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Community Supports Family of POW

Aired March 25, 2003 - 15:03   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.


JUDY WOODRUFF, ANCHOR: The target is Baghdad. These are live pictures of Iraq's capital right now. We know that U.S.-led ground forces keep pushing closer to the city, despite heavy winds blowing sand and a formidable challenge ahead, Iraq's elite Republican Guard.
Also, in the center of the storm, Iraqis reportedly rising up against Saddam Hussein forces in Basra. Those reports just starting to come in.

Welcome back to our continuing war coverage. I'm Judy Woodruff in Washington, along with Wolf Blitzer in Kuwait City.

And Wolf, we're going to get to you in just a minute. But right now we've been reporting on those prisoners of war. The family of one of those prisoners of war, a pilot, an Apache helicopter pilot, lives in Georgia in the town of Lithia Springs. That's where we find CNN's Susan Candiotti -- Susan.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Judy. We have learned from the family of Ronald Young, his parents Ronald Young and Kay Young, that they had an update from the Army this afternoon as they are waiting for any kind of word about their son, as well as the pilot that went down with him, Chief Warrant Officer David Williams.

His parents tell me they got this update from the U.S. Army, that in fact there were two attempts -- two attempts to rescue both pilots, after their Apache Longbow helicopter went down yesterday. And on both occasions according to the Army, the helicopter took the -- the rescuer helicopters took heavy ground fire. So heavy that on the second of two occasions, one of the rescue helicopters evidently took -- tried to catch or started to catch on fire, according to the U.S. Army.

Also, they were told by the U.S. Army that both pilots, both Young and Williams, apparently successfully, for a time, were able to evade capture by the Iraqis. Evidently the Army was able to keep track of their movements, but after a time, unfortunately, they were able to hide no more and were picked up by the Iraqis.

The point being, according to the U.S. Army, they told these parents that they did everything they could to try to rescue both men, and, as well, that the pilots tried to do everything they could to stay out of harm's way. In the end, unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. There has been a lot of movement at the house this afternoon, a lot of visitors here. They even had a call from the governor of the state, who, in fact, prayed with them over the telephone.

In addition, a complete stranger stopped by and presented to them a prisoner of war flag, the ones that you've commonly seen and one of the family members came out of the house, waved it and briefly went back inside the house, then.

In addition to that, the city here, the police department, offered to send a flag over to the house. And in fact, there was no flag pole here per se. So they went some workers over from the county jail, some prisoners and in fact went over there and dug a hole in the ground, inserted a flag pole, laid the cement and in fact one of the family members came out and wrote Ron Young's name in the wet cement.

As you can see now as we come back out here live, you can see they just completed putting in that flag pole and are waiting at any moment now to actually put the flag up, as well.

So this family continues to receive, Judy, a lot of support from the community. Of course, they only wish that the two pilots had been successful in being able to get away -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: Susan, is it fair to say that the Young family is getting ongoing updates from the Army or what's your understanding?

CANDIOTTI: Occasionally, yes. They've called them at least twice this day, I know once to check on them, and then on another occasion to provide them with this update. And they've left them the Army phone number, as well, so this family can call them at any time, when they want more information.

WOODRUFF: All right. Susan Candiotti from Lithia Springs, Georgia. That is in the suburbs of Atlanta. She's with the family of captured Apache pilot Ron Young.

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 25, 2003 - 15:03   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, ANCHOR: The target is Baghdad. These are live pictures of Iraq's capital right now. We know that U.S.-led ground forces keep pushing closer to the city, despite heavy winds blowing sand and a formidable challenge ahead, Iraq's elite Republican Guard.
Also, in the center of the storm, Iraqis reportedly rising up against Saddam Hussein forces in Basra. Those reports just starting to come in.

Welcome back to our continuing war coverage. I'm Judy Woodruff in Washington, along with Wolf Blitzer in Kuwait City.

And Wolf, we're going to get to you in just a minute. But right now we've been reporting on those prisoners of war. The family of one of those prisoners of war, a pilot, an Apache helicopter pilot, lives in Georgia in the town of Lithia Springs. That's where we find CNN's Susan Candiotti -- Susan.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Judy. We have learned from the family of Ronald Young, his parents Ronald Young and Kay Young, that they had an update from the Army this afternoon as they are waiting for any kind of word about their son, as well as the pilot that went down with him, Chief Warrant Officer David Williams.

His parents tell me they got this update from the U.S. Army, that in fact there were two attempts -- two attempts to rescue both pilots, after their Apache Longbow helicopter went down yesterday. And on both occasions according to the Army, the helicopter took the -- the rescuer helicopters took heavy ground fire. So heavy that on the second of two occasions, one of the rescue helicopters evidently took -- tried to catch or started to catch on fire, according to the U.S. Army.

Also, they were told by the U.S. Army that both pilots, both Young and Williams, apparently successfully, for a time, were able to evade capture by the Iraqis. Evidently the Army was able to keep track of their movements, but after a time, unfortunately, they were able to hide no more and were picked up by the Iraqis.

The point being, according to the U.S. Army, they told these parents that they did everything they could to try to rescue both men, and, as well, that the pilots tried to do everything they could to stay out of harm's way. In the end, unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. There has been a lot of movement at the house this afternoon, a lot of visitors here. They even had a call from the governor of the state, who, in fact, prayed with them over the telephone.

In addition, a complete stranger stopped by and presented to them a prisoner of war flag, the ones that you've commonly seen and one of the family members came out of the house, waved it and briefly went back inside the house, then.

In addition to that, the city here, the police department, offered to send a flag over to the house. And in fact, there was no flag pole here per se. So they went some workers over from the county jail, some prisoners and in fact went over there and dug a hole in the ground, inserted a flag pole, laid the cement and in fact one of the family members came out and wrote Ron Young's name in the wet cement.

As you can see now as we come back out here live, you can see they just completed putting in that flag pole and are waiting at any moment now to actually put the flag up, as well.

So this family continues to receive, Judy, a lot of support from the community. Of course, they only wish that the two pilots had been successful in being able to get away -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: Susan, is it fair to say that the Young family is getting ongoing updates from the Army or what's your understanding?

CANDIOTTI: Occasionally, yes. They've called them at least twice this day, I know once to check on them, and then on another occasion to provide them with this update. And they've left them the Army phone number, as well, so this family can call them at any time, when they want more information.

WOODRUFF: All right. Susan Candiotti from Lithia Springs, Georgia. That is in the suburbs of Atlanta. She's with the family of captured Apache pilot Ron Young.

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