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Special Forces Undergo Urban Warfare Training
Aired February 25, 2003 - 13:40 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.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Taking you right now to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Kyra Phillips standing by, showing us the training of the U.S. Special Forces -- Kyra.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: OK, Anderson, we are just about moments away. You've got Special Forces guys actually within this building. They just made an entry, and what we're doing is we are waiting for them to clear this entire building. I'm going to bring in Major Bame (ph) one more time.
Actually, right behind us here, you can see the guys running. Those are your bad guys. They put bad guy/good guy scenario -- here we go. Leon, let's turn around here -- turn around here -- you see a bad guy on the side of the building here -- here we go, far right. Far right. Here we go.
Now, we're having confrontation here, bad guy/good guy scenario. Major Bame (ph), as the guys are getting ready to make entry, why don't you tell us what's going on? Why are there three separate groups of Special Forces guys making entry here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The biggest thing that makes this course different from a lot of other services' urban combat courses is (UNINTELLIGIBLE) we employ in the conduct of the training, and what that really does in the context of this scenario is -- we bring role players in to act as noncombatants. Your normal citizens of the urban area that we come into to execute this type of training.
PHILLIPS: You are talking about innocent civilians?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are talking innocent civilians, and we are talking about the guys being trained to conduct no-shoot/shoot situations. They have got to be able to ID what they are shooting at.
So we mix it up, we put role players in as bad guys, as the enemy, with noncombatant civilians. And it's the job of the student to figure out who he has to take out in the conduct of clearing the structures and moving through the urban area.
PHILLIPS: And this is a lot of -- a lot of split-second thinking. They have to know what to do -- what Leon is showing right now is actually the bad guys.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Noncombatants...
PHILLIPS: Sorry, these are the noncombatants. So these are innocent civilians walking through the streets. So basically -- Special Forces guys have to be able to identify OK, is this a good guy or a bad guy, and you have to decide that within seconds, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. As I mentioned before, it's a very intense situation. We try to replicate that in the training environment here, and throw all the variables at the students. In the conduct of training, they go through advanced marksmanship as a base level, but when we start close quarters battle training, clearing the rooms, that's when the noncombatants really come into play.
PHILLIPS: Are we able to come up on this door right here? Is that a safe scenario if we come up these steps? If we follow you up here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really no need because it looks like they're positioning to move on and clear the rest of the structure.
PHILLIPS: OK, basically -- now, set up this -- now, we've got a bad guy as you can see. Now, these are bad guys. Is that right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. And the way we teach the soldiers to identify is weapons.
PHILLIPS: Yes, how do you identify a good guy or a bad guy?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We look at the hands. We teach them to look at the hands. If they've got a weapon in their hands, they're a hostile target. And it seems basic, but it's really not. When you're moving through the structures, it's at a fast pace, and you have got to be able to pick that up quickly.
PHILLIPS: And we've talked so much about Mogadishu and "Blackhawk Down," unfortunately it is a story we can't forget and the movie obviously brought the scenario to light also. And you look at something like this and -- I mean, this is training for that exact type of scenario, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Back up about -- Mogadishu, there were a lot of bad things that occurred there, but it validated a lot of the tactics, techniques, and procedures that we already knew. So the best thing about Mogadishu is it put it up on the radar screen at the national level and at the higher military level, the need for urban combat, and the training that goes into it to be able to execute it successfully.
PHILLIPS: Are you constantly critiquing these Special Forces -- OK, now they're starting to come out. Does this mean they've cleared the room?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. That means that part of the structure is good, they're moving on to clearing the rest of the structure.
PHILLIPS: All right. Now, obviously, they're getting ready to breach the door -- what gives you -- OK, no, they don't have to. Tell me the difference between opening the door, breaching the door. They obviously didn't feel a threat there, there was no need?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, if the door's open, you go through the open door.
PHILLIPS: But is that safe?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it is safe.
PHILLIPS: OK, why?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As long as you maintain the principles of close quarters battle: speed, surprise, and violence of action, an open door -- whether it be an open doorway or an unlocked door, there's a lot of surprise associated with that. A lot of times in this situation, the enemy will expect explosive breaching, and they'll be couched for that, so if you've got an open door, use it. The whole goal is to clear the structure quickly.
PHILLIPS: Major Bame (ph), before we move on and talk about the next hour, just quickly and real concise, these Special Forces guys that are going through training if, indeed, the president says the U.S. must go to war in Iraq, are these men ready?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These men come from all the different groups with different regions of responsibility. When they're done with this course, they've got another tool in their kit bag. They are able to execute successfully in the advanced urban combat scenario.
PHILLIPS: By air, by sea, by land, they've been trained in it all?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have already come to us with that background. We just build upon the product that we get from the operational groups.
PHILLIPS: Major Bame (ph), thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: OK, Anderson, I'd love to bring you as much action as possible, real-life scenarios. But we're sort of kind of following along, not disrupting the training, hoping to give you as much of a visual. I'm assuming that you can get a feel for what we're dealing with here.
COOPER: Yes, it's very easy to get a feel from it by what you've shown us. Kyra Phillips, thanks very much, live from Fort Bragg.
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 February 25, 2003 - 13:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Taking you right now to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Kyra Phillips standing by, showing us the training of the U.S. Special Forces -- Kyra.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: OK, Anderson, we are just about moments away. You've got Special Forces guys actually within this building. They just made an entry, and what we're doing is we are waiting for them to clear this entire building. I'm going to bring in Major Bame (ph) one more time.
Actually, right behind us here, you can see the guys running. Those are your bad guys. They put bad guy/good guy scenario -- here we go. Leon, let's turn around here -- turn around here -- you see a bad guy on the side of the building here -- here we go, far right. Far right. Here we go.
Now, we're having confrontation here, bad guy/good guy scenario. Major Bame (ph), as the guys are getting ready to make entry, why don't you tell us what's going on? Why are there three separate groups of Special Forces guys making entry here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The biggest thing that makes this course different from a lot of other services' urban combat courses is (UNINTELLIGIBLE) we employ in the conduct of the training, and what that really does in the context of this scenario is -- we bring role players in to act as noncombatants. Your normal citizens of the urban area that we come into to execute this type of training.
PHILLIPS: You are talking about innocent civilians?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are talking innocent civilians, and we are talking about the guys being trained to conduct no-shoot/shoot situations. They have got to be able to ID what they are shooting at.
So we mix it up, we put role players in as bad guys, as the enemy, with noncombatant civilians. And it's the job of the student to figure out who he has to take out in the conduct of clearing the structures and moving through the urban area.
PHILLIPS: And this is a lot of -- a lot of split-second thinking. They have to know what to do -- what Leon is showing right now is actually the bad guys.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Noncombatants...
PHILLIPS: Sorry, these are the noncombatants. So these are innocent civilians walking through the streets. So basically -- Special Forces guys have to be able to identify OK, is this a good guy or a bad guy, and you have to decide that within seconds, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. As I mentioned before, it's a very intense situation. We try to replicate that in the training environment here, and throw all the variables at the students. In the conduct of training, they go through advanced marksmanship as a base level, but when we start close quarters battle training, clearing the rooms, that's when the noncombatants really come into play.
PHILLIPS: Are we able to come up on this door right here? Is that a safe scenario if we come up these steps? If we follow you up here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really no need because it looks like they're positioning to move on and clear the rest of the structure.
PHILLIPS: OK, basically -- now, set up this -- now, we've got a bad guy as you can see. Now, these are bad guys. Is that right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. And the way we teach the soldiers to identify is weapons.
PHILLIPS: Yes, how do you identify a good guy or a bad guy?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We look at the hands. We teach them to look at the hands. If they've got a weapon in their hands, they're a hostile target. And it seems basic, but it's really not. When you're moving through the structures, it's at a fast pace, and you have got to be able to pick that up quickly.
PHILLIPS: And we've talked so much about Mogadishu and "Blackhawk Down," unfortunately it is a story we can't forget and the movie obviously brought the scenario to light also. And you look at something like this and -- I mean, this is training for that exact type of scenario, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Back up about -- Mogadishu, there were a lot of bad things that occurred there, but it validated a lot of the tactics, techniques, and procedures that we already knew. So the best thing about Mogadishu is it put it up on the radar screen at the national level and at the higher military level, the need for urban combat, and the training that goes into it to be able to execute it successfully.
PHILLIPS: Are you constantly critiquing these Special Forces -- OK, now they're starting to come out. Does this mean they've cleared the room?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. That means that part of the structure is good, they're moving on to clearing the rest of the structure.
PHILLIPS: All right. Now, obviously, they're getting ready to breach the door -- what gives you -- OK, no, they don't have to. Tell me the difference between opening the door, breaching the door. They obviously didn't feel a threat there, there was no need?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, if the door's open, you go through the open door.
PHILLIPS: But is that safe?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it is safe.
PHILLIPS: OK, why?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As long as you maintain the principles of close quarters battle: speed, surprise, and violence of action, an open door -- whether it be an open doorway or an unlocked door, there's a lot of surprise associated with that. A lot of times in this situation, the enemy will expect explosive breaching, and they'll be couched for that, so if you've got an open door, use it. The whole goal is to clear the structure quickly.
PHILLIPS: Major Bame (ph), before we move on and talk about the next hour, just quickly and real concise, these Special Forces guys that are going through training if, indeed, the president says the U.S. must go to war in Iraq, are these men ready?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These men come from all the different groups with different regions of responsibility. When they're done with this course, they've got another tool in their kit bag. They are able to execute successfully in the advanced urban combat scenario.
PHILLIPS: By air, by sea, by land, they've been trained in it all?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have already come to us with that background. We just build upon the product that we get from the operational groups.
PHILLIPS: Major Bame (ph), thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: OK, Anderson, I'd love to bring you as much action as possible, real-life scenarios. But we're sort of kind of following along, not disrupting the training, hoping to give you as much of a visual. I'm assuming that you can get a feel for what we're dealing with here.
COOPER: Yes, it's very easy to get a feel from it by what you've shown us. Kyra Phillips, thanks very much, live from Fort Bragg.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
