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PACKAGE/LIVE REPORT
Aired May 02, 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: The banner read "Mission Accomplished." The USS Abraham Lincoln, its crew pumped by a visit from President Bush, to say the least, dropped anchor today near San Diego following nearly ten months at sea. More than 5,000 sailors were aboard the aircraft carrier as it returned from the Persian Gulf. CNN's Eric Horng has our story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ERIC HORNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well the mass of humanity, Miles, that was here earlier has certainly thinned out. I spoke with one sailor who seemed to echo the sentiment of all when he said he was anxious to get home as soon as possible and to spend quiet time with his loved ones. Quite understandable given their extended deployment.
(voice-over): After traveling some 100,000 miles over nearly ten months, the sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln were greeted with an outpouring of pure emotion, their relatives expressing both pride and relief after weathering an agonizing wait.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm so happy he's home. Finally here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very happy to be home. Long awaited reunion, and we're going to go enjoy it.
HORNG: During their deployment, some 150 babies were born to fathers aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. One of them, the 3-week-old son of Jeffrey Brown (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been thinking about this moment forever. This is the moment I've been dreaming about since you know I found out Caleb (ph) was being born. You know I wanted to be able to hold him like this forever.
HORNG: With a symbol of nation's military might as his back drop President Bush announced an end Thursday to major combat operations in Iraq.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We've removed an ally of al Qaeda. And cut off a source of terrorist funding.
HORNG: But the president stopped short of a formal declaration of victory, saying challenges still lie ahead.
BUSH: We've begun the search for hidden chemical and biological weapons and already know of hundreds of sites that will be investigated.
HORNG: Earlier, Mr. Bush in the co-pilot seat of a Navy jet became the first sitting president to arrive on an aircraft carrier by plane.
(on camera): While the USS Abraham Lincoln will overnight here in Coronado and then head to Everett, Washington, it's home port where a large homecoming celebration is set for Tuesday involving some 3,500 sailors and their families.
In Coronado, California, I'm Eric Horng. Miles, back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Squadron and Navy fighter planes is about to return from the war to a base in Virginia. And I think we're seeing pictures there captured by our own Kyra Phillips, who had an opportunity to fly with some F-18s.
Oh, my gosh. Kyra, that was an eventful flight. Now, I know why they call you "The Sugar Mama," huh?
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: OK, now how am I supposed to go from that, Miles, to this adorable little family? How am I supposed to segue? Maybe saying that...
O'BRIEN: I have no idea.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: The thing that will tie the baby and the flight together is probably vomit, right?
PHILLIPS: Oh, that's not good.
I'm here with Fawn Snow, she is the wife of Lieutenant Commander Scott Snow you know we've gotten to know very well during this wartime operation. This is little Logan Snow.
Now, Fawn, let's show him the bib. Look at that. VF-31 Tomkitties. This is a future fighter pilot, Miles. Is he precious or what?
O'BRIEN: He is cute, he is cute. And it's Felix the Cat. What a good, what a perfect squadron emblem. Felix the Cat. You know?
PHILLIPS: Isn't that awesome? All right, I'm going to hand Logan off. I've got more people to introduce you to. Thank you, Fawn.
FAWN SNOW, WIFE OF LT. CMDR. SCOTT SNOW: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Logan's getting a lot of air time isn't he? Logan has been on our air quite a bit.
PHILLIPS: He's the star of CNN, isn't he? They're saying that Logan has gotten quite a lot of air time. Are you excited to see your husband?
F. SNOW: So excited. I cannot wait for him to see Logan. It's going to be unbelievable.
PHILLIPS: And Logan's grown a lot since he went away. I mean you were pregnant when he was on deployment.
F. SNOW: Right, in fact, Logan has more than doubled in size.
PHILLIPS: And he's getting excited too, even though he's a little tired right now. We may have to play with him. Thank you so much, Fawn.
We're going to bump on to meet some of the families. We're going catch up with you when Scott gets in, OK? All right, great.
All right, we're going to come over here. This is the Sweeney (ph) family. This is Lieutenant Daryn Sweeney's (ph) wife, Terra (ph) and their little girl Katie Belle (ph). Are you excited to see Daddy?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Say, go. Go. Go, Dad.
PHILLIPS: We've got a little picture of Daddy here with her. Tell us about that picture. When was that taken?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was taken right before he left, so almost ten months ago. And he hasn't seen her for ten months. So she's changed quite a bit.
PHILLIPS: So how have you been dealing for ten months? Tell me how you've stayed so strong. I can tell you're one excited lady today.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, very excited. It's been very hard, have a great family support, which is very nice. They live close by, so.
PHILLIPS: Well I got to know your husband pretty well. He's quite the fighter pilot, he takes a lot of pride in what he does.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, he does. We're so proud of him. He's our hero.
PHILLIPS: All right, well, we're going to be looking for him and you and reuniting the both of you, OK? Coming up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Now, Miles, here's another little -- yay'
(CHEERING)
PHILLIPS: These are all the excited family members here waiting.
(CHEERING)
PHILLIPS: Moms and dads of the F-14 fighter pilots. Now I was looking for the, -- where's the Gregories (ph)? We wanted to show them the big car over here? What happened to them? They sort of disappeared. I got to show you this truck over here, Miles. Check this out. T-bone...
PHILLIPS: It looks like a Brinks truck or an armored car or something. What is this?
PHILLIPS: Is this hilarious? I don't know. And I'm looking for -- they're not in here. This is actually the truck that's going to -- two of the fighter pilots, Reed Wiseman (ph) and Dale Gregory (ph) bought this before they left to go participate in Operation Iraqi Freedom. And so their father, Dale Gregory's father, Dale Sr., brought it back, decorated it with the flags and this is what they're going to drive off in once they get out of their Tomcat. I don't think it's going to go as fast. But check this out. Is that fantastic?
O'BRIEN: There's probably a really good story associated with the vehicle. Looks like an old Mercedes. Did I see a Mercedes emblem on there? That's quite a truck. Wow.
PHILLIPS: I know. Here. I think I've got a little -- I've got the -- let me show you around the front here. I know, can you believe this? Are they inside? Check this out. Get a little inside peek there.
O'BRIEN: If the sport utility vehicle is not enough for you, this is what you can move up to. Wow, that's something.
PHILLIPS: This is what you do, Miles, when you can't fly jets anymore, when you've got to come home from a mission at sea, you've got to find excitement somehow. So they go and buy old military vehicles like this.
O'BRIEN: All right, quickly, Kyra, when last we saw you, you catapulted off the Abraham Lincoln and off you went. How did the flight go?
PHILLIPS: Oh, it was amazing. I was so lucky to be part of that, Miles. As you know, there are two different fly-offs that take place. The one that happened yesterday was with all the F-18 squadrons that participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Southern Watch and also Operation Enduring Freedom.
And the day before that the Tomcatters, who will be arriving here today, the F-14 pilots, they took off with other squadrons, like the S-3s, the Prowlers, the Hawkeyes.
So it's an exciting time, I mean the last chance they get to launch off that carrier. And for me to be part of that it was quite a special treat. I got to see what it was like and what it felt like to be airborne with those guys. However, I wasn't having to dodge AAA fire and surface-to-air missiles, thank goodness.
O'BRIEN: Wow, it's pretty exciting. How soon before they land, do you know?
PHILLIPS: Yes, matter of fact in about 15 minutes, they're going to land right out here. You can see the flight deck, all the planning going on. You can see some of the enlisted folks doing a FOD check, the Foreign Object Debris, making sure there's no FOD on the flight deck so those jets can land.
O'BRIEN: Hey, pull back. Who's your photographer there? Have him pull back. There's a kid the doing FOD work. You see that?
PHILLIPS: Yes. Can you see him?
O'BRIEN: Yes, that's really -- it's cute. He's out there picking up.
PHILLIPS: Are these kids right here, right here running -- yes, were sort of -- well, actually they were participating in and then they end up chasing each other around.
You can tell the kids are getting a little anxious. They want to see Dad, you know what I'm saying, Miles. But see, look at the hangar. It's already filling up. That is filling up, already they've got about 15 minutes to go. There's already about 300 people here. Very eager to see their fathers.
O'BRIEN: All right, Kyra Phillips. Please, please let us know the moment you see one of those Tomcats doing that fighter break that they do over the field there and we'll...
PACKAGE It's going to be pretty amazing, the flyover.
O'BRIEN: We'll drop in. All right.
PHILLIPS: All right. I'll keep you posted. Thanks, Miles.
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 May 2, 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: The banner read "Mission Accomplished." The USS Abraham Lincoln, its crew pumped by a visit from President Bush, to say the least, dropped anchor today near San Diego following nearly ten months at sea. More than 5,000 sailors were aboard the aircraft carrier as it returned from the Persian Gulf. CNN's Eric Horng has our story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ERIC HORNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well the mass of humanity, Miles, that was here earlier has certainly thinned out. I spoke with one sailor who seemed to echo the sentiment of all when he said he was anxious to get home as soon as possible and to spend quiet time with his loved ones. Quite understandable given their extended deployment.
(voice-over): After traveling some 100,000 miles over nearly ten months, the sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln were greeted with an outpouring of pure emotion, their relatives expressing both pride and relief after weathering an agonizing wait.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm so happy he's home. Finally here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very happy to be home. Long awaited reunion, and we're going to go enjoy it.
HORNG: During their deployment, some 150 babies were born to fathers aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. One of them, the 3-week-old son of Jeffrey Brown (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been thinking about this moment forever. This is the moment I've been dreaming about since you know I found out Caleb (ph) was being born. You know I wanted to be able to hold him like this forever.
HORNG: With a symbol of nation's military might as his back drop President Bush announced an end Thursday to major combat operations in Iraq.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We've removed an ally of al Qaeda. And cut off a source of terrorist funding.
HORNG: But the president stopped short of a formal declaration of victory, saying challenges still lie ahead.
BUSH: We've begun the search for hidden chemical and biological weapons and already know of hundreds of sites that will be investigated.
HORNG: Earlier, Mr. Bush in the co-pilot seat of a Navy jet became the first sitting president to arrive on an aircraft carrier by plane.
(on camera): While the USS Abraham Lincoln will overnight here in Coronado and then head to Everett, Washington, it's home port where a large homecoming celebration is set for Tuesday involving some 3,500 sailors and their families.
In Coronado, California, I'm Eric Horng. Miles, back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Squadron and Navy fighter planes is about to return from the war to a base in Virginia. And I think we're seeing pictures there captured by our own Kyra Phillips, who had an opportunity to fly with some F-18s.
Oh, my gosh. Kyra, that was an eventful flight. Now, I know why they call you "The Sugar Mama," huh?
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: OK, now how am I supposed to go from that, Miles, to this adorable little family? How am I supposed to segue? Maybe saying that...
O'BRIEN: I have no idea.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: The thing that will tie the baby and the flight together is probably vomit, right?
PHILLIPS: Oh, that's not good.
I'm here with Fawn Snow, she is the wife of Lieutenant Commander Scott Snow you know we've gotten to know very well during this wartime operation. This is little Logan Snow.
Now, Fawn, let's show him the bib. Look at that. VF-31 Tomkitties. This is a future fighter pilot, Miles. Is he precious or what?
O'BRIEN: He is cute, he is cute. And it's Felix the Cat. What a good, what a perfect squadron emblem. Felix the Cat. You know?
PHILLIPS: Isn't that awesome? All right, I'm going to hand Logan off. I've got more people to introduce you to. Thank you, Fawn.
FAWN SNOW, WIFE OF LT. CMDR. SCOTT SNOW: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Logan's getting a lot of air time isn't he? Logan has been on our air quite a bit.
PHILLIPS: He's the star of CNN, isn't he? They're saying that Logan has gotten quite a lot of air time. Are you excited to see your husband?
F. SNOW: So excited. I cannot wait for him to see Logan. It's going to be unbelievable.
PHILLIPS: And Logan's grown a lot since he went away. I mean you were pregnant when he was on deployment.
F. SNOW: Right, in fact, Logan has more than doubled in size.
PHILLIPS: And he's getting excited too, even though he's a little tired right now. We may have to play with him. Thank you so much, Fawn.
We're going to bump on to meet some of the families. We're going catch up with you when Scott gets in, OK? All right, great.
All right, we're going to come over here. This is the Sweeney (ph) family. This is Lieutenant Daryn Sweeney's (ph) wife, Terra (ph) and their little girl Katie Belle (ph). Are you excited to see Daddy?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Say, go. Go. Go, Dad.
PHILLIPS: We've got a little picture of Daddy here with her. Tell us about that picture. When was that taken?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was taken right before he left, so almost ten months ago. And he hasn't seen her for ten months. So she's changed quite a bit.
PHILLIPS: So how have you been dealing for ten months? Tell me how you've stayed so strong. I can tell you're one excited lady today.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, very excited. It's been very hard, have a great family support, which is very nice. They live close by, so.
PHILLIPS: Well I got to know your husband pretty well. He's quite the fighter pilot, he takes a lot of pride in what he does.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, he does. We're so proud of him. He's our hero.
PHILLIPS: All right, well, we're going to be looking for him and you and reuniting the both of you, OK? Coming up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Now, Miles, here's another little -- yay'
(CHEERING)
PHILLIPS: These are all the excited family members here waiting.
(CHEERING)
PHILLIPS: Moms and dads of the F-14 fighter pilots. Now I was looking for the, -- where's the Gregories (ph)? We wanted to show them the big car over here? What happened to them? They sort of disappeared. I got to show you this truck over here, Miles. Check this out. T-bone...
PHILLIPS: It looks like a Brinks truck or an armored car or something. What is this?
PHILLIPS: Is this hilarious? I don't know. And I'm looking for -- they're not in here. This is actually the truck that's going to -- two of the fighter pilots, Reed Wiseman (ph) and Dale Gregory (ph) bought this before they left to go participate in Operation Iraqi Freedom. And so their father, Dale Gregory's father, Dale Sr., brought it back, decorated it with the flags and this is what they're going to drive off in once they get out of their Tomcat. I don't think it's going to go as fast. But check this out. Is that fantastic?
O'BRIEN: There's probably a really good story associated with the vehicle. Looks like an old Mercedes. Did I see a Mercedes emblem on there? That's quite a truck. Wow.
PHILLIPS: I know. Here. I think I've got a little -- I've got the -- let me show you around the front here. I know, can you believe this? Are they inside? Check this out. Get a little inside peek there.
O'BRIEN: If the sport utility vehicle is not enough for you, this is what you can move up to. Wow, that's something.
PHILLIPS: This is what you do, Miles, when you can't fly jets anymore, when you've got to come home from a mission at sea, you've got to find excitement somehow. So they go and buy old military vehicles like this.
O'BRIEN: All right, quickly, Kyra, when last we saw you, you catapulted off the Abraham Lincoln and off you went. How did the flight go?
PHILLIPS: Oh, it was amazing. I was so lucky to be part of that, Miles. As you know, there are two different fly-offs that take place. The one that happened yesterday was with all the F-18 squadrons that participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Southern Watch and also Operation Enduring Freedom.
And the day before that the Tomcatters, who will be arriving here today, the F-14 pilots, they took off with other squadrons, like the S-3s, the Prowlers, the Hawkeyes.
So it's an exciting time, I mean the last chance they get to launch off that carrier. And for me to be part of that it was quite a special treat. I got to see what it was like and what it felt like to be airborne with those guys. However, I wasn't having to dodge AAA fire and surface-to-air missiles, thank goodness.
O'BRIEN: Wow, it's pretty exciting. How soon before they land, do you know?
PHILLIPS: Yes, matter of fact in about 15 minutes, they're going to land right out here. You can see the flight deck, all the planning going on. You can see some of the enlisted folks doing a FOD check, the Foreign Object Debris, making sure there's no FOD on the flight deck so those jets can land.
O'BRIEN: Hey, pull back. Who's your photographer there? Have him pull back. There's a kid the doing FOD work. You see that?
PHILLIPS: Yes. Can you see him?
O'BRIEN: Yes, that's really -- it's cute. He's out there picking up.
PHILLIPS: Are these kids right here, right here running -- yes, were sort of -- well, actually they were participating in and then they end up chasing each other around.
You can tell the kids are getting a little anxious. They want to see Dad, you know what I'm saying, Miles. But see, look at the hangar. It's already filling up. That is filling up, already they've got about 15 minutes to go. There's already about 300 people here. Very eager to see their fathers.
O'BRIEN: All right, Kyra Phillips. Please, please let us know the moment you see one of those Tomcats doing that fighter break that they do over the field there and we'll...
PACKAGE It's going to be pretty amazing, the flyover.
O'BRIEN: We'll drop in. All right.
PHILLIPS: All right. I'll keep you posted. Thanks, Miles.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
