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American Morning

America's New War: Port Security Unit 308 Training for Deployment Overseas

Aired September 26, 2001 - 12:15   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.
BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Here at Camp Lejeune behind me, 145 men and women of port security unit 308. They are training for deployment overseas, but members of units like this have already been called into duty here at the U.S.

So let me set the stage for you. We are going to see a training exercise now in just in a moment. You remember the USS Cole, last October, a rubber dingy containing just a handful of terrorist, sailed unchallenged up to the USS Cole, and blew a huge hole in it, killing 17 U.S. sailors.

Now determined now to let that happen again, the Coast Guard is undergoing this training exercise with BSU 308, and we're about to see an exercise in just a moment. And remember, it is just a training exercise. And with us to explain what's about to happen is Captain John Gentile. He is the commanding officer.

What are we about to see?

CAPT. JOHN GENTILE, U.S. COAST GUARD: What we have here is a simulated pier, or harbor front, and a port security unit, or PSU. Their job is to protect that waterfront from infiltrators, from terrorist. And you see the sandbags. There are machine gun nests, and rifles, and two boats tied up also have machine guns to protect them. In the background, you'll see the two darker shaded boats are going to make a run, and make a turn to the left and try to infiltrate the pier space. You see the two lighter-shaded boats are the good guys, are the port security unit boats, who trying to stop them.

You see them open fire from the pier and from the boat.

NELSON: From the looks of it to me, they are getting too close to port.

GENTILE: What it is, is the good boats, the good guy boats, are staying out of the way so they don't get caught in the crossfire of the bad guys shooting and the good guys shooting from the pier. So now, once they are clear of the pier, the boats go back after them to try to stop them.

NELSON: Now a lot of this, I presume, has come out of the unfortunate circumstances of USS Cole. How has training increased? GENTILE: I think after the Cole, there was an increased level of awareness of the threat. And immediately after the Cole, we deployed a Port Security unit out of Cleveland to help protection, and also, we instituted a new regulation that is securities on all unknown naval vessels on U.S. ports as well.

Here again, you have the dark-shaded boats are the bad guys making another run. They are shooting from the pier side to stop them. And again, the good guy boats are not getting in the way of the crossfire. That's why you see them off to the side.

NELSON: Some of the guardsmen have sensors on them.

GENTILE: That's correct. They have units on them that will buzz if they are hut.

NELSON: Now this is a group of reservist. In your estimation, how have they responded in this exercise leading up to today.

GENTILE: They've responded fantastically. They have been here for over two weeks, getting very little sleep. You can see the camp that they have built, and they have answered every obstacle that is thrown in their way.

NELSON: All right, just to let you know, that some of these units are currently deployed here domestically for homeland security in Boston, New York, and Seattle, but the bulk of the rest of the units are still destined to hit overseas.

From a Coast Guard training base, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, I'm Brian Nelson.

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