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Brothers in Arms; Voice From the Past

Aired June 16, 2005 - 13:37   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.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now in the news, a trip to the hospital for Nancy Reagan. A spokeswoman says that the former first lady, seen here with Laura Bush, fell in her hotel room while vacationing in London. She was taken to the hospital as a precaution. Nancy Reagan is said to be sore, but unhurt.
Get set for an extraordinary view of the war in Iraq, talking about through the eyes of a real life band of brothers. Their story is of one family's sacrifice and sense of duty.

For the past year, CNN's Alex Quade has been following these brothers in arms from the homefront to the front lines.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEX QUADE, CNN PRODUCER (voice-over): Oil pipeline attacks, suicide car bombs, mortars, mass graves, improvised explosive devices, and ethnic tensions. This is Kirkuk Province, northern Iraq, where nearly 5,000 U.S. Army National Guardsman serve.

Among them, Eric, an assistant manager at a Wal-Mart.

2ND LT. ERIC PRUETT, ARMY NATIONAL GUARD: We are here. We are armed. We are ready for business.

QUADE: Jeff, a grocery store clerk.

PFC. JEFF PRUETT, ARMY NATIONAL GUARD: We have got to protect your backs.

QUADE: Evan, a bartender.

SPC. EVAN PRUETT, ARMY NATIONAL GUARD: I just hope nothing bad happens.

QUADE: And Greg, a missionary.

SPC. GREG PRUETT, ARMY NATIONAL GUARD: I just hope and pray that everything is OK.

QUADE: Four citizen soldiers with something in common, their last name, Pruett, four brothers deployed with different units in Kirkuk.

On patrol with Eric, the eldest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're here toting bulletproof vests and weapons everywhere we go and guys pulling security even as we talk now. I mean, at any moment, anything could happen and we need to be ready for that.

QUADE (on camera): What was it like for you the first time when you came under fire?

ERIC PRUETT: It was pretty intense.

QUADE (voice-over): An understatement. His platoon has survived five gunfights, three IEDs, improvised explosive devices, three rockets, and nine mortar attacks.

J. PRUETT: Did they check in this canister thing right here?

QUADE: On the other side of town, I join brother Jeff.

J. PRUETT: We had rocket that fired at our five yesterday. This is where they traced it to.

QUADE: He hunts for insurgents and weapons.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell them to check in between all the pillows and the mattresses.

QUADE: The dangers Jeff and Eric face are the same for brothers Greg and Evan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You get all your gear on and stay in your little bunker and just wait until they tell you everything is good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very real and it is something that we have to contend with every single day.

QUADE: The four Pruetts have been away from home for a year, living under constant threat and worry for each other.

J. PRUETT: I was worried, you know, what's the chances of four of us coming over to Iraq, where it's combat and all of us making home? So, it kind of scared me at first and I didn't like the idea.

QUADE: I met the Pruetts a year ago at their home in Pocatello, Idaho. Among these teens playing volleyball, four soldiers about to go to war the next day and two just back, yes, six members of one family serving their country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We never thought that all of us would go.

QUADE: Lee (ph) Pruett, or dad, and son Aaron (ph) just returned from serving in Fallujah when the others were called up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's kind of weird to think that my brothers are going over there now that I've been there and back. And I just kind of, you know, offer as much support and love as I can.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have had close calls just with Aaron and I over there, a big helicopter crash in Mosul. We actually went out and did the extrication and recovered the bodies of those soldiers and those helicopters.

QUADE: In uniform for family photos.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, look over here, you two.

QUADE: The brothers are excited for their chance to experience what dad and Aaron had.

G. PRUETT: Soldiers are dying. But that's war. And, you know, we're willing to take that risk. We love our country. We're a very patriotic family. I'm sure you saw my brother's car over there, painted it red, white and blue. And we're all willing to go over there and do what we have to do.

QUADE: Their mom, Tammy (ph) Pruett, puts on a brave face.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our odds are a lot higher than most families. And, yes, it would be horrible to lose one of my sons. They're all, I think, prepared to make that sacrifice. And sure, it would be horrible. You know, I'm not going to kid and say, oh, I could really get through that easily, because I couldn't.

QUADE: Next day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to go with me?

QUADE: The brothers say their goodbyes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You would if you could, huh?

QUADE: And report for duty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Attention.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want you people to think about the innocent people that was burned to death in buildings in New York.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm in charge of 16 guys, four tanks. And that is my first priority. But, at the same time, you know, my brothers are going to be there. And I'm going to be just worried about them and trying to check up on them just as much as I can and as much as I'm allowed to.

QUADE: They'll be away from home for 18 months.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand at. Ease. All right, guys. It's good to be back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, their story doesn't end there. Next hour, we'll show you what each one of the four Pruett brothers goes through each day, from their military duties to winning over the people they came to help.

Still to come on LIVE FROM, an old picture here of an American medic in Vietnam. He looks a lot different now. You'll never believe who he ran into at the supermarket. It's quite a story. You'll be glad you stuck around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, Wesley Fisk's Rhetta (ph) wife needed toothpaste. So on their way home, the couple stopped at a northern Seattle grocery store. While Fisk was in the checkout line, the man bagging groceries came up to him and quietly asked a simple question. Well, the response to that question left checkout clerks crying, brought back memories of a controversial war and reunited two friends who had not seen each other since March of 1969.

Wesley Fisk and the man bagging groceries, Thin Puih, join me live from Seattle. Great to see you both.

WESLEY FISK, VIETNAM WAR VETERAN: Thank you.

THIN PUIH, VIETNAM WAR TRANSLATOR: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: All right, Thin, I want to start with you. You're in the grocery store working and you heard a voice. What were you thinking? And what did you do?

PUIH: When I heard his voice, I thought it in my mind -- that is a friend of mine when we was in Vietnam, 1968.

PHILLIPS: So you went up to this man -- of course, we're talking about Wesley, who's right next to you -- and what did you say to him?

PUIH: I waited for him, when he finished talking with friends. I walk over to the man, and I ask his name and I said, are you Fisk in Vietnam? And then he stepped away. He jolted. Because he remember the -- when we were in Vietnam.

PHILLIPS: So what did you say...

PUIH: And I...

PHILLIPS: Yes, go ahead, Thin, I'm sorry.

PUIH: And I took his sleeve. We -- when I saw him, I start emotional. And I didn't recognize by his face. When I look in his face, because everything is -- nothing in his face. I just recognized by his voice. That's him. I can recognize.

PHILLIPS: You recognize that voice. Oh, Thin, you have such a sweet soul. So Wesley, he came up to you, he tugged on your arm. He said, are you Fisk from Vietnam? And what did you do? How did you react?

FISK: Well, he tugged on my sleeve twice. The first time he tugged, he said, you Vietnam? And I said -- I turned and I looked at him, and I said, yes, I was Vietnam. And then I turned back to the person I was talking to, who was a retired friend of mine from the Seattle Symphony Orchestra from many years ago. And the next time -- and I kind of ignored him. But the next -- just shortly after, five seconds later, there came another slug on -- another tug on my sleeve. And he says, you Fisk Vietnam? And I said, yes, I -- yes. Then he had my attention.

Then I looked, and I stepped back, and he had -- I looked at his face, and I saw the name tag. And I can't tell you on the air what I said, but I yelled it very loudly. I said, holy cow. and I said, this guy is my mountain yard interpreter from Vietnam. And the lady I was talking to, she said, I don't understand, Wesley. I said, this guy worked with me 35 years ago in Vietnam.

And then I just left her, and I opened my arms, and I hugged him. And I hugged him and I hugged him. It was like a guy I hadn't seen for -- I didn't know how many years it had been. 35 years means nothing when you see -- when you see the person you haven't seen for so many years, it's like it was yesterday when I saw him. If that's what it felt like. And we just hugged.

And the first thing I said when I backed away from him was, Thin, I need your telephone number. Because I wasn't going to let him get away. That was the only thing I was concerned about was that I had made -- God had helped me make a connection here, and I was going to do everything I could not to lose it.

PHILLIPS: Yes, talk about synchronicity. It's unbelievable. So, Wes -- well, Thin, let me ask you this. I know, Wes, you got injury -- you got injured and you had to leave. Thin, did you ever wonder what happened to this soldier, this man you had to interpret for and take care of and make sure that he was going to be OK in Vietnam. Did you ever wonder what happened to him? Did you think about him? Did you miss him?

PUIH: Actually, when I didn't see Fisk, I didn't know what happened to him. And he left in March 1969. But I kept continuing work with my unit, and after that, he didn't know what happened to me again. I remember on November 1969, I got ambushed by the Viet Cong on the road go to the villages. And I got hit and broken my arm and badly injured. And two of my friends got shot and killed. And I am the survivor. I didn't know Fisk, where he was and what happened to him after that.

PHILLIPS: Well, it's incredible that you two have come together, and coming together in a grocery store, of all places. Wes, tell me about your friendship now. You guys have a lot of time to make up for.

FISK: We do actually. And I'm going to help Thin as best I can. Thin needs to prove to the U.S. government that he was in Vietnam working with the army over there at the 4th Infantry Division. He has no proof of that, because when the communists came in in '75, they took all the records and they destroyed them. I have slides, many slides of Thin and myself and our officers working together in this intelligence program that we called Medcap, and I have letters. Of course, I wrote at least 400 letters home to my folks. My mom and dad saved the letters. So I have information about Thin and the other interpreters in my letters, and we're going to take the slides that I have, my wife and I are going to put them -- we're going to scan them actually, this weekend, and we're going to put them on disk and present the disk to Thin.

The man saved my life. I cannot tell you how many times he did not come to work. The days he did not come to work, we couldn't go to the forward areas. The only time we went to the forward areas, where it was very unsafe, was when he came to work. Those days he did not come to work, there was a reason. I was spared the confrontation with the enemy many times thanks to Thin.

PHILLIPS: Well, there's a reason the two of you have come together again. And I know you're cherishing everything that's happened in the past couple of weeks.

Thin Puih, we salute you. You're a brave man. We're glad you're here in the States.

And, Wesley, it's great to see what you're doing for Thin after all these years.

What a pleasure to talk to you both. Thank you for sharing your story.

PUIH: Thank you.

FISK: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: We're going to take a quick break. More LIVE FROM right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Well, almost 30 years after his coming out party in America, the boy king is back, and Los Angeles gets to play host first to King Tut and all his treasures.

Here's a sneak peak from our own Brooke Anderson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You know you've made it big when they spoof you on "Saturday Night Live."

PATRICK POLK, UCLA FOLKLORIST: You can say these three letters, Tut, and most of America knows who you're talking about.

ANDERSON: Almost 30 years ago, The Treasures of Tutankhamen, a 55-piece exhibit, took the U.S. by storm. Tut mania seemed to spark interest in all things Egyptian, including movies and music.

POLK: I think people are really enamored with just the mystique of the boy king, of this great archaeological discovery, and then add onto the story, the notion of a curse. A lot of things come together to make Tut a perfect kind of story for American popular culture and media.

ANDERSON: Tut became the pharaoh of Egypt at age nine or 10, and died at 19. Scientists originally believed he'd been murdered. But new research shows it was more likely an injury that killed the young king of Egypt.

In 1922, his tomb was discovered relatively intact. It may not be his life as much as his death that intrigues people the most.

POLK: It's a whole other way at looking about how you approach your death, that these -- the pyramids, these fantastic tombs are really such an alien kind of sense of marking one's passage from life to death.

ANDERSON: Tut II, the boy king's latest incarnation, a four city U.S. tour, kicks off in Los Angeles. This exhibit has 50 Tut-related art facts, but not some of the burial coffins and masks that traveled in the original tour.

POLK: It's great to have an exhibition where you have high very attendance, a lot of public interest, and you expand the boundaries of the museum beyond your normal audience.

ANDERSON: The L.A. Convention and Visitors Bureau estimates the show will bring in about $150 million to the city. Even small businesses like web retailer Delta Collections, which deals in Egyptian replicas, have seen sales rise from 20 to 25 percent.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Of the 50 Tut-related items here on display, you can see the golden crown Tut wore in death, a polished dagger believed to be one of his favorite objects, a cosmetics case and a game board. They even had a lot of fun 3,000 years ago.

This exhibit runs through mid-November here in Los Angeles. Kyra, it will then proceed to Ft. Lauderdale, Chicago and Philadelphia over the next two hours.

Back to you.

PHILLIPS: Oh, why not Atlanta, Brooke? We're waiting.

ANDERSON: I know. I know. Maybe next time. Well, you know what, this is a farewell tour. I'm told this is the last time the artifacts will be in the United States.

PHILLIPS: Cool stuff. Brook Anderson, thank you so much.

ANDERSON: Have to travel.

PHILLIPS: All right.

Coming up in the second hour of LIVE FROM, the lowdown on the capture of an Al Qaeda heavyweight today in Iraq. We're live from Mosul. And the controversy continues around the explosive so-called Downing Street memo. New details today from Capitol Hill.

LIVE FROM's hour of power begins right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired June 16, 2005 - 13:37   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now in the news, a trip to the hospital for Nancy Reagan. A spokeswoman says that the former first lady, seen here with Laura Bush, fell in her hotel room while vacationing in London. She was taken to the hospital as a precaution. Nancy Reagan is said to be sore, but unhurt.
Get set for an extraordinary view of the war in Iraq, talking about through the eyes of a real life band of brothers. Their story is of one family's sacrifice and sense of duty.

For the past year, CNN's Alex Quade has been following these brothers in arms from the homefront to the front lines.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEX QUADE, CNN PRODUCER (voice-over): Oil pipeline attacks, suicide car bombs, mortars, mass graves, improvised explosive devices, and ethnic tensions. This is Kirkuk Province, northern Iraq, where nearly 5,000 U.S. Army National Guardsman serve.

Among them, Eric, an assistant manager at a Wal-Mart.

2ND LT. ERIC PRUETT, ARMY NATIONAL GUARD: We are here. We are armed. We are ready for business.

QUADE: Jeff, a grocery store clerk.

PFC. JEFF PRUETT, ARMY NATIONAL GUARD: We have got to protect your backs.

QUADE: Evan, a bartender.

SPC. EVAN PRUETT, ARMY NATIONAL GUARD: I just hope nothing bad happens.

QUADE: And Greg, a missionary.

SPC. GREG PRUETT, ARMY NATIONAL GUARD: I just hope and pray that everything is OK.

QUADE: Four citizen soldiers with something in common, their last name, Pruett, four brothers deployed with different units in Kirkuk.

On patrol with Eric, the eldest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're here toting bulletproof vests and weapons everywhere we go and guys pulling security even as we talk now. I mean, at any moment, anything could happen and we need to be ready for that.

QUADE (on camera): What was it like for you the first time when you came under fire?

ERIC PRUETT: It was pretty intense.

QUADE (voice-over): An understatement. His platoon has survived five gunfights, three IEDs, improvised explosive devices, three rockets, and nine mortar attacks.

J. PRUETT: Did they check in this canister thing right here?

QUADE: On the other side of town, I join brother Jeff.

J. PRUETT: We had rocket that fired at our five yesterday. This is where they traced it to.

QUADE: He hunts for insurgents and weapons.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell them to check in between all the pillows and the mattresses.

QUADE: The dangers Jeff and Eric face are the same for brothers Greg and Evan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You get all your gear on and stay in your little bunker and just wait until they tell you everything is good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very real and it is something that we have to contend with every single day.

QUADE: The four Pruetts have been away from home for a year, living under constant threat and worry for each other.

J. PRUETT: I was worried, you know, what's the chances of four of us coming over to Iraq, where it's combat and all of us making home? So, it kind of scared me at first and I didn't like the idea.

QUADE: I met the Pruetts a year ago at their home in Pocatello, Idaho. Among these teens playing volleyball, four soldiers about to go to war the next day and two just back, yes, six members of one family serving their country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We never thought that all of us would go.

QUADE: Lee (ph) Pruett, or dad, and son Aaron (ph) just returned from serving in Fallujah when the others were called up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's kind of weird to think that my brothers are going over there now that I've been there and back. And I just kind of, you know, offer as much support and love as I can.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have had close calls just with Aaron and I over there, a big helicopter crash in Mosul. We actually went out and did the extrication and recovered the bodies of those soldiers and those helicopters.

QUADE: In uniform for family photos.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, look over here, you two.

QUADE: The brothers are excited for their chance to experience what dad and Aaron had.

G. PRUETT: Soldiers are dying. But that's war. And, you know, we're willing to take that risk. We love our country. We're a very patriotic family. I'm sure you saw my brother's car over there, painted it red, white and blue. And we're all willing to go over there and do what we have to do.

QUADE: Their mom, Tammy (ph) Pruett, puts on a brave face.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our odds are a lot higher than most families. And, yes, it would be horrible to lose one of my sons. They're all, I think, prepared to make that sacrifice. And sure, it would be horrible. You know, I'm not going to kid and say, oh, I could really get through that easily, because I couldn't.

QUADE: Next day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to go with me?

QUADE: The brothers say their goodbyes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You would if you could, huh?

QUADE: And report for duty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Attention.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want you people to think about the innocent people that was burned to death in buildings in New York.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm in charge of 16 guys, four tanks. And that is my first priority. But, at the same time, you know, my brothers are going to be there. And I'm going to be just worried about them and trying to check up on them just as much as I can and as much as I'm allowed to.

QUADE: They'll be away from home for 18 months.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand at. Ease. All right, guys. It's good to be back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, their story doesn't end there. Next hour, we'll show you what each one of the four Pruett brothers goes through each day, from their military duties to winning over the people they came to help.

Still to come on LIVE FROM, an old picture here of an American medic in Vietnam. He looks a lot different now. You'll never believe who he ran into at the supermarket. It's quite a story. You'll be glad you stuck around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, Wesley Fisk's Rhetta (ph) wife needed toothpaste. So on their way home, the couple stopped at a northern Seattle grocery store. While Fisk was in the checkout line, the man bagging groceries came up to him and quietly asked a simple question. Well, the response to that question left checkout clerks crying, brought back memories of a controversial war and reunited two friends who had not seen each other since March of 1969.

Wesley Fisk and the man bagging groceries, Thin Puih, join me live from Seattle. Great to see you both.

WESLEY FISK, VIETNAM WAR VETERAN: Thank you.

THIN PUIH, VIETNAM WAR TRANSLATOR: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: All right, Thin, I want to start with you. You're in the grocery store working and you heard a voice. What were you thinking? And what did you do?

PUIH: When I heard his voice, I thought it in my mind -- that is a friend of mine when we was in Vietnam, 1968.

PHILLIPS: So you went up to this man -- of course, we're talking about Wesley, who's right next to you -- and what did you say to him?

PUIH: I waited for him, when he finished talking with friends. I walk over to the man, and I ask his name and I said, are you Fisk in Vietnam? And then he stepped away. He jolted. Because he remember the -- when we were in Vietnam.

PHILLIPS: So what did you say...

PUIH: And I...

PHILLIPS: Yes, go ahead, Thin, I'm sorry.

PUIH: And I took his sleeve. We -- when I saw him, I start emotional. And I didn't recognize by his face. When I look in his face, because everything is -- nothing in his face. I just recognized by his voice. That's him. I can recognize.

PHILLIPS: You recognize that voice. Oh, Thin, you have such a sweet soul. So Wesley, he came up to you, he tugged on your arm. He said, are you Fisk from Vietnam? And what did you do? How did you react?

FISK: Well, he tugged on my sleeve twice. The first time he tugged, he said, you Vietnam? And I said -- I turned and I looked at him, and I said, yes, I was Vietnam. And then I turned back to the person I was talking to, who was a retired friend of mine from the Seattle Symphony Orchestra from many years ago. And the next time -- and I kind of ignored him. But the next -- just shortly after, five seconds later, there came another slug on -- another tug on my sleeve. And he says, you Fisk Vietnam? And I said, yes, I -- yes. Then he had my attention.

Then I looked, and I stepped back, and he had -- I looked at his face, and I saw the name tag. And I can't tell you on the air what I said, but I yelled it very loudly. I said, holy cow. and I said, this guy is my mountain yard interpreter from Vietnam. And the lady I was talking to, she said, I don't understand, Wesley. I said, this guy worked with me 35 years ago in Vietnam.

And then I just left her, and I opened my arms, and I hugged him. And I hugged him and I hugged him. It was like a guy I hadn't seen for -- I didn't know how many years it had been. 35 years means nothing when you see -- when you see the person you haven't seen for so many years, it's like it was yesterday when I saw him. If that's what it felt like. And we just hugged.

And the first thing I said when I backed away from him was, Thin, I need your telephone number. Because I wasn't going to let him get away. That was the only thing I was concerned about was that I had made -- God had helped me make a connection here, and I was going to do everything I could not to lose it.

PHILLIPS: Yes, talk about synchronicity. It's unbelievable. So, Wes -- well, Thin, let me ask you this. I know, Wes, you got injury -- you got injured and you had to leave. Thin, did you ever wonder what happened to this soldier, this man you had to interpret for and take care of and make sure that he was going to be OK in Vietnam. Did you ever wonder what happened to him? Did you think about him? Did you miss him?

PUIH: Actually, when I didn't see Fisk, I didn't know what happened to him. And he left in March 1969. But I kept continuing work with my unit, and after that, he didn't know what happened to me again. I remember on November 1969, I got ambushed by the Viet Cong on the road go to the villages. And I got hit and broken my arm and badly injured. And two of my friends got shot and killed. And I am the survivor. I didn't know Fisk, where he was and what happened to him after that.

PHILLIPS: Well, it's incredible that you two have come together, and coming together in a grocery store, of all places. Wes, tell me about your friendship now. You guys have a lot of time to make up for.

FISK: We do actually. And I'm going to help Thin as best I can. Thin needs to prove to the U.S. government that he was in Vietnam working with the army over there at the 4th Infantry Division. He has no proof of that, because when the communists came in in '75, they took all the records and they destroyed them. I have slides, many slides of Thin and myself and our officers working together in this intelligence program that we called Medcap, and I have letters. Of course, I wrote at least 400 letters home to my folks. My mom and dad saved the letters. So I have information about Thin and the other interpreters in my letters, and we're going to take the slides that I have, my wife and I are going to put them -- we're going to scan them actually, this weekend, and we're going to put them on disk and present the disk to Thin.

The man saved my life. I cannot tell you how many times he did not come to work. The days he did not come to work, we couldn't go to the forward areas. The only time we went to the forward areas, where it was very unsafe, was when he came to work. Those days he did not come to work, there was a reason. I was spared the confrontation with the enemy many times thanks to Thin.

PHILLIPS: Well, there's a reason the two of you have come together again. And I know you're cherishing everything that's happened in the past couple of weeks.

Thin Puih, we salute you. You're a brave man. We're glad you're here in the States.

And, Wesley, it's great to see what you're doing for Thin after all these years.

What a pleasure to talk to you both. Thank you for sharing your story.

PUIH: Thank you.

FISK: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: We're going to take a quick break. More LIVE FROM right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Well, almost 30 years after his coming out party in America, the boy king is back, and Los Angeles gets to play host first to King Tut and all his treasures.

Here's a sneak peak from our own Brooke Anderson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You know you've made it big when they spoof you on "Saturday Night Live."

PATRICK POLK, UCLA FOLKLORIST: You can say these three letters, Tut, and most of America knows who you're talking about.

ANDERSON: Almost 30 years ago, The Treasures of Tutankhamen, a 55-piece exhibit, took the U.S. by storm. Tut mania seemed to spark interest in all things Egyptian, including movies and music.

POLK: I think people are really enamored with just the mystique of the boy king, of this great archaeological discovery, and then add onto the story, the notion of a curse. A lot of things come together to make Tut a perfect kind of story for American popular culture and media.

ANDERSON: Tut became the pharaoh of Egypt at age nine or 10, and died at 19. Scientists originally believed he'd been murdered. But new research shows it was more likely an injury that killed the young king of Egypt.

In 1922, his tomb was discovered relatively intact. It may not be his life as much as his death that intrigues people the most.

POLK: It's a whole other way at looking about how you approach your death, that these -- the pyramids, these fantastic tombs are really such an alien kind of sense of marking one's passage from life to death.

ANDERSON: Tut II, the boy king's latest incarnation, a four city U.S. tour, kicks off in Los Angeles. This exhibit has 50 Tut-related art facts, but not some of the burial coffins and masks that traveled in the original tour.

POLK: It's great to have an exhibition where you have high very attendance, a lot of public interest, and you expand the boundaries of the museum beyond your normal audience.

ANDERSON: The L.A. Convention and Visitors Bureau estimates the show will bring in about $150 million to the city. Even small businesses like web retailer Delta Collections, which deals in Egyptian replicas, have seen sales rise from 20 to 25 percent.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Of the 50 Tut-related items here on display, you can see the golden crown Tut wore in death, a polished dagger believed to be one of his favorite objects, a cosmetics case and a game board. They even had a lot of fun 3,000 years ago.

This exhibit runs through mid-November here in Los Angeles. Kyra, it will then proceed to Ft. Lauderdale, Chicago and Philadelphia over the next two hours.

Back to you.

PHILLIPS: Oh, why not Atlanta, Brooke? We're waiting.

ANDERSON: I know. I know. Maybe next time. Well, you know what, this is a farewell tour. I'm told this is the last time the artifacts will be in the United States.

PHILLIPS: Cool stuff. Brook Anderson, thank you so much.

ANDERSON: Have to travel.

PHILLIPS: All right.

Coming up in the second hour of LIVE FROM, the lowdown on the capture of an Al Qaeda heavyweight today in Iraq. We're live from Mosul. And the controversy continues around the explosive so-called Downing Street memo. New details today from Capitol Hill.

LIVE FROM's hour of power begins right after this.

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