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CNN Live Today
Special Forces Training
Aired February 25, 2003 - 11:45 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Did you ever wonder how U.S. troops learn to do what it is they do in battle? Well, this morning we are giving you an inside look at some of the training for U.S. special forces, the type of training that would come into play in the event of war with Iraq.
Our Kyra Phillips joins us live from Ft. Bragg, North Carolina with an exclusive look inside this training.
Kyra, good morning.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Well, talk about real-life scenario, as Stewart (ph) sort of pulls out and gives you kind of an overview of this mock city, you see everything from city hall to a pub, to a church, to a school, to a soccer field. It's the real-life scenario of any type of small city. Well, the purpose of this is to be able to help special forces soldiers learn how to clear buildings, perfect their weapons proficiency, targets, identifying proper targets and, of course, making sure that -- or minimizing collateral damage. That's the main focus when they go through that training.
Now you've seen a little bit out of the outside. I'm going to take you inside. And where we are, this is a chemical supply building.
With me now, I'm only going to address him as major, because for security reasons, we're going to go that route. But major is a commander of the advanced urban combat training here in this mock city.
Why don't we talk about the main purpose behind this training, why it's so important especially when these special forces may be headed off to Iraq.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've been doing this course, like you and I've discussed, for about 18 years. Special forces is recognizing the need to conduct urban combat training. Typically the way we do things, small elements going into small countries. We end up in urban scenarios. It's extremely important that we can execute and operate in the environment with our counterparts.
PHILLIPS: Right now we're taking a look at some video that we shot with you yesterday, sort of a pretraining that we're going to see in the training here in this city. Let's talk about the leapfrog process and how they use the buildings to their advantage. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We learned a lot of lessons, and the Army typically learns lessons from its past operations.
PHILLIPS: Like Mogadishu -- "Blackhawk Down" was a very popular movie.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger. Popular movie, but critical event in the context of the military. Action-after (ph) reviewed have recognized increased emphasis on urban combat training. And we learned a lot of lessons about moving down the streets, moving through buildings to control, to the ability of the enemy to engage our soldiers.
So in the context of the training that we conduct out here, we teach the guys to use the buildings to their advantage and minimize their exposure to enemy fire.
PHILLIPS: And, of course, communication, key. When you looked at the situation in Mogadishu, it was so hard to communicate, it was hard to know where certain special forces were at what time, and let's talk about the shooting, moving communication mantra.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Big part of the problem, and we saw it last night when we took a look at some of the precursor training, it's one thing when you do this thing in the crawl and the walk stages of the training, where the soldiers are just picking it up, but it's another thing when you put opposing forces against it.
So when we add that additional elements, which we will be doing here today, you get a situation where the guys have to put all the skills they've learned in the course to practice, and communicating is one of those essential skills, so that they understand where their sister elements are while they're moving through the structures.
PHILLIPS: Major, thank you very much.
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 February 25, 2003 - 11:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Did you ever wonder how U.S. troops learn to do what it is they do in battle? Well, this morning we are giving you an inside look at some of the training for U.S. special forces, the type of training that would come into play in the event of war with Iraq.
Our Kyra Phillips joins us live from Ft. Bragg, North Carolina with an exclusive look inside this training.
Kyra, good morning.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Well, talk about real-life scenario, as Stewart (ph) sort of pulls out and gives you kind of an overview of this mock city, you see everything from city hall to a pub, to a church, to a school, to a soccer field. It's the real-life scenario of any type of small city. Well, the purpose of this is to be able to help special forces soldiers learn how to clear buildings, perfect their weapons proficiency, targets, identifying proper targets and, of course, making sure that -- or minimizing collateral damage. That's the main focus when they go through that training.
Now you've seen a little bit out of the outside. I'm going to take you inside. And where we are, this is a chemical supply building.
With me now, I'm only going to address him as major, because for security reasons, we're going to go that route. But major is a commander of the advanced urban combat training here in this mock city.
Why don't we talk about the main purpose behind this training, why it's so important especially when these special forces may be headed off to Iraq.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've been doing this course, like you and I've discussed, for about 18 years. Special forces is recognizing the need to conduct urban combat training. Typically the way we do things, small elements going into small countries. We end up in urban scenarios. It's extremely important that we can execute and operate in the environment with our counterparts.
PHILLIPS: Right now we're taking a look at some video that we shot with you yesterday, sort of a pretraining that we're going to see in the training here in this city. Let's talk about the leapfrog process and how they use the buildings to their advantage. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We learned a lot of lessons, and the Army typically learns lessons from its past operations.
PHILLIPS: Like Mogadishu -- "Blackhawk Down" was a very popular movie.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger. Popular movie, but critical event in the context of the military. Action-after (ph) reviewed have recognized increased emphasis on urban combat training. And we learned a lot of lessons about moving down the streets, moving through buildings to control, to the ability of the enemy to engage our soldiers.
So in the context of the training that we conduct out here, we teach the guys to use the buildings to their advantage and minimize their exposure to enemy fire.
PHILLIPS: And, of course, communication, key. When you looked at the situation in Mogadishu, it was so hard to communicate, it was hard to know where certain special forces were at what time, and let's talk about the shooting, moving communication mantra.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Big part of the problem, and we saw it last night when we took a look at some of the precursor training, it's one thing when you do this thing in the crawl and the walk stages of the training, where the soldiers are just picking it up, but it's another thing when you put opposing forces against it.
So when we add that additional elements, which we will be doing here today, you get a situation where the guys have to put all the skills they've learned in the course to practice, and communicating is one of those essential skills, so that they understand where their sister elements are while they're moving through the structures.
PHILLIPS: Major, thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
