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American Morning

What Is a Debriefing Procedure?

Aired April 12, 2001 - 09:13   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the released U.S. crewmembers are scheduled to undergo extensive debriefing when they reach Hawaii and their arrival there is expected some time after 12:30 P.M. Eastern. For now, though, they are just relieved to be coming home at all. The stopover early today in Guam was their first contact with American soil since the 12 day ordeal began.

CNN's Jeanne Meserve standing by in Washington. She's got more for us now about the debriefing procedure and she's got a special guest to help her talk about that -- Jeanne?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: Leon, that's right. We're going to hear about the debriefing process from a man who has actually been through it himself. I'm joined from Los Angeles by Andrew Ramirez, a former U.S. Army staff sergeant. Mr. Ramirez was serving in Macedonia two years ago when he and two other U.S. soldiers were captured and held prisoner in Serbia for 32 days. Jesse Jackson ultimately won their release.

Mr. Ramirez, thanks so much for joining us.

ANDREW RAMIREZ, FORMER U.S. ARMY STAFF SERGEANT: Oh, no problem.

MESERVE: First, can you tell me why this process takes so long? Why is this a matter of days rather than hours?

RAMIREZ: It's a very big or a very long process because they want to get as much information as they can. It's almost, you're telling your entire story or the entire experience, you know, fully and it'll, it's almost like you're being interrogated again or you're being questioned again, which was my experience. But it's a long process but it is very useful and very helpful.

MESERVE: How does it work? Are you debriefed by teams of people? Are there various teams with various areas of interest? And were you debriefed individually, the three of you who were held?

RAMIREZ: Yes. We were debriefed individually and there is a group of people. They have different groups of people who work for different areas. You have, we had intelligence people and we also had psychologists and then you have the medical teams that, it's a medical debriefing, basically, but it's, basically it's just a checkup to make sure you're OK.

MESERVE: Do you end up being asked the same questions over and over again by different teams of people?

RAMIREZ: Yes, you do. It's, but it's because you're not talking to the same people and it's just for the amount of information that you need to get or that they need to get from you, it's so much that you end up answering questions over and over. And like I said, it's a long process and it seems very long. So just the information that they get is a lot.

MESERVE: Was it difficult for you to go through this process right after you'd been released? Did it increase your trauma in any way?

RAMIREZ: No, actually I think it helped and I say that because you're talking this, you're talking this experience over and over. You're releasing some vented, or your, some pent up aggression or anger you may have, but you're putting all this information out right at the time and it helps because you remember it. It's fresh in your head and this way they get as much information as they need.

MESERVE: I imagine that you wanted very much to see your family and friends. Did you resent in any way that reunion being delayed by the debriefing process?

RAMIREZ: No, I didn't, and I did not because this was what needed to happen. Being a soldier, being in the military, you know that there's things that you need to take care of first and I've always been one of the type of people, well, I'd rather get my work done first and then I can go and have fun or get everything good that I was looking forward to.

MESERVE: And when it was all over, did you find it hard to return to so-called normal life?

RAMIREZ: No. But that's really because the, it wasn't really a normal life to begin with because of the reporters and the interviews that we went through and some of the, you know, we had parades and we had other things, you know, just welcoming us back here to America. And so it was difficult to get back to normal life because it wasn't, it didn't happen right away. But it went little by little and so that, that helped us get right back on track.

MESERVE: Did the military provide you with any ongoing counseling after the debriefing?

RAMIREZ: We were told that we can talk to psychologists, any of the team of psychologists that talked with us at the time. We can contact them. We could talk to them any time we like if we felt we needed any help or if we needed to just let anything out.

MESERVE: Andrew Ramirez, thank you so much for joining us from Los Angeles, giving us some insight into what the crew of the EP-3 will be going through in the next several days -- Leon, back to you.

HARRIS: All right, thank you, Jeanne. We'll see you in a bit. Once again, the 24 U.S. crewmembers released from China are due to arrive in Hawaii around 12:30 P.M. Eastern and, of course, CNN plans to show you that arrival live right here.

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