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Six Americans Among Dead in Afghanistan; The Journey Home
Aired August 07, 2010 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: This hour on CNN, the harsh reality of war. Driven home by the ambush of ten medical mission workers in Afghanistan this week. Six Americans are among those killed by the Taliban. But what about our men and women on the front lines? Many badly injured. Some on the brink of death. How do they get from the insurgents' territory to battlefield hospitals all the way home right here to the United States? It is a mission fraught with danger, emotion and enormous pain, and CNN is the only network to take the entire trip with America's injured heroes. Tonight, a true reality show like none other. A special report, "The Journey Home."
Good evening, everyone, I'm Don Lemon. We start with another atrocity by the Taliban. It is causing outrage and anger around the world. Ten members of a medical team, six of them Americans, were robbed and murdered on the side of a road in northeast Afghanistan. Militants claim the victims were carrying bibles but the group that sent them, they deny this claim. A spokesperson with the Pentagon, and correspondent Barbara Starr, talked to us about this massacre.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, these ten people, these civilians, were from an international organization called The International Assistance Mission, a private group that provides mainly medical care to Afghan civilians. Six Americans, two Afghans, a Briton, a German presumed dead now in northeastern Afghanistan, according to the head of this private organization.
The Taliban are taking credit. A local police chief says gunmen stopped the victims on the road in this remote area, robbed them of all their possessions and then shot them one by one. The group does medical work. The Taliban are saying that they were spies and there were allegations that they were carrying Bibles. The organization says absolutely not, that the civilians working for this group were going to provide medical care for Afghan civilians, that that is what they were doing there -- Don.
LEMON: We're talking about, this hour, about the perils of war, Barbara, and you play a prominent role for us this hour. Talk to us about what you have coming up.
STARR: Well, we're going to take people on a remarkable journey that we completed recently, traveling into the war zone and coming back out with the wounded. This is a journey where we get to see the young Americans who serve this country in ways most of us have never seen them before, and the doctors and nurses that are so devoted to caring for them.
LEMON: We will look at that straight ahead in this show.
Elena Kagan has officially joined the United States Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath of office.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS, U.S. SUPREME COURT: -- Elena Kagan, do solemnly swear --
JUSTICE ELENA KAGAN, U.S. SUPREME COURT: I, Elena Kagan, do solemnly swear --
ROBERTS: -- that I will --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Kagan's legal career spans posts in the Clinton White House and Harvard Law School, but she's never been a judge before which sets her apart from most Supreme Court appointees. Kagan won Senate confirmation two days ago by a vote of 63 to 37. She replaces the longtime liberal justice, John Paul Stevens.
News about the gulf. BP will get back to drilling its relief well in the gulf tomorrow now that the static kill has finally plugged that massive oil leak. The relief well has taken months but it's supposed to seal the leak permanently. In the meantime, BP is down playing another controversy over its future plans for the site. COO Doug Suttles talked yesterday about the idea of new drilling there but the company issued a clarification saying it's focused on killing the well and recovery, not on future drilling.
Next here on CNN. The journey home for our wounded servicemen and women fighting in Afghanistan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are going from bleeding to hugging your wife and daughters. There's a smile.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: CNN gets unprecedented exclusive access. We travel with our wounded warriors as they get the care they need while going home to those they love.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: From Afghanistan to Germany and home to the U.S. For the rest of this hour, we're going to travel with members of the U.S. Armed Forces. But it's not a trip any of them ever expected to make. Wounded in battle, flown to a hospital. Then brought home for treatment all in a matter of days. We want you to come along for an exclusive behind the scenes look at how America's wounded warriors make the journey home and get treated for their battlefield injuries. It is a delicate and efficient operation carried out with military precision and human compassion. CNN's Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr is our guide tonight. And along the way, she'll introduce us to some inspiring and courageous young troops. It is a 41-hour journey and CNN is the first network to take the entire trip. It all begins in Afghanistan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STARR (voice-over): It's before dawn in the Trauma Bay at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Another soldier wounded in the fighting down south. Surgeons, nurses doing everything they can.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One, two, three.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: The journey home starts here. In Vietnam, it could take weeks, but now wounded can be home in days. CNN was granted exclusive access to see the medical care that makes it possible and to injured troops, some hours off the front line.
In the hospital hallway, Army Specialist James Dennis is being shipped home after being in three attacks in three weeks. He had already been here before. He survived two roadside bomb attacks in the same day, and then, a couple of days ago --
SPC. JAMES DENNIS, U.S. ARMY: It was indirect fire. I was hit by a mortar.
STARR: But still smiling.
DENNIS: I'm good right now. They gave me some medicine.
STARR: In the latest attack, Dennis ordered junior troops under fire to run for safety. He couldn't get away in time.
DENNIS: I didn't even get to start running. And I guess it knocked me out, because I remember pushing myself up off the ground and had all this blood all over me. And then they MedEvaced me.
STARR: Dennis praises the doctors and nurses.
DENNIS: These people here are awesome. I mean, they do their job. I respect these guys a lot.
STARR: Before Dennis is moved to the plane, a last emotional hug from the trauma doc, Captain Joshua Miller.
CAPTAIN JOSHUA MILLER, U.S. AIR FORCE: You take care of yourself.
I saw him over there in that wheelchair, and I just took another look at him and I said, man, what are you doing here again? I'm not supposed to see you again. And, sure enough, he had suffered enough explosion injury. STARR (on camera): The doors have just shut on this air medical evacuation flight here in Bagram, Afghanistan. The wounded have already been loaded. You can see that medical staff is already taking care of them, even before we take off. We are about to go on an eight-hour flight back to Germany. These troops are going to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center for further treatment.
(voice-over) Matthew Came, a medic, was on patrol helping other wounded when he was hit.
(on camera) And your Kevlar didn't protect you, your vest?
SPC. MATTHEW CAME, U.S. ARMY: It was about one inch right under it. It was right in the bladder.
STARR (voice-over): Badly wounded, he told his buddies what to do.
CAME: Right away, I just went on to, just, you know, talk them through what we needed to do. And it all went really, really smoothly. And then a medic from the copper we were going to go help out came and he helped out in the end too.
STARR: Now others are tending to him. He gets relief for his pain, Specialist Came finally under the watchful eye of his nurse.
For air evacuation teams, easing the pain and devastation can be tough.
CAPT. KATHERINE GARTNER, U.S. AIR FORCE: I have had a couple patients who were sleeping and just woke up in a fright, just couldn't remember what was going on, where they were. And, for me, that was the best moment to be there for that patient, to hold their hand and calm them down and let them know, I'm here. You're OK. You're going home -- and just seeing them relax and say, OK, I'm good. It's all good.
STARR: For three-time Purple Heart specialist Dennis, now on the plane to Germany, it is all good.
(on camera) You're going from bleeding to hugging your wife and daughters. There's a smile.
DENNIS: It's going to be awesome, you know? When you're near death that close, I mean, I thought -- I literally thought I was dead when that impact happened. I thought I was dead. But you really don't know what you have got until it's almost gone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lift. Lift.
STARR (voice-over): The next stop, Germany.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Did you heard Barbara say next the first stop on "The Journey Home" outside the war zone. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to Landstuhl. You're safe now. They're going to take good care of you, OK?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: The largest military hospital outside the U.S. treats the critically wounded and readies them for the trip home.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Now, the next stop in the race to get America's wounded warriors from the battlefield to the state-of-the-art health care here in the U.S. It is a journey that in past conflicts, World War II, even Vietnam, often took weeks. But now it only takes a few days. Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr, made the trip with a group of wounded U.S. troops.
It started in the war zone of Afghanistan. She picks up their story at the Landstuhl Military Hospital in Germany.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Got it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Got it.
STARR (voice-over): Eight hours after leaving the war zone: words of comfort.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to Landstuhl. You're safe now and they're going to take good care of you, OK?
STARR: For some, the rush to intensive care, even as stretchers keep coming off the overnight flight from Afghanistan.
(on camera) These critically wounded troops have just arrived from Afghanistan here at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. Some of them are suffering massive injuries. They have been in roadside bomb blasts, mortar attacks -- it is here that you can begin to see the price the wounded are paying in this war.
(voice-over) In the last several weeks, trauma director, Lieutenant Colonel Raymond Fang, has seen first-hand what is happening to troops carrying out the strategy of protecting Afghan civilians.
LT. COL. RAYMOND FANG, TRAUMA DIR., LANDSTUHL REGIONAL MEDICAL CTR.: We see a lot more injured -- what we call "dismounted IED injuries," for people on foot patrol when they're injured. And here, we see, truly, just devastating extremity amputations. We've been seeing a lot more, three and four extremity amputations that I have seen during the conflict in Iraq.
STARR: Specialist Gary Davis arrived here from Afghanistan just a couple of days ago. He survived a massive roadside bomb -- portions of both legs have been amputated.
SPEC. GARY DAVIS, U.S. ARMY: We flipped over. Everybody had their seatbelts and stuff on. But, you know, we were in pain.
I got out of the vehicle, undid my seatbelt and I just flopped on to the ground. With all the adrenalin going through me, I did notice that my legs were messed up. But I crawled as far as I could to the door. That's all the energy I had. And I just kept on yelling, "Help me, help me."
STARR: Davis is on constant pain medication, but still, doctors will try to get him out of bed and into a chair. He will fly home within hours.
Back out front with the teams who handle the wounded, Specialist Shalandra Reddin giggles about her new braces.
SPEC. SHALANDRA REDDIN, U.S. ARMY: Can you understand me? I just got braces.
STARR: But quickly, this 27 year old begins to open up.
REDDIN: We've seen so many people with missing legs, arms, eyeballs. I mean, it's been crazy.
STARR: She tells us, these days, there may be as many as four buses of wounded a day. It used to be just one. Shalandra talks to the troops.
REDDIN: One story I heard that particularly stuck in my mind was: he said that he was looking out the window in Iraq and the next thing he woke up, he was here. And he had no legs. So --
STARR (on camera): That is a lot for you to deal with at the age of 27.
REDDIN: Yes.
STARR: It's hard.
REDDIN: Yes, it is. But I'd rather help someone than it be the other way around. That's how I look at it.
STARR (voice-over): As soon as the wounded can be stabilized enough to fly again, they leave Germany and are loaded one last time on to a cargo plane for the nine-hour flight back to the United States. Medications are checked and rechecked.
More gear is loaded -- turning this C-17 cargo plane into a flying intensive care unit.
For this critically-wounded soldier, equipment that would take up an entire hospital room stateside -- from hospital bed to cargo plane.
(on camera): You're now on your way home.
DAVIS: Yes.
STARR: What are -- what's -- what are they telling you? Where are you going? What's going to happen next?
DAVIS: I'm going to Walter Reed to start my rehab there. My parents are supposed to meet me there at some time. So, I'm excited about that.
STARR (voice-over): Young troops still have their priorities even now.
DAVIS: For example, I asked if they had Internet and they said, oh, yes, don't worry. You're going to have a compute on your room so you can like do e-mails and stuff like that.
STARR: Still, at moments, the road is daunting.
(on camera) Right now, because of the medication and everything, fairly pain-free?
DAVIS: Doing pretty good.
STARR: Yes? This is not such a good day?
DAVIS: Well, yesterday was tough because they took me out of the bed.
STARR (voice-over): For these troops, pain and exhaustion, but they are going home.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: And next, the final leg of "The Journey Home" back to the U.S.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: This is what it's really all about in the world of the air medical evacuation community. You can see the plane now is full of the combat wounded from Afghanistan.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: It is the final leg of the journey home for a group of American patriots. U.S. Troops wounded in Afghanistan. After a stopover at a military hospital in Germany, they are flying back to the U.S. for medical treatment. In most cases, it's only been a few days since they were injured on the battlefield.
Our Barbara Starr is on board the Air Force C-17 Globe Master, and she talked with some of them, giving us an exclusive and inspiring look at their journey home.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STARR: This is what it's really all about in the world of the air medical evacuation community. You can see -- the plane now is full of the combat wounded from Afghanistan. These troops have all suffered injuries from IED, roadside bomb explosions, mortars, artillery, small arms' fire, gunshot wounds. They have gotten their initial treatment here in Germany.
Now, we are about to make a nine-hour flight back to the United States, finally they are getting back home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You remember the other guy we put the antibiotics on?
STARR (voice-over): Air Force medical teams tend to every need on the final leg of the journey home.
Captain Chris Watkins, a nurse, has worked to evac flights for seven years. He sees the rising number of wounded firsthand.
CAPT. CHRIS WATKINS, U.S. AIR FORCE: Unfortunately, it's a lot of blast injuries. We have a lot of amputations and a lot of significant trauma patients. They're required some sort of continuous monitoring care or obviously, surgical treatment. IEDs are probably the number one player, followed by small arms and indirect fire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just wanted to see it drop.
STARR: Private First Class James Darlington, hit by a rocket- propelled in the arm just a few days ago, now hours away from seeing his family. Doctors had these initial worries he may loose his arm.
PFC. JAMES DARLINGTON, U.S. ARMY: I didn't think I was going to have an arm because of the way it was -- it was just skin attached to it. So, yes, I was actually really amazed when I woke up and seen my arm there and I had feeling in it and everything so -- yes.
STARR (on camera): So, the medical care is pretty amazing.
DARLINGTON: It's really amazing. I was really surprised.
STARR (voice-over): Twenty-two wounded on stretchers -- some just hours off the battlefield.
There is constant worry about infection. Many, still on morphine for pain; some in extremely critical condition, on ventilators.
WATKINS: We haven't sat down since about 8:00 this morning Germany time. That was almost 11 hours ago. It's hard seeing these catastrophic injuries.
STARR: On some flights, the most critically wounded are kept alive long enough to be brought home so their families can say good- bye.
Sometimes the best cure -- just being together. On this flight, three young soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division hit in the same attack just a few days earlier. Specialist Aaron Knuckols and his buddies were on patrol in eastern Afghanistan when their vehicle hit a 300-pound roadside bomb.
SPEC. AARON KNUCKOLS, U.S. ARMY: Everything got ripped and we went upside down.
STARR: After a near-death experience like that, Specialist Knuckles says he could not imagine going home without his friends.
KNUCKOLS: We've been together the whole trip, ma'am.
STARR (on camera): That's good.
KNUCKOLS: That's awesome.
STARR: Yes. You keep an eye on each other.
KNUCKOLS: Yes, ma'am. Because I know my two guys back there I can't see are getting the same care I'm getting. It's just a very good feeling. I can't see 'em but I know they're getting taken care of.
STARR (voice-over): The fellow soldier, Private First Class Mike Garcia, broke two vertebrae, his back, his knee and his ankle in the attacks. But his priority? His brothers in arms.
PFC. MIKE GARCIA, U.S. ARMY: Ma'am, that's what makes it personal, because we go over there, we are such a small group to begin with, and we see pretty much nobody else for the year we are over there and we just bond, a lot of bonding pretty much, and especially if you get hit.
STARR: The third man, Staff Sergeant Benjamin McGuire's broken jaw is wired shut but he doesn't need to talk for us to understand how grateful he is that they are all together.
(on camera) It means a lot to you? Do you think it actually helps?
"Yes, ma'am, without a doubt in my mind, it made my injuries seem not so bad." You went to Afghanistan together, you fought together, you got hit together, now you're coming home together.
(voice-over) For many of these soldiers, the journey home is almost complete. Many we have spoken to have already reenlisted and are anxious to get back to Afghanistan to stand beside their fellow soldiers -- even as the cycle of war-wounded continues.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joins me now from Washington. Barbara, it's such an amazing report and so much to talk about.
Let me start by asking: what was it like traveling with those soldiers from the battlefield back here to the United States?
STARR: You know, of all the years that we've covered this here at CNN, to me, this was very unique. We don't usually get the opportunity to see these young troops so fresh off the battlefield. We see them in hospitals, when, thankfully, they're on the road to recovery. Some of these kids are in very rough shape.
There was a young man on a ventilator on our flight, on life support. And, of course, we respected his privacy, stayed away from him -- and the physician, the military doctor, that sat right next to him for the entire journey.
But you can see from most of these young people, they're anxious to talk. They want to talk about what has happened to them. They want to know that Americans understand they are serving the country and that they are at war -- Don.
LEMON: All right. Barbara, thank you very much. Stay right there.
So much to talk about with Barbara Starr and some very special guests from "The Journey Home." Barbara is going to join us in just a bit.
But, first, a check on the top stories of the day.
A plane crashes straight into a house, exploding on impact. We'll tell you what happened there.
And, Fidel Castro addresses Cuba's parliament for the first time in years. What he urged President Obama not to do?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Checking our top stories right now on CNN. Two dangerous escaped cons are now suspects in a pair of killings in the southwest. Authorities say forensic evidence links Tracy Province and John McCluskey to the deaths of two people in New Mexico. The bodies were found burned inside a camper in Santa Rosa on Wednesday. The suspects escaped from prison in Arizona eight days ago. A third man who broke out with them has already been caught.
A small airplane crashes right into a home in western Pennsylvania. Two people on board were killed. And police say the plane nearly hit a man who was asleep inside the house. He got out OK with his dog and no one else was inside. No word on the cause of that crash.
Eighteen people were hurt when an Amtrak train collided with a truck in California. That is according to our affiliate KFSN. 220 people were on the train yesterday when it hit a truck that was stalled on the tracks near Bakersfield. Investigators say the engineer locked the brakes but could not stop in time. All the injuries were minor.
Police in Maryland have charged a couple with the murder of two children and two adults outside Washington, D.C. A 43-year-old man and 18-year-old woman from Texas were charged in the killings, which were apparently drug-related. The crime scene was described by police as horrific. Police say the victims and suspects were involved in the sale of marijuana.
Former President Fidel Castro spoke to the Cuban National Assembly today for the first time in four years. Castro wore his trademark military uniform and entered the hall to a loud ovation. He spoke out against nuclear war, urging President Obama not to fire the first shot in a confrontation. Castro turns 84 next Friday.
Two astronauts at the international space station have finished the sixth-longest space walk in history. It lasted eight hours and three minutes. It began work to fix a station cooling system that failed a week ago, setting off warning alarms and shutting down part of the cooling system. NASA estimates it will take two more space walks to finish that job. The next will take place no earlier than Wednesday.
Next up, we return to our focus this hour, "The Journey Home" for our wounded soldiers in Afghanistan. You've seen the incredible effort that goes into treatment and transportation. We're talking with the man who oversees the entire operation. An incredible program that helps our disabled vets. We'll introduce you to two soldiers who are being given new homes specifically for their needs.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Welcome back, everyone. We are devoting much of our attention this hour to the care received by American heroes, troops wounded while fighting for their country. Earlier our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, gave us an exclusive behind the scenes look at how these wounded troops make the journey home from Afghanistan. She joins us once again from Washington, D.C., along with our very special guest right here in Atlanta, Major General Dr. Douglas Robb who is a surgeon general of the Air Mobility Command. He basically oversees the entire operation. He joins us tonight for our special "Journey Home" here.
General Robb, thanks for joining us. You said the first thing that these men and women say to you is what?
MAJ. GEN. DR. DOUGLAS ROBB, SURGEON GENERAL, AIR MOBILITY COMMAND: One of the first things when you meet these young men and women, these brave young men and women who have gone through some horrific injuries is they say, "when can I get back to my unit?" And that tells you something about the character of the young men and women we have out there.
LEMON: I have to ask you then, what's the benefit of getting these wounded troops home? You know the benefit, not just medically but getting them back to their families?
ROBB: Well, I tell you, it's amazing when you think about the advances we have in air medical evacuation. Think about it. Here's a young man or woman, one of our troops out there who is injured. And 36 hours later, the first time they wake up, they've been on two helicopter rides, two aircraft rides, sometimes two surgeries, and they wake up in Washington, D.C. and their husband or wife, their mother or father or their son or daughter is holding their hand. That's the way to heal.
LEMON: And it makes you feel good. I'm sure.
Barbara Starr, our Pentagon correspondent in Washington. Barbara, you got to see, you know, some of this up-close-and-personal and I'm sure you can attest to what the general is saying here?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Oh, you know, absolutely. I think one of the things General Robb would tell you is when a young service member gets wounded, one of the first things that happens, when they are able they put a cell phone in that person's hand so they can call home.
And you know, you can ask some of these young people, did you call your mother yet, and they'll say, "yes, ma'am, I called my mother, you know, from the hospital and she's expecting me." You know, it really is remarkable.
But you know, General Robb, one of the things that I wanted to tell you that also really struck me on this trip was how many reservists you have working these medical crews. Because that's important to all of us. These are people that come from shock trauma centers, ERs, all across the country.
ROBB: Absolutely. Our air medical evacuation force is made up of 88 percent of reservists and guardsmen. So 12 percent is active duty and so it's incredible that these are the men and women, these are the doctors, the nurses, the technicians, that are in your community hospitals that are out there serving our country.
We can't be prouder of them but I tell you what's also important is the employers our there that are allowing these brave and very professional medical personnel to be part of our air medical personnel to be part of our medical evacuation team.
LEMON: Yes, you know, and Barbara, you were on, you know, those flights. And you - we saw the human side. But really, General Robb and Barbara, it's very dangerous. I mean, and God forbid, especially the flights in and out of Bagram, god forbid, you can get shot at or what have you. And you have the most vulnerable passengers on board. Talk to us about the danger and the precautions that you take. It's a delicate balance.
ROBB: Yes, it is. Well, first off, as you know our nation spares no expense in making sure that we take care of our wounded warriors. And people ask, you know, what extremes do you go to save and/or to take care of our soldiers, sailors, air men, marines and our coast guardsmen, civilians and the coalition forces. Well, I answer you "whatever it takes."
LEMON: Yes.
ROBB: Whatever it takes. And we have an example of one of our British troops, one of our NATO allies. If you add up everybody that took care of him, who had a hand involved whether it was the coordination team, whether it was the patient regulation team, the aircraft, it was over 1,000 people. And it's just amazing how this team comes together, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and our coalition partners.
LEMON: And Barbara, you got to see this team effort at work?
STARR: Well, absolutely. You know, we were at Bagram at 3:00 in the morning and we thought we were just really going to see, you know, what we came for was the remarkable story of the wounded being loaded up. But we were on the ground in Bagram, really not two minutes and suddenly the call came that another bird, an aircraft was coming in from the south, right off the frontlines of the founding in Kandahar and they were bringing wounded.
That was the opening shot you saw. For one very seriously wounded young soldier, coming in right off the frontline at 3:00 in the morning, there had to be at least 24 people, military people, around him in the trauma bay, doing everything that they could to save him, and they were able to.
This is what you see. Young Americans, really, it is a spirit and a bond that is remarkable. They don't know each other. They may never see each other again, but they are all there for each other.
LEMON: Amazing. We're going to end it there for now and get a break in and then come back. We're going to have much more with General Robb and our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, in just a moment here on CNN. We're back in a moment.
Also, next, helping our disabled veterans and really in an unbelievable way. One organization gives them the keys to a brand new house, made to make it easier for them to get around. Much, much more, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: We have seen how difficult the medical road back can be for our wounded vets. But that's only part of the story here. Many have life-changing injuries that require major adjustments including where to live. We came across an incredible charity that's helping. It's called "Homes for Our Troops." Sergeant Kenny Lyon is getting a home furnished by that charity. He takes us on a tour of what his home will be like.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SGT. KENNY LYON, WOUNDED VETERAN: The first feature of "Homes for our Troops" is flat doors. You don't have to wheel over anything. "Homes for our Troops" is a non-profit organization that builds adaptable home for severely injured veterans. The hardwood floors make it a lot easier to move around in a wheelchair. I'm a severely injured veteran because I lost my left leg, above the knee as well as nerve damage to the arms and other injuries.
The cook top is rolled under. This home is not my home. This home belonged to Sergeant Steven Kiernan and currently I'm rooming with the Sergeant Steven Kiernan. This is the garage.
The Sergeant Kiernan picked the plot of land that he wanted and it was completely wooded. They came and cleared it out and poured the concrete pad and then they have what's called a "Build Brigade." And all these people came out that and they didn't even though him at all and they showed up to help.
This program is absolutely wonderful. I mean, to think you go over there and do it because you want to. I did it because I wanted to. I enjoyed it. And then, god forbid the worst happens and you come back and, I mean, life stops for a second. And "Homes for our Troops" helps to give veterans back on their feet, so to say, and back into a home that can make them feel independent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: And you just saw Sergeant Kenny Lyon who joins me now from Washington, along with staff Sergeant Robert Canine. Lyon was wounded in a mortar in his second deployment in Iraq in 2006, and Canine wounded in Baghdad last year when an explosive projectile hit his truck.
Both will be receiving especially adapted homes at no cost.
Kenny, thanks to both of you for joining us. How are you guys doing? Are you doing, OK?
STAFF SGT. ROBERT CANINE, WOUNDED VETERAN: Good. Thank you.
LYON: I'm doing great.
LEMON: Great, great. We're glad you're doing great.
Kenny, we're going to start with you. How is this new home going to benefit you?
LYON: Well, this new home will benefit me in many ways. One of those ways is a feeling of helplessness that you get in a home that's not always adapted for you. You're not going to have that feeling of helplessness. You're going to have your independence back.
LEMON: Robert, what about you? What about your new home?
CANINE: Well, I'm on my prosthetics during the day and at night I'm in a wheelchair so having a home that's barrier-free makes your life better every day and improves your quality of life every day.
LEMON: So Kenny, where's your new home? I understand you hope to get a college degree and you want to work in either the electrical or automotive field?
LYON: Yes. I chose a plot of land in Fredericksburg, Virginia, down the road -- actually from my buddy, Sgt. Steven Kiernan, whose home I took you guys through.
LEMON: So Robert, I understand you have a wife and an eight- year-old son. Where is your new home?
CANINE: That's going to be in Colombia, Missouri.
LEMON: Nice. So how do you feel about this program, about the homes and how they adapt your homes? How do you feel about this?
CANINE: Just very extremely grateful for what they do. Like Kenny said, you know, being in the military, you take the risks of being injured or hurt and that's just something that we do and then, you come home injured and you don't expect anyone to come through for you like this.
And organization like "Homes for our Troops" just coming and telling you that they're going to build you a house and take care of you and your family is just extremely grateful to them and the community who helps to build the homes and everyone involved.
LEMON: We're extremely grateful to you for your service and we wish you both the very, very best. Thanks to both of you, OK?
LYON: Thank you, sir.
CANINE: Thank you.
LEMON: Thank you.
Next, how you can help our wounded warriors.
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LEMON: So pay close attention here. We're going to tell you how you can help our wounded warriors. You've seen much of these military men and women give of themselves. And we've made it easy for you to find reliable ways to help. So go to our Impact Your World tab right here on cnn.com/impactyourworld. And remember, you can check out everything here.
Just head to cnn.com/impact and check out the links here. There's one for disabled American veterans. And then there's one for the Fisher House Foundation, which provides families of the wounded with a place to stay while their loved ones go through rehab.
And we also want to point out there are two great groups that create these bring in these clothes, like you're going to see here. Hold these for me. These clothes are for our wounded warriors. And there's a special group of women who sew these clothes so they can get our wounded warriors, our wounded warriors can get in and out of this clothing.
This is a shirt. This is a Super Bowl shirt, right? This is a pair of regular sweat pants here. Just regular pants. And you can go on the side and just open them up. There's a snap, and they're Velcro. Hand me that sweatshirt. That's great. Check this out.
And so if you want a sweatshirt, they want to stay warm, they want their team colors on. It's important, right, to have some normalcy. It opens up all the way down the side so our injured men and women in uniform can get in to them. Go to BlueStarMothers.org. BlueStarMothers.org or SoMuchComfort.org to learn how you can help.
I want to bring in Barbara Starr. Barbara, you told us about these clothes and you know, how our wounded warriors get into these clothes and who makes them. Tell us about these - the efforts from folks like these moms.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, this is remarkable. Because when you think about it, many of these young people just have devastating injuries, perhaps amputations, broken arms, broken limbs, burns. But yet, they don't want to come home, you know, clutching a hospital gown around them. They want some feeling of normalcy.
This allows them, those who cannot get into regular clothing, it allows them to get into clothes and have some sense of normalcy, some sense of dignity. On those flights you saw those young troops also in T-shirts and pants. People provide them clothes along the way. Their uniforms have been literally shot off of them probably. They don't have their military gear. They're in t-shirts, they're in shorts and they're in slacks. Something to provide them the dignity as they come home.
LEMON: I want to ask Major General Dr. Douglas Robb here. He's the surgeon general of the air mobility. When you see things like this, like these moms who make these clothes, as you said, it's a team effort. But it's a team effort, not only for the men and women in uniform, really, it's a team effort of Americans.
MAJ. GEN. DOUGLAS ROBB, SURGEON GENERAL, AIR MOBILITY COMMAND: It is. It is amazing. And again, I can't say enough about how America has poured out their hearts to support our men and women in uniform. This is absolutely incredible. You can't even walk in an airport without someone saying thank you for your service.
LEMON: And I always thought when you're in an airport and you see our men and women in uniform walk through, they'll just get spontaneous applause. I've given up my seat and sometimes, they bump us up for a lot of miles. I'd given up my seat to many men and women in uniform especially after, you know, they started -- after 9/11. It's just amazing the support they have. But they do need more support.
ROBB: Yes.
LEMON: You get them home in order for them to get help. But especially now when we talk about PTSD and all of that. They need even more help and more support. Things can be better.
ROBB: Yes, it can. As you watch these young men and women their journey again from Afghanistan and Iraq, back to America through our system. You watch how they heal. And then some of them will be able to stay in military, in fact, you know, I've shared with you before, first question they ask is how do I get back to my unit? "How do I get back in uniform?" For some of those young men and women, they cannot and it's incredible what our Department of Veterans Affairs, what the VA has done again to become an integral part and an integrated part of the care of our young men and women.
LEMON: OK. Barbara, I wanted to ask you this earlier, but I wanted to get to this conversation with the general. You know, we saw, we heard the responses from the people in your story there. My question was, what was their initial reaction to you? Why let, you know, were they hesitant about doing interviews with you?
STARR: No. Those, you know, some we asked very politely declined. They weren't really in shape to talk or they didn't want to. They were exhausted. Perhaps on a lot of pain medication, but the young people that did want to talk to us, the young troops. And I keep saying that because they are so young. You know, these are all people in their early 20s serving on the front lines.
They wanted to talk about what they were doing, about what had happened to them. I think the most, if there was a heartbreaking moment, and it was after the camera turned off and one of them said to me, "ma'am, do you think Americans remember that we're out here? That we're out here fighting?" They want to know there is still that connection back home. It's very important to them. Don.
LEMON: Why let someone like CNN in on this? Do you find it important for the people at home, the people watching to know what these people go through?
ROBB: Yes. It is important. One, I think all the families out there need to understand and know that we will go to whatever it takes to get their son or daughter, their mother or father, or their husband and wife home safely. And the medical care throughout the entire journey with our coalition forces, with our joint forces, the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines all pulling together to make sure that they get the highest quality of care from the front lines all the way back to the United States.
LEMON: Hey, Barbara, we have a very short time left here. And your years of covering the Pentagon, have you seen anything like you've covered on that journey?
STARR: This was the most remarkable assignment. I should tell you I stomped up and down the corridors of the Pentagon for the last several days, knocking on doors, making sure many of my military sources made sure they watched this piece. And of course, my last thought would be, we, of course, want to remember those who made the final journey home, Don.
LEMON: All right. Barbara Starr and General Robb, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. We appreciate your service.
I'm Don Lemon at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. We hope you enjoyed our exclusive coverage of "The Journey Home" for our wounded warriors. And if you enjoyed the song "Welcome Home" we featured this hour, it's by the group called Rehab. Go online and check out the entire song. I'll see you back here tomorrow night at 6:00, 7:00, and 10:00 p.m. Eastern. Again, thanks for watching and have a great evening.
