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Military Moving Out

Aired January 13, 2003 - 13:04   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: Warriors at attention. Tens of thousands of soldiers have yet to ship out, but they're getting ready. Among those raring to go, United States marines at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
Our CNN's David Mattingly is there -- David.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, 7,000 U.S. Marines packing up and heading out to an assignment in the Persian Gulf. It's a sea journey that will take about one month just to get there, and its starts right here on this beach.

All morning long we've been watching these vehicles back here behind me. These are U.S. Navy hovercraft. They've loading up with tanks, truck, heavy equipment, and shuttling that equipment across the water here to ships at sea.

And we have some video to show you, it's quite a sight to see, as they line off the beach, onto the water. It's been very active this morning, not at all active right now, however, but something that a lot of the families have been coming out here to watch. Young wives, plenty of young wives out here today, hoping to say goodbye to their husbands, one final wave as they head off for an unknown amount of time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll wait for my husband. I want to see him off. We've been out here since 6:30, 6:00.

MATTINGLY: A hope for that one little chance you might be able to pick him out of the crowd when he gets out here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's flying an American flag from his truck, and hopefully, we'll find him.

MATTINGLY: If you see him, what are you going to do?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Blow him a kiss, wave and say goodbye.

MATTINGLY: Is this the first time you two have been apart?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

MATTINGLY: What kind of emotions are going through today?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's hard. I'm proud. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: And a lot of tears being shed out here today. This is something that families have been preparing for some time. But this is the day that it's all happening for them.

Back to you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: You hear from families like that, it puts it in perspective.

David Mattingly, thank you so much.

Amid the massive American buildup, we often overlook the fact that the U.S. military is not alone. Last Friday, the British government ordered major deployment of troops to the Gulf, some 35,000.

Now, in the last Gulf War, the U.S. and Britain fought side by side.

Joining us now Tim Crockett, a former member of the British Royal Marines. He currently works for the British security firm that trains CNN personnel headed to hostile situations.

Hi, Tim.

Well, let's first talk about this cross training, specifically when you did it, with you were with the British special forces. How did it operate? How did it go? And why was it so important to have that cross training.

TIM CROCKETT, FMR. BRITISH ROYAL MARINE: Well, it's important at all levels. It starts with the guys on the ground, obviously, working closely with their counterparts within the coalition, right up to the top level, where they're playing the war games in their offices, poring over maps, so ironing out all the little problems prior to any hostilities.

All right. So take us back to the training that you did when you trained with U.S. Forces. I know we have some pictures. Kind of set the scene for us on how you traded, I don't know, specialties and intelligence. How you worked together.

Again, it's a case of cross-training and a bit of cross- pollenization with certain techniques, equipment in different environment, again, building up better, closer relationships to prevent cases of friendly fire when working in environments like the Gulf region.

PHILLIPS: And another point we want to hit on, just the intelligence aspect. I mean, it's so important that everybody is on the same page. How does that work?

CROCKETT: Again, both British and U.S. forces have their own leads, their own intelligence sources which they draw upon, and that gets sort of put into the bigger picture into the whole melting pot where the high commander can draw on that intelligence to again improve the overall picture from intelligence and operation side.

PHILLIPS: And you have to learn about each other's equipment and each other's philosophy on strategy, right? How does that work?

CROCKETT: Yes, obviously we have our own ways of doing things. The U.S. have their way of doing things, and on a big large scale, a coalition operation like this, where you can be working side by side on a lot of occasions, be it out in the field, or in close quarters in a built-up area like Baghdad, and then you need to know how the person next to you operates so mistakes aren't made and lives aren't wasted.

PHILLIPS: Very important, about trying to stay away from human casualties. When you worked together, tell me -- I know that is a big -- that is a main focus of the training. How do you talk about that? How do you work on maneuvers and making sure that, you know, there's little loss to human life as possible.

CROCKETT: Again, that sort of grassroots levels, guys in the field, and there is very little difference on how sort of the U.S. and the U.K. sort of special forces is in particular operate. This cross- training is more about the higher level command structure deconfliction of troops on the ground, what units are getting involved in what part of the battle picture. That's where this training is invaluable really to prevent any sort of friendly fire and make everything efficient.

PHILLIPS: My final question, you see the videotape of the British forces training with the Kuwaiti army, and we see pictures of the British training with the U.S. There's a lot of saber rattling going on here, isn't there?

CROCKETT: Of course, yes, a big show of force, saber rattling, as you say to, again, help, and hope that it's maybe drawn out to a peaceful conclusion.

However, guys on the ground out there, you see them training now, and some of these guys, it may be their first time in combat, so a bit of saber rattling. Again, a big confidence boost to the guys operating the field and their higher command.

PHILLIPS: All right, Tim Crockett, member of the British Royal Marines, also trains all of us before we go overseas on how to avoid any type of threat in a war situation.

Tim, thank you.

CROCKETT: You're 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 January 13, 2003 - 13:04   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Warriors at attention. Tens of thousands of soldiers have yet to ship out, but they're getting ready. Among those raring to go, United States marines at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
Our CNN's David Mattingly is there -- David.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, 7,000 U.S. Marines packing up and heading out to an assignment in the Persian Gulf. It's a sea journey that will take about one month just to get there, and its starts right here on this beach.

All morning long we've been watching these vehicles back here behind me. These are U.S. Navy hovercraft. They've loading up with tanks, truck, heavy equipment, and shuttling that equipment across the water here to ships at sea.

And we have some video to show you, it's quite a sight to see, as they line off the beach, onto the water. It's been very active this morning, not at all active right now, however, but something that a lot of the families have been coming out here to watch. Young wives, plenty of young wives out here today, hoping to say goodbye to their husbands, one final wave as they head off for an unknown amount of time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll wait for my husband. I want to see him off. We've been out here since 6:30, 6:00.

MATTINGLY: A hope for that one little chance you might be able to pick him out of the crowd when he gets out here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's flying an American flag from his truck, and hopefully, we'll find him.

MATTINGLY: If you see him, what are you going to do?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Blow him a kiss, wave and say goodbye.

MATTINGLY: Is this the first time you two have been apart?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

MATTINGLY: What kind of emotions are going through today?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's hard. I'm proud. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: And a lot of tears being shed out here today. This is something that families have been preparing for some time. But this is the day that it's all happening for them.

Back to you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: You hear from families like that, it puts it in perspective.

David Mattingly, thank you so much.

Amid the massive American buildup, we often overlook the fact that the U.S. military is not alone. Last Friday, the British government ordered major deployment of troops to the Gulf, some 35,000.

Now, in the last Gulf War, the U.S. and Britain fought side by side.

Joining us now Tim Crockett, a former member of the British Royal Marines. He currently works for the British security firm that trains CNN personnel headed to hostile situations.

Hi, Tim.

Well, let's first talk about this cross training, specifically when you did it, with you were with the British special forces. How did it operate? How did it go? And why was it so important to have that cross training.

TIM CROCKETT, FMR. BRITISH ROYAL MARINE: Well, it's important at all levels. It starts with the guys on the ground, obviously, working closely with their counterparts within the coalition, right up to the top level, where they're playing the war games in their offices, poring over maps, so ironing out all the little problems prior to any hostilities.

All right. So take us back to the training that you did when you trained with U.S. Forces. I know we have some pictures. Kind of set the scene for us on how you traded, I don't know, specialties and intelligence. How you worked together.

Again, it's a case of cross-training and a bit of cross- pollenization with certain techniques, equipment in different environment, again, building up better, closer relationships to prevent cases of friendly fire when working in environments like the Gulf region.

PHILLIPS: And another point we want to hit on, just the intelligence aspect. I mean, it's so important that everybody is on the same page. How does that work?

CROCKETT: Again, both British and U.S. forces have their own leads, their own intelligence sources which they draw upon, and that gets sort of put into the bigger picture into the whole melting pot where the high commander can draw on that intelligence to again improve the overall picture from intelligence and operation side.

PHILLIPS: And you have to learn about each other's equipment and each other's philosophy on strategy, right? How does that work?

CROCKETT: Yes, obviously we have our own ways of doing things. The U.S. have their way of doing things, and on a big large scale, a coalition operation like this, where you can be working side by side on a lot of occasions, be it out in the field, or in close quarters in a built-up area like Baghdad, and then you need to know how the person next to you operates so mistakes aren't made and lives aren't wasted.

PHILLIPS: Very important, about trying to stay away from human casualties. When you worked together, tell me -- I know that is a big -- that is a main focus of the training. How do you talk about that? How do you work on maneuvers and making sure that, you know, there's little loss to human life as possible.

CROCKETT: Again, that sort of grassroots levels, guys in the field, and there is very little difference on how sort of the U.S. and the U.K. sort of special forces is in particular operate. This cross- training is more about the higher level command structure deconfliction of troops on the ground, what units are getting involved in what part of the battle picture. That's where this training is invaluable really to prevent any sort of friendly fire and make everything efficient.

PHILLIPS: My final question, you see the videotape of the British forces training with the Kuwaiti army, and we see pictures of the British training with the U.S. There's a lot of saber rattling going on here, isn't there?

CROCKETT: Of course, yes, a big show of force, saber rattling, as you say to, again, help, and hope that it's maybe drawn out to a peaceful conclusion.

However, guys on the ground out there, you see them training now, and some of these guys, it may be their first time in combat, so a bit of saber rattling. Again, a big confidence boost to the guys operating the field and their higher command.

PHILLIPS: All right, Tim Crockett, member of the British Royal Marines, also trains all of us before we go overseas on how to avoid any type of threat in a war situation.

Tim, thank you.

CROCKETT: You're 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