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CNN Live Today

Treating the Wounded; 'Daily Dose'

Aired December 23, 2004 - 11:30   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.


RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Fighting again in Falluja, even as the U.S. tries to convince residents it is safe to return. While about 500 residents were being screened to go back to their homes, U.S. Marines called it an air strike on an insurgent hideout after a 30- money the gun battle.
The first major winter storm of the season is causing major problems across the heartland. It's effect is felt from Wyoming to Pennsylvania, and from the southwest to the Great Lakes. Deep snow has stranded hundreds of motorists on a closed section of Interstate 64 in southern Indiana.

Federal authorities say scenes like this will be the exception rather than the rule at U.S. airports. After numerous complaints, airport screeners will no longer perform this intimate type of hand screening on women passengers, unless there is a prior indication that justifies closer scrutiny.

And the woman accused of killing a pregnant woman and cutting the baby from her womb told the judge today she understood what she was doing in court. Preliminary hearings for Lisa Montgomery Were waived this morning in Kansas City, Kansas. Her case is being moved to federal custody in Missouri. She will appear before a federal judge on Tuesday.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Now to news overseas, some of the wounded from the attack on a U.S. base in Mosul are returning to the U.S. Many of the wounded were first taken to Landstuhl regional medical center in Germany. We saw live pictures of their arrival yesterday on this program. Today we're going to take a behind-the- scenes look at how the wounded warriors get from the battlefield to places where they receive critical care.

CNN producer Alex Quade was given extraordinary access to U.S. military medical facilities in Iraq. In this report, she shows us how the injured are cared for at each stop along the way.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEX QUADE, CNN PRODUCER (voice-over): The journey of the wounded warrior usually begins like this. Amid the chaos, the pain, Army medics or Naval Corpsmen take life-saving action while lethal combat continues around them.

They bandage them up, carry them out. If it's too hot for a medevac helicopter to land, it's into vehicles near the battle site and on to the next level of care, a fallback position outside the kill zone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three, lift.

QUADE: This is triage. Navy shock and trauma platoon members collect and clear the wounded.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three, go.

QUADE: Stabilize and back to battle or on to the next level of care.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Urgent. Urgent. Urgent.

QUADE: Urgent means medical evacuation. Get them to a combat field hospital within one hour of being wounded, what's called the golden hour, odds are, they'll survive.

It's time for the medicine man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger. Currently (INAUDIBLE)

QUADE: Medicine man, that's the call sign of the U.S. Army medevac unit.

C.W. 2 HARLEY MAST, MEDEVAC PILOT: Guys in the field would get injured during their battles. And their EMTs or their medics on the scene can only treat them to a certain extent. And our job is to grab them and pick them up and bring them to a hospital or wherever further care is needed for the patient.

QUADE: They pick up the freshly wounded, care for them in flight, bring them to the CSH, combat support hospital, or to a forward surgical team. It's a handover to the surgeons.

There are four combat hospitals in Iraq in Tikrit, Mosul, Balad, and here in Baghdad, the former private hospital for Saddam Hussein and his family, now run by the U.S. Army. The medical work here is raw, dirty, emotionally wrenching.

CPT. SUDIP BOSE, U.S. ARMY: A lot of blood and guts. You're kind of trained for that as a doctor and you're ready for it. But what's different here is, there's another level of detachment to your patients, which are the soldiers, because they're like all of us. They left the states. They're hoping to go back. And some of them in the process aren't expecting it and they get badly injured or, god forbid, even killed. And that's what makes it different. There's a level of attachment here to the patients.

QUADE: After the patients have been stabilized, it's on to the next level, to Balad Air Base. A series of tents make up an Air Force theater hospital, E.R., O.R. and an ICU. Here, too, the medical staff work in conditions just as dangerous as Mosul. In fact, this is the most frequently attacked base in Iraq. A loudspeaker announces alarm red when it's happening.

LT. COL. DON JENKINS, U.S. AIR FORCE: When you're in the operating room, there's really nothing more that we can do than keep operating. We've built up as best we can around those operating theaters with concrete barriers and sandbags and that sort of thing. So -- still an alarm there.

Those folks that aren't scrubbed in sterile gear do have the opportunity, if they can get to their gear safely, put on their helmet or flak vest. We don't stop what we're doing just because this attack is going on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lower. Lower.

QUADE: When the patients are stabilized, it's on to what's called the CASF, contingency aeromedical staging facility.

TECH. SGT. GEORGE DENBY, U.S. AIR FORCE: It's more like a medical air terminal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody ready?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ready.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On my command, prepare to lift. Lift.

DENBY: Our patients when they come here, they're pretty much knowing, this is my last step before I go back to the states or before I go to Germany and then go back to the states.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, one, two, three.

DENBY: We get them here. We get them medicated and get them comfortable.

QUADE: And then time to load the patients on to a C-141, converted from cargo plane to flying hospital. Patients are racked onto hanging litters inside the plane. Then the plane goes dark for tactical takeoff. This is light discipline, only low red light until we clear Iraqi airspace.

The flight medics go to work. Using chemical glow sticks for tiny lights, they squeeze between patients in litters.

CAPT. ASSY YACOUB, PHYSICIAN: Whatever care they were getting, we continue that care. We continue mechanical ventilation on them to keep their respiratory status in check. We continue drips, etcetera. Like they need to be sedated. They need something for pain.

QUADE: After clearing Iraqi airspace, lights on. Six hours later, the plane lands at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prepare to move. Move.

QUADE: The patients are off-loaded.

SR. MASTER SGT. TERRY KENNEDY, U.S. AIR FORCE: But I'll never forget any of their faces. And you just want to hug every one of them for what they do. QUADE: Then on to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. There, usually, it's more surgery. From battlefield to this hospital in Germany, it's precision, speed, and care every step of the way, which is saving lives.

MAJ. TIM WOODS, U.S. AIR FORCE: Our airvac system right now is unbelievable. We hear what happens on the news pretty much. And within 24 to 48 hours, these guys are hitting getting into our hospital. And we're having to take care of them. And, usually, within a couple of days after that, we're trying to get them back to the states, so they can be closer to their family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have any pain right now? Yes?

QUADE: Alex Quade, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And our thanks to Alex Quade for that behind-the-scenes look from Landstuhl, a report you'll see only right here on CNN. Another CNN exclusive coming up in our next hour. We're going to talk with the commander of the U.S. base in Mosul, Brigadier General Carter Ham. You won't see that anywhere else, except coming up here, 12:30 p.m. Eastern, 9:30 a.m. Pacific.

KAYE: In today's "Daily Dose," is it better to be fit and fat or trim and tone? A new study is out.

Elizabeth Cohen will join us live with the details.

KAGAN: Plus, what about Old Man Winter? Socking it in most of the Midwest on one of the busiest travel days of the year. Our Orelon Sidney is here with our travel forecast.

CNN LIVE TODAY is back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: The FDA says that a newspaper ad for their cholesterol drug Crestor is false and misleading. The agency says the ad downplayed the risks associated with the drug. Crestor is advertised on television but the ad in question apparently appeared in "The Washington Post." The drugmaker says it is no longer being used.

KAYE: Having doubt on the concept of being fat but fit? Researchers say obesity is still hazardous to your health even if you are physically active. Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here with details. Now our daily dose of health news.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi.

KAYE: How are you?

COHEN: Good.

There was this whole school of thought at one point that it was OK to be fat as long as you were fit. As long as you were exercising your heart and really out there exercising, it was OK if you were overweight. Well, now a new study from Harvard University that's being published in the "New England Journal of Medicine" says you know what, that's not true. At least according to this study.

They looked at women who were fit but fat, in other words, women who were overweight but who were getting exercise a couple of times a week and compared them to women who were lean and also fit, and here's what they found. When they compared obese, active women to thin, active women, they found that the obese women who exercised were twice as likely to die during the study as the lean women. So the take-home message from this study, according to the authors, is it's not enough to just exercise. You also need to lose the weight if you want to improve your heart health.

KAYE: So this raises some questions, should obese people just say forget it, forget the exercise?

COHEN: Right. You might look at the results of this and say, well, gee, then why bother exercising if you're overweight. Well, there's a second part of the study that compared obese people who exercised to obese people who didn't exercise, and the exercisers did better. So in other words, exercise still did help, but it wasn't as good as exercising and taking the weight off.

This is very confusing, so we made a chart for you. Fit but fat, is it OK? The ideal is to be thin and active. That is the best, according to this study. Thin and active. The second choice is to be thin and to be a couch potato. The third choice is to be fat and active. In other words, those people did not do as well as the people who were thin and inactive. The fourth choice is to be fat and a couch potato. So again, the bottom line here is that everybody needs to exercise, but it's not enough just to exercise, you need to take the pounds off as well.

KAYE: All right. Plenty of choices there. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.

And to get your daily dose of health news online, log on to our Web site. You'll find the latest medical news, a health library and information on diet and fitness. The address is cnn.com/health.

Back in a moment with more on the wintry weather.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Home for the holidays. Millions of travelers seem determined to get there. Showing a live picture of a live tower camera from Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Records being set this week at this airport. Near two million passengers expected to pass through just this airport. 290,000 of them are there today. Passengers advised to arrive early and pack plenty of patience. Oh, yes.

Speaking of patience, we're hoping that our meteorologist Dave Hennen has some. He was wise to head home for the holidays. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) by plane. No, car. OK. Don't deal with the airports. Car. Very good thinking, Dave. But as we understand it, you are basically stuck on a road in Paducah, Kentucky.

DAVE HENNEN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right, Daryn. Stuck on interstate 24, we're just north of the Kentucky border. It moved a little bit this morning. I'm with my son, Max. We stayed overnight at a hotel, drove from Atlanta, got about as far as we could go before the weather turned bad. Fortunately, one of the people that got a hotel.

I was talking to some people that are standing a lot in the roadside, there's a Holiday Inn in Hopkinsville, I guess, that had hundreds of people in the lobby and hallway lined up. So at least we had a room last night. And now we're just stuck. Evidently there is a major accident up ahead. I understand there's a tractor-trailer overturned and things just not moving. About a 30 mile backup from what I hear.

KAGAN: So what are the conditions around you? I would imagine rather cold.

HENNEN: Yes, it's very cold, about 15 degrees on the car thermometer. About a foot of snow to a little over a foot of snow here just north of the Kentucky border. I know we're heading -- we're just about 30 miles or so south of Paducah. In Paducah, I know they picked up about two feet of snow, so we're not the peak of it yet. Once we get through that, everything will be smooth sailing.

KAGAN: Now, Dave, I just have to kind of ask you. You're a meteorologist. You're one of the smarter guys that work in this building. You can access to the best weather equipment in the world.

KAYE: Didn't you know?

KAGAN: What were you thinking?

HENNEN: I did -- I did know. You know, it's funny, because my son just said -- I said, you know, Max, we should have left on Tuesday. He said, I told ya! We almost did leave on Tuesday. What I was kind of hoping, you know, was to get Max, my son, who doesn't see much snow in Georgia, to get him into the snow, so he could kind of stop and...

KAGAN: Well, you did you that.

HENNEN: Yes. We got a little more than we bargained for.

KAGAN: There you go. Hey, is Max there?

HENNEN: He is.

KAGAN: Can we talk with him?

HENNEN: Sure.

MAX HENNEN, SON OF METEOROLOGIST DAVE HENNEN: Hi, CNN Weather Center.

KAGAN: Hey, Max.

KAYE: Hi.

KAGAN: So your dad's idea was to go in the snow?

M. HENNEN: Yes. He says that we were going to go in the snow, but he doesn't like driving in sleet, so we turned off the road and went to a hotel.

KAGAN: Very good. Well, you be safe, and you have a merry Christmas. And you take good care of your dad, OK?

M. HENNEN: OK.

KAYE: Don't ask dad if you're almost there.

KAGAN: Are we there yet?

M. HENNEN: Have a good Christmas.

KAGAN: Thank you, Max.

KAYE: You, too.

KAGAN: And, Dave, good luck. What's your final destination?

Dave?

D. HENNEN: Yes?

KAGAN: What's the final destination for you?

D. HENNEN: Chicago.

KAGAN: Chicago. OK, safe travels my friend.

KAYE: Good luck.

KAGAN: OK, very good. I'm telling you, one of the smartest weather guys in the building. I guess just don't ask him for travel advice.

KAYE: I guess not. Oh, bring it on, there you go.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Now on to the holiday homefront. We are reuniting military families who won't get to spend Christmas together. So now you're going to will meet the Tarsa family. They know what it's like to be separated during military operations. Linda, David and Jessica Tarsa, they're in Austin, Texas, while their husband and father, Lieutenant Colonel Mike Tarsa is deployed in Iraq. They smoke to our Jack Cafferty earlier today on AMERICAN MORNING.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR (on camera): Tell me a little bit about what it's like for you and -- having your husband halfway around the world at Christmas time.

LINDA TARSA, HUSBAND SERVING IN IRAQ: Christmas has always been a very special holiday for us, so this is really difficult this Christmas season. So what Mike and I decided to do is just try to make it as normal as possible on Saturday for the kids, and then we've gotten them a few extra Christmas presents this year.

CAFFERTY: How do you kids deal with the fact your dad's away? And he's not just away, like a traveling salesman's away, but he's away at war.

DAVID TARSA, FATHER SERVING IN IRAQ: Well, you try to act like it's a normal day, and we have friends who are going through the same thing. So it's kind of normal for everybody.

JESSICA TARSA, FATHER SERVING IN IRAQ: Yes. We just try to stay busy and just stay in sports, do good in school. Just try and do our normal routine.

CAFFERTY: Tell me, if you don't mind, tell me a little about the conversation your dad had with you guys before he went away? What kinds of things did he talk to you about?

TARSA: He just talked about things we should do while he's gone, how we should help our mom to get through this time and just do our best.

CAFFERTY: Colonel Tarsa, I've just been spending a minute talking to Linda and the kids about your deployment and about the holidays. Can you give me an idea of what a typical day is like for you, a typical work day? How do you spend your time?

LT. COL. MIKE TARSA, U.S. ARMY: It's a long day. You know, it's funny, and I think probably the most common words that we use to describe it is, it's Groundhog Day. You're up early. I typically leave my place of work around midnight, a little after sometimes. You hit your -- you go to sleep and then you're back at it the next day.

CAFFERTY: Tell me what it's like to sit down and tell your family good-bye? I asked the kids a little bit about the conversation you had with them before you deployed overseas. That's not easy.

M. TARSA: No. That's not easy. You know, and -- I think you try and draw upon those common themes that you've tried to repeatedly address when you raise your kids. And I didn't want to make it more significant an event than it already was, but at the same time, I want to impress upon them those things that are important in their lives.

CAFFERTY: You guys want to talk to your dad?

M. TARSA: Hey, kids. Hi, Linda. I wish I could see you. I'm sure you look beautiful. Kids, did you get an opportunity to do any shopping for mom?

J. TARSA: Yes. We got her a new printer that's a scanner, copier and a fax machine.

CAFFERTY: All right.

M. TARSA: Well, I guess it's gone as the surprise of Christmas morning.

J. TARSA: Well, we can't really surprise her. She's there with us.

CAFFERTY: That's true, I guess.

M. TARSA: David, I understand from mom you had to break away on Sunday, and you didn't put the puck in the net. What happened there?

D. TARSA: It hit the post.

M. TARSA: David, I'm proud of you. Just keep skating hard. Jack, if I could just extend the holiday greeting, I know it's as important to Linda as it is myself. We certainly wish happy holidays to those special families who have sacrificed more than we have. Please know that we're honoring the service and sacrifice of your sons and daughters every day here, and God bless you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: That's the Tarsa family, Austin, Texas and Iraq.

KAYE: Strong young man there, David Tarsa.

KAGAN: Absolutely, doing a good job.

We're going to take a quick break. We'll be back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Okay, people, Santa's coming to town.

WILL FERRELL, ACTOR: Oh, my God!

I know him. I know him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: That's our sentiments exactly. Will Ferrell is not at only one who knows Santa, we do. We will all get to know Santa a little bit better tomorrow, taking some time out from his busy schedule to stop by CNN.

That's right, Santa's coming to CNN. We can't wait. We love to see him every year, so join us for a visit with Santa, also some of our CNN children coming in. And trust me, people here not only do good news, they make some great looking children as well.

KAYE: Delightful. All right, we're going to put out the milk and cookies then for him, for tomorrow.

KAGAN: Every day, looking forward to that. OK, that's going to do it for us. Thanks for stepping in and helping out.

KAYE: My pleasure, good to be here.

KAGAN: Welcome to our CNN team.

KAYE: Thank you very much.

KAGAN: Meet one of our big stars at CNN, John King, senior White House correspondent, yes, and also filling in for our friend Wolf Blitzer.

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 December 23, 2004 - 11:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Fighting again in Falluja, even as the U.S. tries to convince residents it is safe to return. While about 500 residents were being screened to go back to their homes, U.S. Marines called it an air strike on an insurgent hideout after a 30- money the gun battle.
The first major winter storm of the season is causing major problems across the heartland. It's effect is felt from Wyoming to Pennsylvania, and from the southwest to the Great Lakes. Deep snow has stranded hundreds of motorists on a closed section of Interstate 64 in southern Indiana.

Federal authorities say scenes like this will be the exception rather than the rule at U.S. airports. After numerous complaints, airport screeners will no longer perform this intimate type of hand screening on women passengers, unless there is a prior indication that justifies closer scrutiny.

And the woman accused of killing a pregnant woman and cutting the baby from her womb told the judge today she understood what she was doing in court. Preliminary hearings for Lisa Montgomery Were waived this morning in Kansas City, Kansas. Her case is being moved to federal custody in Missouri. She will appear before a federal judge on Tuesday.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Now to news overseas, some of the wounded from the attack on a U.S. base in Mosul are returning to the U.S. Many of the wounded were first taken to Landstuhl regional medical center in Germany. We saw live pictures of their arrival yesterday on this program. Today we're going to take a behind-the- scenes look at how the wounded warriors get from the battlefield to places where they receive critical care.

CNN producer Alex Quade was given extraordinary access to U.S. military medical facilities in Iraq. In this report, she shows us how the injured are cared for at each stop along the way.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEX QUADE, CNN PRODUCER (voice-over): The journey of the wounded warrior usually begins like this. Amid the chaos, the pain, Army medics or Naval Corpsmen take life-saving action while lethal combat continues around them.

They bandage them up, carry them out. If it's too hot for a medevac helicopter to land, it's into vehicles near the battle site and on to the next level of care, a fallback position outside the kill zone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three, lift.

QUADE: This is triage. Navy shock and trauma platoon members collect and clear the wounded.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three, go.

QUADE: Stabilize and back to battle or on to the next level of care.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Urgent. Urgent. Urgent.

QUADE: Urgent means medical evacuation. Get them to a combat field hospital within one hour of being wounded, what's called the golden hour, odds are, they'll survive.

It's time for the medicine man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger. Currently (INAUDIBLE)

QUADE: Medicine man, that's the call sign of the U.S. Army medevac unit.

C.W. 2 HARLEY MAST, MEDEVAC PILOT: Guys in the field would get injured during their battles. And their EMTs or their medics on the scene can only treat them to a certain extent. And our job is to grab them and pick them up and bring them to a hospital or wherever further care is needed for the patient.

QUADE: They pick up the freshly wounded, care for them in flight, bring them to the CSH, combat support hospital, or to a forward surgical team. It's a handover to the surgeons.

There are four combat hospitals in Iraq in Tikrit, Mosul, Balad, and here in Baghdad, the former private hospital for Saddam Hussein and his family, now run by the U.S. Army. The medical work here is raw, dirty, emotionally wrenching.

CPT. SUDIP BOSE, U.S. ARMY: A lot of blood and guts. You're kind of trained for that as a doctor and you're ready for it. But what's different here is, there's another level of detachment to your patients, which are the soldiers, because they're like all of us. They left the states. They're hoping to go back. And some of them in the process aren't expecting it and they get badly injured or, god forbid, even killed. And that's what makes it different. There's a level of attachment here to the patients.

QUADE: After the patients have been stabilized, it's on to the next level, to Balad Air Base. A series of tents make up an Air Force theater hospital, E.R., O.R. and an ICU. Here, too, the medical staff work in conditions just as dangerous as Mosul. In fact, this is the most frequently attacked base in Iraq. A loudspeaker announces alarm red when it's happening.

LT. COL. DON JENKINS, U.S. AIR FORCE: When you're in the operating room, there's really nothing more that we can do than keep operating. We've built up as best we can around those operating theaters with concrete barriers and sandbags and that sort of thing. So -- still an alarm there.

Those folks that aren't scrubbed in sterile gear do have the opportunity, if they can get to their gear safely, put on their helmet or flak vest. We don't stop what we're doing just because this attack is going on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lower. Lower.

QUADE: When the patients are stabilized, it's on to what's called the CASF, contingency aeromedical staging facility.

TECH. SGT. GEORGE DENBY, U.S. AIR FORCE: It's more like a medical air terminal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody ready?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ready.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On my command, prepare to lift. Lift.

DENBY: Our patients when they come here, they're pretty much knowing, this is my last step before I go back to the states or before I go to Germany and then go back to the states.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, one, two, three.

DENBY: We get them here. We get them medicated and get them comfortable.

QUADE: And then time to load the patients on to a C-141, converted from cargo plane to flying hospital. Patients are racked onto hanging litters inside the plane. Then the plane goes dark for tactical takeoff. This is light discipline, only low red light until we clear Iraqi airspace.

The flight medics go to work. Using chemical glow sticks for tiny lights, they squeeze between patients in litters.

CAPT. ASSY YACOUB, PHYSICIAN: Whatever care they were getting, we continue that care. We continue mechanical ventilation on them to keep their respiratory status in check. We continue drips, etcetera. Like they need to be sedated. They need something for pain.

QUADE: After clearing Iraqi airspace, lights on. Six hours later, the plane lands at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prepare to move. Move.

QUADE: The patients are off-loaded.

SR. MASTER SGT. TERRY KENNEDY, U.S. AIR FORCE: But I'll never forget any of their faces. And you just want to hug every one of them for what they do. QUADE: Then on to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. There, usually, it's more surgery. From battlefield to this hospital in Germany, it's precision, speed, and care every step of the way, which is saving lives.

MAJ. TIM WOODS, U.S. AIR FORCE: Our airvac system right now is unbelievable. We hear what happens on the news pretty much. And within 24 to 48 hours, these guys are hitting getting into our hospital. And we're having to take care of them. And, usually, within a couple of days after that, we're trying to get them back to the states, so they can be closer to their family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have any pain right now? Yes?

QUADE: Alex Quade, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And our thanks to Alex Quade for that behind-the-scenes look from Landstuhl, a report you'll see only right here on CNN. Another CNN exclusive coming up in our next hour. We're going to talk with the commander of the U.S. base in Mosul, Brigadier General Carter Ham. You won't see that anywhere else, except coming up here, 12:30 p.m. Eastern, 9:30 a.m. Pacific.

KAYE: In today's "Daily Dose," is it better to be fit and fat or trim and tone? A new study is out.

Elizabeth Cohen will join us live with the details.

KAGAN: Plus, what about Old Man Winter? Socking it in most of the Midwest on one of the busiest travel days of the year. Our Orelon Sidney is here with our travel forecast.

CNN LIVE TODAY is back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: The FDA says that a newspaper ad for their cholesterol drug Crestor is false and misleading. The agency says the ad downplayed the risks associated with the drug. Crestor is advertised on television but the ad in question apparently appeared in "The Washington Post." The drugmaker says it is no longer being used.

KAYE: Having doubt on the concept of being fat but fit? Researchers say obesity is still hazardous to your health even if you are physically active. Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here with details. Now our daily dose of health news.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi.

KAYE: How are you?

COHEN: Good.

There was this whole school of thought at one point that it was OK to be fat as long as you were fit. As long as you were exercising your heart and really out there exercising, it was OK if you were overweight. Well, now a new study from Harvard University that's being published in the "New England Journal of Medicine" says you know what, that's not true. At least according to this study.

They looked at women who were fit but fat, in other words, women who were overweight but who were getting exercise a couple of times a week and compared them to women who were lean and also fit, and here's what they found. When they compared obese, active women to thin, active women, they found that the obese women who exercised were twice as likely to die during the study as the lean women. So the take-home message from this study, according to the authors, is it's not enough to just exercise. You also need to lose the weight if you want to improve your heart health.

KAYE: So this raises some questions, should obese people just say forget it, forget the exercise?

COHEN: Right. You might look at the results of this and say, well, gee, then why bother exercising if you're overweight. Well, there's a second part of the study that compared obese people who exercised to obese people who didn't exercise, and the exercisers did better. So in other words, exercise still did help, but it wasn't as good as exercising and taking the weight off.

This is very confusing, so we made a chart for you. Fit but fat, is it OK? The ideal is to be thin and active. That is the best, according to this study. Thin and active. The second choice is to be thin and to be a couch potato. The third choice is to be fat and active. In other words, those people did not do as well as the people who were thin and inactive. The fourth choice is to be fat and a couch potato. So again, the bottom line here is that everybody needs to exercise, but it's not enough just to exercise, you need to take the pounds off as well.

KAYE: All right. Plenty of choices there. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.

And to get your daily dose of health news online, log on to our Web site. You'll find the latest medical news, a health library and information on diet and fitness. The address is cnn.com/health.

Back in a moment with more on the wintry weather.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Home for the holidays. Millions of travelers seem determined to get there. Showing a live picture of a live tower camera from Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Records being set this week at this airport. Near two million passengers expected to pass through just this airport. 290,000 of them are there today. Passengers advised to arrive early and pack plenty of patience. Oh, yes.

Speaking of patience, we're hoping that our meteorologist Dave Hennen has some. He was wise to head home for the holidays. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) by plane. No, car. OK. Don't deal with the airports. Car. Very good thinking, Dave. But as we understand it, you are basically stuck on a road in Paducah, Kentucky.

DAVE HENNEN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right, Daryn. Stuck on interstate 24, we're just north of the Kentucky border. It moved a little bit this morning. I'm with my son, Max. We stayed overnight at a hotel, drove from Atlanta, got about as far as we could go before the weather turned bad. Fortunately, one of the people that got a hotel.

I was talking to some people that are standing a lot in the roadside, there's a Holiday Inn in Hopkinsville, I guess, that had hundreds of people in the lobby and hallway lined up. So at least we had a room last night. And now we're just stuck. Evidently there is a major accident up ahead. I understand there's a tractor-trailer overturned and things just not moving. About a 30 mile backup from what I hear.

KAGAN: So what are the conditions around you? I would imagine rather cold.

HENNEN: Yes, it's very cold, about 15 degrees on the car thermometer. About a foot of snow to a little over a foot of snow here just north of the Kentucky border. I know we're heading -- we're just about 30 miles or so south of Paducah. In Paducah, I know they picked up about two feet of snow, so we're not the peak of it yet. Once we get through that, everything will be smooth sailing.

KAGAN: Now, Dave, I just have to kind of ask you. You're a meteorologist. You're one of the smarter guys that work in this building. You can access to the best weather equipment in the world.

KAYE: Didn't you know?

KAGAN: What were you thinking?

HENNEN: I did -- I did know. You know, it's funny, because my son just said -- I said, you know, Max, we should have left on Tuesday. He said, I told ya! We almost did leave on Tuesday. What I was kind of hoping, you know, was to get Max, my son, who doesn't see much snow in Georgia, to get him into the snow, so he could kind of stop and...

KAGAN: Well, you did you that.

HENNEN: Yes. We got a little more than we bargained for.

KAGAN: There you go. Hey, is Max there?

HENNEN: He is.

KAGAN: Can we talk with him?

HENNEN: Sure.

MAX HENNEN, SON OF METEOROLOGIST DAVE HENNEN: Hi, CNN Weather Center.

KAGAN: Hey, Max.

KAYE: Hi.

KAGAN: So your dad's idea was to go in the snow?

M. HENNEN: Yes. He says that we were going to go in the snow, but he doesn't like driving in sleet, so we turned off the road and went to a hotel.

KAGAN: Very good. Well, you be safe, and you have a merry Christmas. And you take good care of your dad, OK?

M. HENNEN: OK.

KAYE: Don't ask dad if you're almost there.

KAGAN: Are we there yet?

M. HENNEN: Have a good Christmas.

KAGAN: Thank you, Max.

KAYE: You, too.

KAGAN: And, Dave, good luck. What's your final destination?

Dave?

D. HENNEN: Yes?

KAGAN: What's the final destination for you?

D. HENNEN: Chicago.

KAGAN: Chicago. OK, safe travels my friend.

KAYE: Good luck.

KAGAN: OK, very good. I'm telling you, one of the smartest weather guys in the building. I guess just don't ask him for travel advice.

KAYE: I guess not. Oh, bring it on, there you go.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Now on to the holiday homefront. We are reuniting military families who won't get to spend Christmas together. So now you're going to will meet the Tarsa family. They know what it's like to be separated during military operations. Linda, David and Jessica Tarsa, they're in Austin, Texas, while their husband and father, Lieutenant Colonel Mike Tarsa is deployed in Iraq. They smoke to our Jack Cafferty earlier today on AMERICAN MORNING.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR (on camera): Tell me a little bit about what it's like for you and -- having your husband halfway around the world at Christmas time.

LINDA TARSA, HUSBAND SERVING IN IRAQ: Christmas has always been a very special holiday for us, so this is really difficult this Christmas season. So what Mike and I decided to do is just try to make it as normal as possible on Saturday for the kids, and then we've gotten them a few extra Christmas presents this year.

CAFFERTY: How do you kids deal with the fact your dad's away? And he's not just away, like a traveling salesman's away, but he's away at war.

DAVID TARSA, FATHER SERVING IN IRAQ: Well, you try to act like it's a normal day, and we have friends who are going through the same thing. So it's kind of normal for everybody.

JESSICA TARSA, FATHER SERVING IN IRAQ: Yes. We just try to stay busy and just stay in sports, do good in school. Just try and do our normal routine.

CAFFERTY: Tell me, if you don't mind, tell me a little about the conversation your dad had with you guys before he went away? What kinds of things did he talk to you about?

TARSA: He just talked about things we should do while he's gone, how we should help our mom to get through this time and just do our best.

CAFFERTY: Colonel Tarsa, I've just been spending a minute talking to Linda and the kids about your deployment and about the holidays. Can you give me an idea of what a typical day is like for you, a typical work day? How do you spend your time?

LT. COL. MIKE TARSA, U.S. ARMY: It's a long day. You know, it's funny, and I think probably the most common words that we use to describe it is, it's Groundhog Day. You're up early. I typically leave my place of work around midnight, a little after sometimes. You hit your -- you go to sleep and then you're back at it the next day.

CAFFERTY: Tell me what it's like to sit down and tell your family good-bye? I asked the kids a little bit about the conversation you had with them before you deployed overseas. That's not easy.

M. TARSA: No. That's not easy. You know, and -- I think you try and draw upon those common themes that you've tried to repeatedly address when you raise your kids. And I didn't want to make it more significant an event than it already was, but at the same time, I want to impress upon them those things that are important in their lives.

CAFFERTY: You guys want to talk to your dad?

M. TARSA: Hey, kids. Hi, Linda. I wish I could see you. I'm sure you look beautiful. Kids, did you get an opportunity to do any shopping for mom?

J. TARSA: Yes. We got her a new printer that's a scanner, copier and a fax machine.

CAFFERTY: All right.

M. TARSA: Well, I guess it's gone as the surprise of Christmas morning.

J. TARSA: Well, we can't really surprise her. She's there with us.

CAFFERTY: That's true, I guess.

M. TARSA: David, I understand from mom you had to break away on Sunday, and you didn't put the puck in the net. What happened there?

D. TARSA: It hit the post.

M. TARSA: David, I'm proud of you. Just keep skating hard. Jack, if I could just extend the holiday greeting, I know it's as important to Linda as it is myself. We certainly wish happy holidays to those special families who have sacrificed more than we have. Please know that we're honoring the service and sacrifice of your sons and daughters every day here, and God bless you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: That's the Tarsa family, Austin, Texas and Iraq.

KAYE: Strong young man there, David Tarsa.

KAGAN: Absolutely, doing a good job.

We're going to take a quick break. We'll be back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Okay, people, Santa's coming to town.

WILL FERRELL, ACTOR: Oh, my God!

I know him. I know him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: That's our sentiments exactly. Will Ferrell is not at only one who knows Santa, we do. We will all get to know Santa a little bit better tomorrow, taking some time out from his busy schedule to stop by CNN.

That's right, Santa's coming to CNN. We can't wait. We love to see him every year, so join us for a visit with Santa, also some of our CNN children coming in. And trust me, people here not only do good news, they make some great looking children as well.

KAYE: Delightful. All right, we're going to put out the milk and cookies then for him, for tomorrow.

KAGAN: Every day, looking forward to that. OK, that's going to do it for us. Thanks for stepping in and helping out.

KAYE: My pleasure, good to be here.

KAGAN: Welcome to our CNN team.

KAYE: Thank you very much.

KAGAN: Meet one of our big stars at CNN, John King, senior White House correspondent, yes, and also filling in for our friend Wolf Blitzer.

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