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CNN Live At Daybreak
Discussion with 13-Member NATO AWACS Crew
Aired November 06, 2001 - 05:42 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Remember just after the September 11 attacks, how political analysts kept saying that this war would make for some odd bedfellows? Well, CNN's Aaron Brown takes a look at how this coalition was sewn together. Also, he's going to give us a look at something that only CNN has, and that is access to a 13-member NATO crew flying on board an AWACS surveillance plane, not over Afghanistan, but right here over the U.S.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AARON BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just outside Oklahoma City, one corner of an American Air Force base, has undergone an overnight transformation. From a barely-used section of Tinker Air Force base into the headquarters of a squadron of NATO surveillance aircraft flying combat missions for the first time ever over American soil.
LT. COL. JAMES JONES, TINKER AIR FORCE BASE: It's been a big shift in mindset. For the first time, we've had crews that are flying operational sorties, in a homeland defense, trying to provide security for the nation.
BROWN: For Air Force commanders, like Colonel Jim Jones, the need for both planes and crews was urgent.
JONES: Due to the global commitments that we've had, we were starting to get stretched a little thin, and so, NATO, for the first time, instituted Article 5. Their crews came over with an immediate response capability, and it has been an absolutely seamless integration for them to fit in.
BROWN: The planes are all AWACS, Airborne Warning and Control System. That huge circular dish on top holds all of the sophisticated radar and sensors. The job: to look down from an orbit of 30,000 feet and create an electronic footprint for every single plane that flies into its very large range.
And on this day, for a mission called Eagle Assist, we were allowed to ride along. It's the first time an American network has been allowed on a NATO flight like this since the new war began.
The plane, called NATO-25, carries not one, but two commanders. The pilot, and the man in charge of the four-man flight crew, is Canadian, who not long after we take off, spotted the AWACS aircraft he was relieving.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are lights over there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the E-3 we're relieving.
BROWN: It went speeding past, just below our plane.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unbelievable. I think that we all thought it was the last place we'd ever be deployed to defend. But, however, at the same time, we all thought it was necessary.
BROWN: In charge of the mission in back of the 13 technicians and weapons controllers is a German, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) a major.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We exercise a lot in Europe and defending Europe, inside Europe, but coming over to the United States and defending the United States (UNINTELLIGIBLE). It depends on the United States tell us what was totally unexpected to all of us.
BROWN: There were rules, of course, once on board, no names or hometowns of anyone on the crew, no precise location of where NATO-25 went on its 14-hour mission. But the plane flew over the western United States, not the East Coast corridor, and for a very good reason.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This basically is a surveillance mission we are on tonight. We're somewhere overhead the United States and monitoring some agencies, some areas, where the United States thought it obviously had some special interest in.
BROWN: At the consoles, technicians from eight nations work side by side, a Canadian next to a Belgian next to an American. Even men from ancient enemies, Turkey and Greece, working together, all essentially watching to see that no unauthorized plane encroaches into those colored areas, forbidden territory on the ground. And if that were to happen...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, what we basically do is detect this aircraft, tell it down to the ground for the command authority, who are in charge for that area, who have the overall responsibility for it, and they do their proper actions as per their rules of engagement, which are in effect.
BROWN: Those rules of engagement would apply to two F-16 fighters the NATO-25 had in its control, controlled, in fact, by these men: American, Italian, German.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a real live combat mission for us and for my team down here, and we are doing real live operations.
BROWN: Once in a while, the lights of American cities appeared below, but on what turned out to be a routine flight, the tension on board climbed only once, when it was time for a mid-air refueling, difficult enough during the day, far more so at night.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's probably the most finesse flying that we have to do, and not having done it before in my previous tour, it was probably the most challenging thing that I had to overcome. But it's also the most rewarding.
BROWN: Flying at night at just over 300 miles an hour, just yards away from a KC-135 tanker, the Canadian pilot and his crew are flawless. The two planes separated perfectly after nearly 45 minutes.
Fourteen hours after it left its temporary headquarters, NATO-25 was back home, its crew exhausted, but resolute.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, it's really worth it no matter what I'm called to do for this, because in the long run, this is for the safety of our children. And if I can do something now that helps make the world safe for my children, it's worth the sacrifice.
BROWN: Aaron Brown, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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