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Interview with Capt. George Gaylo

Aired December 11, 2002 - 14:08   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.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Maritime Interception Operations, or MIO, are serious business for the U.S. Navy, in general, and the Second Fleet, in particular. Captain George Galyo is an operations officer, based in Norfolk, Virginia, MIO trainer. He joins us now with his insights.
Captain, thank you so much for being with us.

CAPT. GEORGE GALYO, U.S. NAVY: You're welcome, and good afternoon.

PHILLIPS: Good afternoon. Let's talk about the importance, first of all, of MIO operations.

GALYO: Well, the MIO operations are a very important part and a contribution that the United States Navy and coalition navies do in support of international law, United Nations sanctions and also, even in a more basic level, are very important to military operations, in general.

PHILLIPS: And you have to go through extensive training, because many of the boardings that take place, we see these pictures, for example, of this incident with the Spanish boarding teams, they can become a high-threat situation. So let's talk about the training and how, indeed, you go through with the training.

We're actually looking at pictures now, from when I was in the Persian Gulf, a navy boarding team, just about to go out on a mission. Let's talk about the training, captain.

GALYO: Absolutely. We take an approach, it's a building-block approach, basic, intermediate and advanced level training. And our forces, our battlegroup forces, are exposed to that type of training throughout all three of those phases -- everything from schoolhouse training, where they study the procedures and the processes that they do, the boardings with and the techniques, to actually doing boardings during the intermediate phase and in even more advanced phases that are in scenario, that we do in our advanced-phase training, and not only train the ships and the crews, but also the staffs that operate those ships.

PHILLIPS: Well, I think what amazed me, too, when I spent time with these guys, they're like S.W.A.T. teams. I mean, they're well- armed, they've got to get on the vessels, secure the vessel.

Right now, we're looking at the crew of this vessel that was being detained, making sure that it wouldn't turn into a high-threat situation. So you know, boarding officers could go and look at the cargo and if, indeed, see if anything was being smuggled.

Let's talk about the high-threat situations that these young men and women are put into.

GALYO: First, I guess I would clarify that we run the full range, from the ship's boarding teams in doing compliant boardings, which are as much lower threat, to what can be noncompliant or opposed boardings, which are a much higher threat. And it's not always the ships that directly participate in some of the more risky ones. We do use special forces and they also have a training program that ensures they're prepared to do that. So -- but you're correct, that there is risk involved in any type of operations that we do like that -- from low to high -- and depending on that is what force gets selected to actually do the Maritime Interception Operations.

PHILLIPS: And before that boarding happens, of course, there's a very important query process that takes place. Take us through that, sir.

GALYO: Certainly. First of all, when we have a vessel that -- of interest that we're going to do, we're going to approach the vessel and we will actually communicate with the vessel and try to assess where they're from, and, in fact, try to get concurrence with doing a boarding from the master.

And so, we do communicate with the vessel and we follow a set series of procedures. And again, in the compliant boardings, typically, that will proceed pretty easily. And usually the vessels stop and they comply with our requests. And we will transition from that point to make a determination of whether we want to board the vessel or not. If we do want to board the vessel, we'll board it and do the inspection. And again, once we put forces and our boarding teams on board this vessel, there is some aspect of risk that could come.

PHILLIPS: And there's a number of documents you have to look for. I mean, you have to look for U.N. papers saying what's on board this vessel and if, indeed -- and where it's coming from and where it's going. It's very specific, correct?

GALYO: Yes, it is. The forces -- the ships that operate out there are given very detailed instructions and procedures to follow. They're trained on those procedures and then they comply with those procedures in the conduct of the boarding.

PHILLIPS: What I thought what was interesting, too, they do this in the night, during the day. It's a major coalition effort. A lot of countries are involved, I realized, and everything from infrared from the helicopters, it's just incredible the technology and how you do this 24-7.

GALYO: Absolutely. There's an awful lot of capability that we bring. It is day and night-time capable. The full spectrum of how we do it in the coordination of all the assets that we bring to bear make us a very credible force at doing this type of operation.

PHILLIPS: Captain George Galyo, U.S. Navy, thank you, sir, so much for your time.

GALYO: You're absolutely welcome.

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 December 11, 2002 - 14:08   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Maritime Interception Operations, or MIO, are serious business for the U.S. Navy, in general, and the Second Fleet, in particular. Captain George Galyo is an operations officer, based in Norfolk, Virginia, MIO trainer. He joins us now with his insights.
Captain, thank you so much for being with us.

CAPT. GEORGE GALYO, U.S. NAVY: You're welcome, and good afternoon.

PHILLIPS: Good afternoon. Let's talk about the importance, first of all, of MIO operations.

GALYO: Well, the MIO operations are a very important part and a contribution that the United States Navy and coalition navies do in support of international law, United Nations sanctions and also, even in a more basic level, are very important to military operations, in general.

PHILLIPS: And you have to go through extensive training, because many of the boardings that take place, we see these pictures, for example, of this incident with the Spanish boarding teams, they can become a high-threat situation. So let's talk about the training and how, indeed, you go through with the training.

We're actually looking at pictures now, from when I was in the Persian Gulf, a navy boarding team, just about to go out on a mission. Let's talk about the training, captain.

GALYO: Absolutely. We take an approach, it's a building-block approach, basic, intermediate and advanced level training. And our forces, our battlegroup forces, are exposed to that type of training throughout all three of those phases -- everything from schoolhouse training, where they study the procedures and the processes that they do, the boardings with and the techniques, to actually doing boardings during the intermediate phase and in even more advanced phases that are in scenario, that we do in our advanced-phase training, and not only train the ships and the crews, but also the staffs that operate those ships.

PHILLIPS: Well, I think what amazed me, too, when I spent time with these guys, they're like S.W.A.T. teams. I mean, they're well- armed, they've got to get on the vessels, secure the vessel.

Right now, we're looking at the crew of this vessel that was being detained, making sure that it wouldn't turn into a high-threat situation. So you know, boarding officers could go and look at the cargo and if, indeed, see if anything was being smuggled.

Let's talk about the high-threat situations that these young men and women are put into.

GALYO: First, I guess I would clarify that we run the full range, from the ship's boarding teams in doing compliant boardings, which are as much lower threat, to what can be noncompliant or opposed boardings, which are a much higher threat. And it's not always the ships that directly participate in some of the more risky ones. We do use special forces and they also have a training program that ensures they're prepared to do that. So -- but you're correct, that there is risk involved in any type of operations that we do like that -- from low to high -- and depending on that is what force gets selected to actually do the Maritime Interception Operations.

PHILLIPS: And before that boarding happens, of course, there's a very important query process that takes place. Take us through that, sir.

GALYO: Certainly. First of all, when we have a vessel that -- of interest that we're going to do, we're going to approach the vessel and we will actually communicate with the vessel and try to assess where they're from, and, in fact, try to get concurrence with doing a boarding from the master.

And so, we do communicate with the vessel and we follow a set series of procedures. And again, in the compliant boardings, typically, that will proceed pretty easily. And usually the vessels stop and they comply with our requests. And we will transition from that point to make a determination of whether we want to board the vessel or not. If we do want to board the vessel, we'll board it and do the inspection. And again, once we put forces and our boarding teams on board this vessel, there is some aspect of risk that could come.

PHILLIPS: And there's a number of documents you have to look for. I mean, you have to look for U.N. papers saying what's on board this vessel and if, indeed -- and where it's coming from and where it's going. It's very specific, correct?

GALYO: Yes, it is. The forces -- the ships that operate out there are given very detailed instructions and procedures to follow. They're trained on those procedures and then they comply with those procedures in the conduct of the boarding.

PHILLIPS: What I thought what was interesting, too, they do this in the night, during the day. It's a major coalition effort. A lot of countries are involved, I realized, and everything from infrared from the helicopters, it's just incredible the technology and how you do this 24-7.

GALYO: Absolutely. There's an awful lot of capability that we bring. It is day and night-time capable. The full spectrum of how we do it in the coordination of all the assets that we bring to bear make us a very credible force at doing this type of operation.

PHILLIPS: Captain George Galyo, U.S. Navy, thank you, sir, so much for your time.

GALYO: You're absolutely welcome.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com