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War in Iraq: Live With the U.S. Air Force

Aired April 02, 2003 - 13:31   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, CNN ANCHOR: The United States Air Force is not only guarding the skies over Iraq, it is also patrolling the ground. And our Gary Tuchman is with the U.S. Air Force at an air base, an important air base in the Persian Gulf -- Gary.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Judy, and here are some basic facts. Two weeks into this air war there have been a total of 23,000 sorties over these 14 nights. And each and every one of the planes that has flown over Iraq has made it back home safely, except for one. And that was a British Tornado early on in this conflict, and it was accidentally shot down by a coalition Patriot missile launcher and two airmen were killed. But overall, the coalition Air Force is very pleased with its performance.

We do come to you from a base near the Iraqi border. This is the largest fighter and attack wing in the theater. Many of the pilots who are here are now flying to an Iraqi air base and landing there, but it's an air base that was taken over by the coalition last week. Now we spent part of the day there, and when you arrive at that air base, 125 miles over the border from Kuwait, you know right away you're in Iraq.

This is Tallil, Iraq, the Tallil air base, but there are no more Iraqis here. The coalition took over this base last week. It's now a major staging point and you know you're in Iraq when you drive down the road coming into the base and you see the portrait of Saddam Hussein.

What's happened is the military personnel who have arrived here have taken out their markers and are writing messages on Saddam Hussein's portrait. You can see the main one here on the bottom. And also here, messages like "we won, April 1, 2003". I want to give you a look. There's a lot of security personnel here. You can look over there and you can see the military vehicles. These are Air Force security forces with their rifles, patrolling the entrance. There is a lot of fighting in this area. We're near the town of Nasiriyah, but this base now is considered secure enough to make it a major staging point for the coalition.

There are no intentions right now of taking down that picture of Saddam Hussein. The plan is to allow people who come here -- come there to continue using it as a graffiti board. Many of the A-10 planes are flying there, they're doing refueling, they're doing staging. Ultimately it's thought some of those planes will be based at that base that used to be controlled by Iraq, but is now controlled by the coalition. Judy, back to you. WOODRUFF: Gary, we've been hearing, really virtually since this war got underway, that U.S. coalition Air Force felt that all of Iraq was pretty much a free area for them except for right over Baghdad. Do they still feel that Baghdad does still pose some potential threat?

TUCHMAN: It's thought that the Baghdad area is more risky. But the Air Force is making it very clear that they do believe they're in control of the skies of the entire country.

WOODRUFF: All right. Gary Tuchman, reporting from an air base near Iraq in the Persian Gulf -- Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And to this very day, the Iraqis have not even attempted to take off one of their warplanes, one of their fixed wing planes or helicopters, two weeks into this war.

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 April 2, 2003 - 13:31   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: The United States Air Force is not only guarding the skies over Iraq, it is also patrolling the ground. And our Gary Tuchman is with the U.S. Air Force at an air base, an important air base in the Persian Gulf -- Gary.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Judy, and here are some basic facts. Two weeks into this air war there have been a total of 23,000 sorties over these 14 nights. And each and every one of the planes that has flown over Iraq has made it back home safely, except for one. And that was a British Tornado early on in this conflict, and it was accidentally shot down by a coalition Patriot missile launcher and two airmen were killed. But overall, the coalition Air Force is very pleased with its performance.

We do come to you from a base near the Iraqi border. This is the largest fighter and attack wing in the theater. Many of the pilots who are here are now flying to an Iraqi air base and landing there, but it's an air base that was taken over by the coalition last week. Now we spent part of the day there, and when you arrive at that air base, 125 miles over the border from Kuwait, you know right away you're in Iraq.

This is Tallil, Iraq, the Tallil air base, but there are no more Iraqis here. The coalition took over this base last week. It's now a major staging point and you know you're in Iraq when you drive down the road coming into the base and you see the portrait of Saddam Hussein.

What's happened is the military personnel who have arrived here have taken out their markers and are writing messages on Saddam Hussein's portrait. You can see the main one here on the bottom. And also here, messages like "we won, April 1, 2003". I want to give you a look. There's a lot of security personnel here. You can look over there and you can see the military vehicles. These are Air Force security forces with their rifles, patrolling the entrance. There is a lot of fighting in this area. We're near the town of Nasiriyah, but this base now is considered secure enough to make it a major staging point for the coalition.

There are no intentions right now of taking down that picture of Saddam Hussein. The plan is to allow people who come here -- come there to continue using it as a graffiti board. Many of the A-10 planes are flying there, they're doing refueling, they're doing staging. Ultimately it's thought some of those planes will be based at that base that used to be controlled by Iraq, but is now controlled by the coalition. Judy, back to you. WOODRUFF: Gary, we've been hearing, really virtually since this war got underway, that U.S. coalition Air Force felt that all of Iraq was pretty much a free area for them except for right over Baghdad. Do they still feel that Baghdad does still pose some potential threat?

TUCHMAN: It's thought that the Baghdad area is more risky. But the Air Force is making it very clear that they do believe they're in control of the skies of the entire country.

WOODRUFF: All right. Gary Tuchman, reporting from an air base near Iraq in the Persian Gulf -- Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And to this very day, the Iraqis have not even attempted to take off one of their warplanes, one of their fixed wing planes or helicopters, two weeks into this war.

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