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CNN Live Saturday
How Are U.S. Soldiers Preparing for War?
Aired March 15, 2003 - 15:32 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.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: It is a saying that supposedly got its start in the American military -- hurry up and wait.
Well, that certainly applies to the situation in Iraq. The diplomatic standoff has left thousands of U.S.. troops playing the waiting game.
We turn to retired Brigadier General David Grange for insight as to what it means for military personal and equipment.
General, thanks for joining us again.
BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: My pleasure.
SAN MIGUEL: We are about to show our viewers video of troops playing football -- troops training and training and training -- troops even dressing up a lizard as a soldier, putting a backpack on him.
Obviously they are trying everything they can do to relieve the boredom but in your view what is the effect of all of the constant waiting on the troops from a psychological perspective?
GRANGE: Well, in this particular case the troops really haven't waited that long yet. As you know, in the '91 war they waited much longer than this.
Some units have been there a long time, some just got there and some still arriving. So it's a not too bad yet.
But you have to find ways to keep the soldiers -- the troopers -- occupied while you are waiting for the word to go, if, in fact, it's given.
SAN MIGUEL: And we have talked about this before as well, but with each week it gets a little hotter. There is more sand that is blowing. The wind kicks up a little bit more. The effect on the weapons, the equipment, the helicopters?
GRANGE: It requires about four to five times more maintenance. This type of sand -- this fine sand -- in this part of the world just really plays havoc with the weaponry, with machines, with the tanks, the helicopter engines. And maintenance has to be on a continuous basis. It takes a lot of discipline. And the leaders, the sergeants, the officers making sure these things are done. But it's an inherent part of all of America's armed forces -- good, proper maintenance to maintain readiness. And it's just -- this is a one of the most important things they can be doing right now.
SAN MIGUEL: And -- OK. So other than the maintenance and other than the training, all of which are important, how best to use this time -- the extra time -- that you are getting?
What do you think the military will be doing over this next week? If, let's say, the order to go to war does not happen this week, are there ships that need to be transferred from one sea to another, troops that need to go from one a part of Kuwait to another, this kind of thing?
GRANGE: Well, there's a lot of equipment -- fighting equipment -- that's still not in the region. It's still being moved around.
It doesn't mean that the armed forces that are there right now could not begin a fighting if ordered to do so -- they could.
But it doesn't have the optimum structure that I think the commander of Central Command is still forming in that region.
And that's good -- you want to have the most overwhelming force you can have adjusted to that particular situation.
But during that time, what's critical is, again, that the troops that are playing sports -- that's fine. But the most important thing that they can do is train -- train, train and train is the best warfare in the world for troopers waiting for combat.
SAN MIGUEL: And you talked about some of the equipment that was not in place yet. As you know, off the coast of Turkey there is very state-of-the-art military equipment that's still on ships there.
And we've heard today that we believe that the Turkish government is not ready to bring that up again for another vote as to whether U.S. troops will base in Turkey until it gets a confidence vote.
So is that some of the equipment that you are speaking of? Maybe that needs to be moved somewhere else?
GRANGE: Well, they will probably move that equipment. And I understand it's from the Fourth infantry division, which is one of the most modernized heavy divisions in the United States Army and move that around to Kuwait.
But if there happens to be any adversaries watching this particular show saying, "They're not ready because they can't -- that unit's not there yet." That's not a true statement either because they could do the fight right now as it is. And that could be actually a follow-on element used in a second phase of the mission.
So it's hard to say if they really need it or not, but I would assume that it would probably be nice to have it there. SAN MIGUEL: And more to your point, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did say, I believe, about a week or two ago, that they were ready to start operations then if they needed to.
So, you know, things could -- things could happen in a hurry. Last question here -- and you addressed this earlier, troops did have to wait an awful lot longer in 1990-91 to get ready for Desert Storm. Any lessons learned by the U.S. military in terms of having troops wait so long in the desert?
GRANGE: For sure.
Since the '91 war, a lot of initiatives have been taken by America's armed forces to pre-position combat equipment in this region because the tanks and helicopters and trucks -- these type of things, ammunition, palettes of ammunition take a long time too move by air or sea.
And so now you have a good portion of that already in certain strategic areas around the world and all you have to do is fly the troops in to meet up with that equipment.
And then, of course, you have the Marine Corps, which always -- has to ride on the ships with them.
So the idea of the America's armed forces is force projection anywhere in the world rapidly. And that's what has evolved into a better capability to do just that.
SAN MIGUEL: CNN military analyst, retired General David Grange -- thanks for joining us and thank you for your insight.
GRANGE: My pleasure.
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 March 15, 2003 - 15:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: It is a saying that supposedly got its start in the American military -- hurry up and wait.
Well, that certainly applies to the situation in Iraq. The diplomatic standoff has left thousands of U.S.. troops playing the waiting game.
We turn to retired Brigadier General David Grange for insight as to what it means for military personal and equipment.
General, thanks for joining us again.
BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: My pleasure.
SAN MIGUEL: We are about to show our viewers video of troops playing football -- troops training and training and training -- troops even dressing up a lizard as a soldier, putting a backpack on him.
Obviously they are trying everything they can do to relieve the boredom but in your view what is the effect of all of the constant waiting on the troops from a psychological perspective?
GRANGE: Well, in this particular case the troops really haven't waited that long yet. As you know, in the '91 war they waited much longer than this.
Some units have been there a long time, some just got there and some still arriving. So it's a not too bad yet.
But you have to find ways to keep the soldiers -- the troopers -- occupied while you are waiting for the word to go, if, in fact, it's given.
SAN MIGUEL: And we have talked about this before as well, but with each week it gets a little hotter. There is more sand that is blowing. The wind kicks up a little bit more. The effect on the weapons, the equipment, the helicopters?
GRANGE: It requires about four to five times more maintenance. This type of sand -- this fine sand -- in this part of the world just really plays havoc with the weaponry, with machines, with the tanks, the helicopter engines. And maintenance has to be on a continuous basis. It takes a lot of discipline. And the leaders, the sergeants, the officers making sure these things are done. But it's an inherent part of all of America's armed forces -- good, proper maintenance to maintain readiness. And it's just -- this is a one of the most important things they can be doing right now.
SAN MIGUEL: And -- OK. So other than the maintenance and other than the training, all of which are important, how best to use this time -- the extra time -- that you are getting?
What do you think the military will be doing over this next week? If, let's say, the order to go to war does not happen this week, are there ships that need to be transferred from one sea to another, troops that need to go from one a part of Kuwait to another, this kind of thing?
GRANGE: Well, there's a lot of equipment -- fighting equipment -- that's still not in the region. It's still being moved around.
It doesn't mean that the armed forces that are there right now could not begin a fighting if ordered to do so -- they could.
But it doesn't have the optimum structure that I think the commander of Central Command is still forming in that region.
And that's good -- you want to have the most overwhelming force you can have adjusted to that particular situation.
But during that time, what's critical is, again, that the troops that are playing sports -- that's fine. But the most important thing that they can do is train -- train, train and train is the best warfare in the world for troopers waiting for combat.
SAN MIGUEL: And you talked about some of the equipment that was not in place yet. As you know, off the coast of Turkey there is very state-of-the-art military equipment that's still on ships there.
And we've heard today that we believe that the Turkish government is not ready to bring that up again for another vote as to whether U.S. troops will base in Turkey until it gets a confidence vote.
So is that some of the equipment that you are speaking of? Maybe that needs to be moved somewhere else?
GRANGE: Well, they will probably move that equipment. And I understand it's from the Fourth infantry division, which is one of the most modernized heavy divisions in the United States Army and move that around to Kuwait.
But if there happens to be any adversaries watching this particular show saying, "They're not ready because they can't -- that unit's not there yet." That's not a true statement either because they could do the fight right now as it is. And that could be actually a follow-on element used in a second phase of the mission.
So it's hard to say if they really need it or not, but I would assume that it would probably be nice to have it there. SAN MIGUEL: And more to your point, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did say, I believe, about a week or two ago, that they were ready to start operations then if they needed to.
So, you know, things could -- things could happen in a hurry. Last question here -- and you addressed this earlier, troops did have to wait an awful lot longer in 1990-91 to get ready for Desert Storm. Any lessons learned by the U.S. military in terms of having troops wait so long in the desert?
GRANGE: For sure.
Since the '91 war, a lot of initiatives have been taken by America's armed forces to pre-position combat equipment in this region because the tanks and helicopters and trucks -- these type of things, ammunition, palettes of ammunition take a long time too move by air or sea.
And so now you have a good portion of that already in certain strategic areas around the world and all you have to do is fly the troops in to meet up with that equipment.
And then, of course, you have the Marine Corps, which always -- has to ride on the ships with them.
So the idea of the America's armed forces is force projection anywhere in the world rapidly. And that's what has evolved into a better capability to do just that.
SAN MIGUEL: CNN military analyst, retired General David Grange -- thanks for joining us and thank you for your insight.
GRANGE: My pleasure.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
