take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Most people, soldiers and a lot of reporters too, we put our names -- I got my name and blood type in Arabic and English on my helmet and I have it also on a piece of tape.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Up next, a month of mayhem in Iraq. We'll show you an intimate look at what it's like to report in a war zone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Welcome back, everybody. We're busy around here on this Saturday morning. A lot of news to tell you about. I'm Betty Nguyen.

HOLMES: And I'm T.J. Holmes. It is 10:30 here on the east coast, 6:30 p.m. in Baghdad.

NGUYEN: We are following breaking news this morning out of Iraq. The U.S. military has launched a massive search for three missing soldiers. They vanished after a deadly insurgent attack near Mahmoudiya. That's a volatile region which is south of Baghdad. You can see it here on the map. Five others were killed in that same fight and that is where the details get foggy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL, MULTINATIONAL FORCE-IRAQ: This morning at 4:44 a.m. in Iraq a coalition force team of eight soldiers, seven Americans and an Iraqi army interpreter were attacked 12 miles west of Mahmoudiya. As a result of this attack, five soldiers were killed in action and three are currently missing.

At the time of the attack a nearby unit heard explosions and attempted to establish communications, but without success. At 4:59 a.m. an unmanned aerial vehicle observed two burning vehicles. Coalition forces arrived within an hour, secured the site and immediately initiated a search. The names of the soldiers are being withheld pending final identification and notification of next of kin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: All right. Here's what we know. The group was made up of eight coalition soldiers, seven Americans and one Iraqi translator, all are now dead or missing. Veronica de la Cruz is following the story online and she's been watching as developments are coming in. Veronica, what have you seen?

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Betty, like we just heard as the search continues for these soldiers, Major General William Caldwell is saying that the names will not be released. But as the search continues he's saying that checkpoints have been set up in the area to search all of the vehicles in an effort to make sure that these soldiers do stay in the vicinity. Now, some other methods being used in the search, helicopters, as well as these unmanned drones. Now, this is what a drone looks like. This is the mq-1 predator drone aircraft. I found more information about these drones on the web. Take a look. This is af.military, the Air Force Web site, again, this is the mq-1 predator. It's a medium altitude, long endurance remotely piloted aircraft. Here are a couple of images right here. These are the same drones that are getting ready to aid Missouri flood victims so that's a little bit on the search.

Also want to get you back to what else is happening on the web. This is the Pentagon Web site which again not been updated as yet with the news. Checking in on other news organizations, this is iraq.net and they have this story from a couple of different news organizations. Here's one from the Associated Press, Reuters as well as AFP and that web address is iraq.net. Al jazeera has this as a breaking news story on their front page and checking in on bbc.co.uk, this is the second story underneath the Pakistan clashes. So that's what's happening on the web, want to also get you back to that map. As you know, the attack took place outside of Baghdad as we've been saying about 12 miles to the west of Mahmoudiya. This is the Google earth map that we have up for you. Mahmoudiya is located in the province known as the triangle of death. Betty, I will continue to monitor the web and let you know what else I can find. Back to you.

NGUYEN: Thank you, Veronica.

HOLMES: Here's something Betty, not into name calling, anybody ever called you --

NGUYEN: Be careful.

HOLMES: I need to be real careful but a hapa, anybody ever called you a hapa?

NGUYEN: Yes, they have. This California surfer is one. He's among the more than a million Americans who fall in that category. I fall in that category. Up next we are going to uncover a side of America that you've likely never understood before.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I grew up in a Chinese household. My siblings are all full-blooded Chinese from China. I grew up as like the white kid.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: There are 14 million Asian Americans in the United States and at some point, just about every one of them will have to answer the question, what are you? Well for many, the answer is simple. But for a growing group, one that's been labeled the face of the future, that answer is as complicated as their genetic makeup.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) NGUYEN (voice-over): Look at these faces. Do you know what they all have in common? They're part Asian, better yet, 100 percent hapa. What's a hapa? Let's ask Kip Fulbeck (ph). He's had to answer that question all his life. Maybe that's why he's inked his Chinese heritage on his back.

KIP FULBECK: I grew up Buddhist. She's the goddess of mercy, basically, it's kind of a karma thing.

NGUYEN: Call it karma or an identity badge, this California surfer knows the meaning of hapa. It's a Hawaiian slang term for people of mixed racial heritage with partial roots in Asian and/or Pacific islander ancestry. Hip s the only hapa in his family. His Chinese mother had four children before her first husband died. She came to America where she married a man with European roots and gave birth to Kip.

FULBECK: I grew up in a Chinese household. My siblings are all full-blooded Chinese from China. I grew up as like the white kid.

NGUYEN: But he wasn't just a white kid and neither are some students Kip teaches in his identity class at UC Santa Barbara.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm the only half Thai person I know.

NGUYEN: Actually there are 1.6 million hapas in the United States. There was no way to count them until the 2000 census when people were allowed to check more than one box for race.

FULBECK: For my whole life, it was always check one box. Basically it meant mom or dad, pick one. You know, it's like "Sophie's Choice." I'm not going to do it. So I want people to be able to realize that millions of people go through the same thing all the time and that's all right.

NGUYEN: But it isn't always easy, at least not for this little girl. That's me, yes, I'm a hapa too, a baby born of war to a Vietnamese mother and American servicemen. I get a lot of times -- a lot of people think I'm Hispanic or a lot of people think I'm something.

FULBECK: You got to be down with la raza, come on, Betty.

NGUYEN: Right. I mean, how many different cultures and nationalities have people mistaken you for?

FULBECK: All of them from, you know, I usually get Hawaiian, Filipino, Middle Eastern, black, Mexican, South American, rarely -- I never get Chinese.

NGUYEN: And that's why Kip traveled the country taking photographs for his book called "Part Asian 100 percent Hapa." Everyone answered a question asked a thousand times, what are you? Some said I feel like a chameleon socially. No one questions my father's race or ethnicity. But suddenly one generation later I'm not Asian. I am a daily contest to guess what I am. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm Vietnamese. If you hear my mom speak you'd believe me too.

NGUYEN: Sophia Means is a model who believes that she's missed out on jobs because she's not one race with one look and yet times may be changing for hapas.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every now and again I book work and they want a girl who's ethnically ambiguous. It's nice to be that category now. I don't think it existed before.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm the guy who says and does whatever he wants because whoever I'm with, white or Asian just says to himself, it's OK, he's half.

NGUYEN: Daniel Spicker (ph) is half Chinese and half Caucasian. Do you feel like that you've received some benefits of being a little bit of both?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sometimes I do feel a little more unique in the fact that I'm not -- it's not just another face in the crowd.

NGUYEN: They might just be the faces of the future, already dubbed the poster children for 21st century globalization. In this book I think what's fascinating is not only do they look different, but there's always this sense of I've got to explain who I am.

FULBECK: Oh, I got a story about that. I gave people these half sheets of paper to write their statements, I would be like, go ahead, write a statement, just respond to the question what are you? If you don't like it, here's some more paper. I had one girl go through 17 pages, just crumpling them up, throwing away, crumpling up, throwing away and I had one girl at a shot in L.A. where she sat for the entire shoot three hours with her pen and she never made a mark.

NGUYEN: Which speaks to how many hapas are searching for their true identity and that's why Kip created his book of faces.

FULBECK: Ultimately I think I want it to be celebration. I want people to really celebrate the diversity of hapa people and so it's not a thing of I know someone that's half Asian too. Oh you kind of look like him, vastly varied people and I want people to be able to go and put themselves out there and that be a celebratory thing.

NGUYEN: So Professor Fulbeck's lesson is this, it's perfectly normal for hapas to deal with identity issues and preserved in these pages, each face tells a unique story.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: To learn more about Kip Fulbeck's book and about the hapa project, which is where he takes these photos to museums across the nation, you can logon to thehaproject.com and you can also see more of my interview with Kip on cnn.com/pipeline. It was really great to talk to him because growing up I was the only one like me so we have a lot of similar experience. And I will tell you, when he went across the nation talking these photographs for his book, people would line up before the doors were even open because that's how many hapas out there were really wanting to see others like them who they can share that similar experience with.

HOLMES: You said every face tells a different story and that face right there, I had no idea, we're all learning about you. We got a little hapa among us and we didn't even know it.

NGUYEN: This is true. I don't know where you're going with that, but, OK.

HOLMES: A lot of folks don't think about it, but people have not an identity crisis, but they're trying to find out who they are.

NGUYEN: They don't just fall into one box, one category. They're a mixture. I think in essence we're all kind of a mixture too. It's great that the census is recognizing us.

HOLMES: That's a good look at it there, good piece.

NGUYEN: We do want to let you know that May is Asian-Pacific American heritage month and you can stay tuned to CNN this coming week for our special report on uncovering America. We're going to take an in-depth look at what it means to be an Asian-American today.

HOLMES; Want to let you know something we're keeping an eye on, another live event, commencement ceremonies at Howard University in Washington, D.C. We are awaiting Oprah Winfrey, the woman herself is there. She's going to be speaking to the graduating class and I mean a heck of a send-off to be able to hear from Oprah Winfrey.

NGUYEN: And when she speaks.

HOLMES: You sit down, you shut up and you listen. You don't just listen. You sit down and shut up and you listen. We're going to get to that when it happens live. Stay here.

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NGUYEN: What do you know about Tommy Thompson except that he is running for president? Rick Sanchez has him in the spotlight. That is Sunday at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

HOLMES: Bigger, more sophisticated roadside bombs, the threat of snipers, just some of what CNN's Michael Holmes discovered on his latest month-long tour of duty in Iraq. He tells his story in a CNN special investigation report "Month of Mayhem." Here now a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You don't know what to expect when you go back in but at the same time you do. And this time going back, snipers were all of a sudden become a really big issue. Instead of maybe looking there, a lot of people are looking up now looking at windows and rooftops and things like that. The other thing that had changed appreciably was the size and the sophistication of the roadside bombs. The use of these explosively formed projectiles which are savage, brutal, deadly roadside bombs. These are not like normal bombs. They're what they call shape charges and they fire out all the molten copper which will cut through an Abrams tank armor let alone a Humvee.

Most people, soldiers and a lot of reporters too, we put our names -- I got my name and blood type in Arabic and English on my helmet and I have it also on a piece of tape. The soldiers still do dog tags and the interesting thing with soldiers, a lot of them will wear one dog tag around their neck and you'll see one in the laces of their boots and the reason for that is because of the bombs, you can have your head blown off or you can have your leg blown off and, well, you've got a tag at either end.

One of the other problems when I first started going to Baghdad which was right, you know, during the war and at the end of the war, we would walk around the streets and talk to people and interview people and go to restaurants and stuff. But now you can't. That's just the way Baghdad is now and so really the only way we can get contact with local people is to use our own Iraqi staff and they're fantastic and risk their lives for us every day or you embed with the military.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And you can see Michael Holmes' full report tonight. He puts a human face on the casualties of war and gives you an inside look at life in Iraq. Don't miss CNN's special investigations unit "Month of Mayhem." That's tonight at 8:00 Eastern.

NGUYEN: And here at CNN, we do want to honor America's fallen heroes. Memorial Day weekend is only two weeks away but we need your help today. Send us your photos and video of the loved ones that your family has lost. We want to tell their stories (INAUDIBLE) from wars both present and past because we want you to tell us about them and let us know how your family has indeed coped with that loss. There are two ways to reach us. You can log on to cnn.com/ireport or e-mail us directly at ireport@cnn.com.

HOLMES: Billions of dollars worth of Iraqi oil may be unaccounted for according to a published report. "The New York Times" says the oil may have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling. The paper cited a draft report expected to be released next week. It says between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq's declared oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for. That is an average of between $5 and $15 million a day in missing oil. That's based on a price of about $50 a barrel.

NGUYEN: Vice President Dick Cheney on the road and on a mission. Today's top on his mind and that's Middle Eastern tour of Saudi Arabia. That's what he's dealing with and the goal there is to mend fences and bolster regional support of Iraq's field government or fledgling government. Yesterday aboard an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, Cheney issued a warning and it was to Iran. He said the U.S. and its allies will not allow Tehran to develop nuclear weapons.

Well, what do underwear clad buff bodies have to do with divorce?

HOLMES: Well, isn't it obvious? No, OK. This is what we're talking about actually. The billboard that grabbed national headlines and spawned controversy across this country.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'm CNN meteorologist Bonnie Schneider with your lawn and garden forecast. Early morning or night is the best time for watering your lawn and garden to reduce evaporation. That's because temperatures are warmest when the sun is out right in the afternoon. That's a look at your lawn and garden forecast. I'm meteorologist Bonnie Schneider.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Oprah Winfrey's message to the class of 2007. She's minutes away from addressing the graduating class at Howard University. Here now another live look at the commencement ceremonies that are under way. We're waiting to hear from Miss Winfrey herself. When that happens you'll see it live right here on CNN.

NGUYEN: We want to catch you up on all the news of the week. "American Morning's" Kiran Chetry has the highlights and she joins us now. Hi there.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi Betty. Good to see you. We started off the week with news of that arrest of the Ft. Dix six. That broke during "American Morning" Tuesday. Investigators say that the men, foreign born Muslims plotted to attack the army base and U.S. soldiers. U.S. attorney Christopher Christie told us that one of the bad guys knew the base like the back of his hand.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER CHRISTIE, U.S. ATTORNEY: One of the defendants said Mr. Tatar had delivered pizza there from a family pizzeria for a long period of time and he drew incredibly detailed maps, including where the power plants were on the base and one of the parts of the plan was to try to knock out the power plant to cause confusion and disruption, allow them to sneak onto the base and then begin killing as many American soldiers as they could.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: And to think Betty, it was a quick thinking video store clerk who actually tipped off the Feds and may have saved many, many lives.

NGUYEN: Yes, it was. You know, also we've been talking about this, that crazy weather from tornadoes to the raging wildfires and in fact we're covering those raging wildfires this weekend. It has been an incredible week of wild weather.

CHETRY: That's right including that deadly twister nearly two miles wide that literally wiped out the town of Greensburg, Kansas. My co-anchor John Roberts flew to the disaster zone. He gave us a firsthand look at the devastation and also that state's Governor, Kathleen Sebelius made some news about National Guard resources. They were tied up in Iraq, she said and that's how it hampered the relief effort at home. Take a listen to what she told John.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: About 40 percent of the troops on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan but we're missing the equipment. When the troops get deployed, the equipment goes with them. So here in Kansas, about 50 percent of our trucks are gone. We need trucks. We're missing Humvees. We're missing all kinds of equipment that could help us respond to this kind of emergency.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: And of course since then, we've seen the flooding in Missouri and also the raging wildfires on both coasts.

NGUYEN: There is a lot that we've covered this week. I know that billboard story out of Chicago has been something a lot of people are talking about.

CHETRY: Yeah, really, it was our favorite simply because of how wacky it was, the billboard, and we'll put it up and so people can see it. A lot of people were furious. It said there it is, life's short, get a divorce. So we talked to the lawyer whose firm put up that ad, got a lot of people talking. We heard the ladies of "The View" even chatting about it. Within hours, that billboard came down and she's furious about it. She says she's going to keep fighting to try to get it back up.

NGUYEN: But the pictures on there, my goodness. If you want to get attention, there you go.

CHETRY: And some said that's false advertising.

NGUYEN: All right Kiran Chetry, thank you for that.

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