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CNN Live At Daybreak

Talk with People with Family Aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt

Aired November 05, 2001 - 07:25   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: They've heard a lot lately from New York, Washington and Afghanistan as the war against terrorism goes on. Now we want to find out how the rest of the country feels about it, so we're kicking off a new segment this morning, coast to coast, talking to the people of America.

Leon Harris is on the road. He begins his travels at the Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia. He's been talking to people who have family members deployed on war duty aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt -- good morning, Leon.

LEON HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi. Good morning, Miles. Good morning, folks at home who are watching.

And we've been spending the morning here at -- on Naval Station Norfolk -- let me make sure I get the terminology correct here -- with family members who have been dealing with having other parts of the family deployed overseas. And it's been very educational, I must say.

Now we're joined here by Eileen and Katie, who have been through this, perhaps, the most in the group here. How many times now?

EILEEN: This is our tenth deployment.

HARRIS: The tenth one?

EILEEN: The tenth one in 25 years.

HARRIS: OK, and of the 10, Katie, you remember how many of them?

KATIE: About five.

HARRIS: About five? Well, is it getting easier for you, both of you, as you go along, or what?

EILEEN: It gets easier. The first one is really the hardest, there's no question about that. You don't necessarily like it any better by the tenth one, but you handle it a lot better. It is easier.

HARRIS: All right, how about for you, Katie?

KATIE: It doesn't get easier as you're, as being gone. But it gets shorter as the deployments go on. The more that you have it gets shorter.

HARRIS: Is that how it feels? It feels shorter this time?

KATIE: Yes.

HARRIS: Yes?

Well, Jeanne (ph) and Mary Francis have been through this how many times now?

JEANNE: This is my fifth deployment.

HARRIS: OK. And of the five, Mary Francis, you remember how many?

MARY FRANCIS: Three.

HARRIS: Three? How about for you two? Is it the same as with Eileen and Katie here, getting shorter each time around, or what?

JEANNE: It's getting easier because the children are older and we stay really busy with after school activities and that type of thing. So it makes the time go a lot quicker.

HARRIS: Yes. Now, I'm reading from that that mom actually means she requires more of you with each of these deployments, is that it?

MARY FRANCIS: Yes. Like I have to help out more. But it's easier because you understand why they're gone. Like when you were little, they were just gone. But now you know they have a purpose.

HARRIS: Yes? All right, now, Tony here and with Wendy, it's a little bit of a different situation. You all are civilians. However, Wendy, you at one time were actually in the service. Tony, you still are. And I find that fascinating because both of you are committed to the service this way and you've got small kids at home and here you've had to see your wife off. How does that go?

TONY: That was kind of hard when she first left, but everything is getting a lot better. The biggest question we're having to answer is my 4-year-old. She's asking when is mommy coming home? But other than that, everything is going good. We're staying busy.

HARRIS: Yes?

TONY: A lot of people, this is their first time they're calling, you know, what's going on? What should I do? So we're always staying busy. Even the kids are staying busy, writing letters to mommy. We're all

HARRIS: In a little twist, as I understand it, you are an ombudsman.

TONY: Ombudsman.

HARRIS: Ombudsman. Which means that usually you're the man that's actually working as the go between for other family members who are going through this. You help them deal with this. Who helps you? Who do you go to?

TONY: Normally there's other ombudsman or our common command. Then we have a lot of resources. I get a lot of questions, you're an ombudsman? Mostly women are doing that. So, but we're doing pretty good.

HARRIS: Yes? How about with you, Wendy? I mean what kind of tricks do you all use to get through things like this -- and you have small children at home as well, right?

WENDY: Yes. Yes. And the biggest thing is to help them keep daddy fresh in their minds. My son probably won't recognize him immediately because he's so young.

HARRIS: How old is your son?

WENDY: A year.

HARRIS: He's a year?

WENDY: A year. But we'll, we watch his story time tape and we talk about daddy and we have his picture everywhere.

HARRIS: So daddy taped a story time tape to leave behind?

WENDY: Yes he did. Yes he did.

HARRIS: Yes. Now, besides that, I've learned a couple of other things here. The number one tool that all of you use in god's gift to families with deployed members is...

FAMILY MEMBERS: E-mail.

HARRIS: Thank god for e-mail, huh? You guys use e-mail -- how often do you use it, every day or...

KATIE: Just about every day.

HARRIS: Yes?

KATIE: Yes.

HARRIS: Is it -- and that's made it a lot easier.

KATIE: It has.

HARRIS: You see this over the years, that this has got to be a very handy development.

EILEEN: This is the greatest thing that's probably ever happened. Before when somebody had a problem, you would send, you know, write it in a letter, mail it, it might take two weeks to get there, two weeks for the answer and, you know, there's no way to debate if you're going to -- how you're going to buy a new car in that.

So now it's like OK, we can figure it out within a few days.

HARRIS: I've got one last one and then we've got to get on.

Tony, you say you send videotapes back and forth overseas?

TONY: Yes, sir. We send tapes of a lot of commercials.

HARRIS: Now, this, you know, listen to this folks. You tape programs with the commercials. Why?

TONY: Being overseas, when someone is watching TV they're watching movies and it's movie after movie. So you get tired of doing that and you want to some commercials and see exactly what's going on. So we tape those.

HARRIS: So the commercials are the best part on the tapes? For those of us that work in the industry, thank you very much, Tony. We need the support.

Well, listen, we wish all of you look and we'll try to keep our eyes on all of you and see how things turned out for you and we wish you the best of luck down the road.

JEANNE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FAMILY MEMBER: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FAMILY MEMBER: Thank you.

HARRIS: All right, Miles, back to you. How about that? They like the commercials as much as they like you, Miles.

O'BRIEN: There are some folks in Atlanta very happy about that right now, I think.

All right, Leon Harris, thank you very much.

Leon is just getting started on his trip. He heads back on the road as soon the as they break down everything there. He leaves Norfolk today and travels to Kansas City, where he'll talk with some Harley Davidson motorcycle workers. You can catch tomorrow's report in the nine o'clock Eastern hour.

ZAHN: Still to come this morning, cave busters in Afghanistan -- see what it's like up close from the front lines. And the Diamonds sparkle in Phoenix this morning, much to the consternation of New Yorkers. That's the Arizona Diamondbacks with a record setting World Series win. We'll be back in a moment.

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