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A Private's Struggle

Aired March 19, 2003 - 15:32   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: When the Pentagon invited journalists to embed, as the term is, with fighting units, it promised unfettered access to show the good, the bad and the challenging. CNN's Jason Bellini is with Marines in Kuwait, where in one platoon he found a private who discusses his struggle to keep up and officers faced with a rather difficult choice.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Private Palanko (ph) arrived at the officers' tent on a stretcher after telling his platoon leader he was feeling faint and couldn't carry his pack any further.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at me. Are you done? Are you done?

BELLINI: Medics say his pulse was normal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've had this discussion before.

BELLINI: His superior officers say that they would have become more concerned about him if this hadn't become such a frequent affair, Palanko (ph) not keeping up, not finishing the hike, refusing to carry the same weight as his platoon mates.

PRIVATE PALANKO, U.S. MARINES: There's just certain things that I know that I can't do. And if I can't change it -- you know?

BELLINI: With war perhaps just days away, Palanko's (ph) problems are pressing for 1st Sergeant Jim Sweet.

1ST SGT. JIM SWEET, U.S. MARINES: Right now would we say is he a liability? I would have to say no, because this is still training at this point. But should we be called upon and cross the border, and his current actions, could that be a liability there? Yes it could. It could be very detrimental to not only him, but the Marines who surround him.

BELLINI (on camera): The politics of Palanko (ph) are the subject of daily debate here. Some of his superiors want him sent back to the ship. For Sergeant Sweet (ph), resisting, saying he's not ready to give up on Palanko (ph) yet. His platoon mates divided on whether or not he's fit to serve.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that if he can't deal what he's going through right now, he's just going to have to do what Marines do and adapt and overcome and realize that he's here to fight for his country and he's going to have to do what he has to do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's just kind of having a hard time right now, probably going through some tough times thinking about home, but he'll pull through.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's just nervous right now and he's having some stress and he's dealing with it. But we're all here for him as a Corps of brothers, and we're going to take care of him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's so stressful? What's so difficult? I mean you're a Marine. That's what you came for.

PALANKO: Yes. The stressful part, basically my family, I haven't got in contact with them. I haven't been able to hear about them from when I left.

BELLINI (voice-over): The Palanko (ph) matter intrigues us as outsiders because it seems to cut to the core of this institution's values and offers insight on its sacred mantra, "Leave No Marine Behind."

PALANKO: So (ph) certain family members doing the wrong thing. I'm like one of the few that graduated out of high school, coming out of my block in New York City. So I decided to just go this way so I could go the right way.

SWEET: I'm not just going to send him up there. Nobody is going to send him up there if we know that he could end up taking himself out or a fellow Marine. That's not going to happen.

So that's when we have to make a real tight call, sometimes a tough call. If he's going to make it here, great, we've still got him in the fight. If he's not going to make it, then we've got to send him away.

BELLINI: And that for Sweet would be a loss, even before the fighting begins. Jason Bellini, CNN, embedded with's 15th Marine expeditionary unit in Kuwait.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: A frank and candid look at life at the pointy end of the sphere, as Marines often tell you it is.

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 March 19, 2003 - 15:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: When the Pentagon invited journalists to embed, as the term is, with fighting units, it promised unfettered access to show the good, the bad and the challenging. CNN's Jason Bellini is with Marines in Kuwait, where in one platoon he found a private who discusses his struggle to keep up and officers faced with a rather difficult choice.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Private Palanko (ph) arrived at the officers' tent on a stretcher after telling his platoon leader he was feeling faint and couldn't carry his pack any further.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at me. Are you done? Are you done?

BELLINI: Medics say his pulse was normal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've had this discussion before.

BELLINI: His superior officers say that they would have become more concerned about him if this hadn't become such a frequent affair, Palanko (ph) not keeping up, not finishing the hike, refusing to carry the same weight as his platoon mates.

PRIVATE PALANKO, U.S. MARINES: There's just certain things that I know that I can't do. And if I can't change it -- you know?

BELLINI: With war perhaps just days away, Palanko's (ph) problems are pressing for 1st Sergeant Jim Sweet.

1ST SGT. JIM SWEET, U.S. MARINES: Right now would we say is he a liability? I would have to say no, because this is still training at this point. But should we be called upon and cross the border, and his current actions, could that be a liability there? Yes it could. It could be very detrimental to not only him, but the Marines who surround him.

BELLINI (on camera): The politics of Palanko (ph) are the subject of daily debate here. Some of his superiors want him sent back to the ship. For Sergeant Sweet (ph), resisting, saying he's not ready to give up on Palanko (ph) yet. His platoon mates divided on whether or not he's fit to serve.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that if he can't deal what he's going through right now, he's just going to have to do what Marines do and adapt and overcome and realize that he's here to fight for his country and he's going to have to do what he has to do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's just kind of having a hard time right now, probably going through some tough times thinking about home, but he'll pull through.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's just nervous right now and he's having some stress and he's dealing with it. But we're all here for him as a Corps of brothers, and we're going to take care of him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's so stressful? What's so difficult? I mean you're a Marine. That's what you came for.

PALANKO: Yes. The stressful part, basically my family, I haven't got in contact with them. I haven't been able to hear about them from when I left.

BELLINI (voice-over): The Palanko (ph) matter intrigues us as outsiders because it seems to cut to the core of this institution's values and offers insight on its sacred mantra, "Leave No Marine Behind."

PALANKO: So (ph) certain family members doing the wrong thing. I'm like one of the few that graduated out of high school, coming out of my block in New York City. So I decided to just go this way so I could go the right way.

SWEET: I'm not just going to send him up there. Nobody is going to send him up there if we know that he could end up taking himself out or a fellow Marine. That's not going to happen.

So that's when we have to make a real tight call, sometimes a tough call. If he's going to make it here, great, we've still got him in the fight. If he's not going to make it, then we've got to send him away.

BELLINI: And that for Sweet would be a loss, even before the fighting begins. Jason Bellini, CNN, embedded with's 15th Marine expeditionary unit in Kuwait.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: A frank and candid look at life at the pointy end of the sphere, as Marines often tell you it is.

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