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American Morning
Profile of Marine Pianist
Aired December 31, 2001 - 07:29 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Remember the name Teshain Tomko (ph)? He's a captain here in the U.S. marines and he's in charge of hundreds of men here on the ground in Kandahar. Tomko grew up in southern Illinois, went to the University of Illinois and was a performance piano major. He says he can play a mean Rachmanov. But right now he is digging holes on the perimeter, securing this airport, and yesterday he took us out to show the us the line and the holes for him and his men.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: As we look out on this field, how many land mines would you venture to guess are in this field?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it's absolutely littered with land mines. Of the 25 million people population in Afghanistan, you probably have 17 million mines in this country, everything from anti-tank mines to toe poppers, everything imaginable is right out here to our front.
HEMMER: Is it safe, though? I mean you've done a certain amount of investigation out here trying to find and locate those munitions?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's absolutely safe. Everywhere that a Marine walks, we religiously follow the same paths every day. These have all been cleared by EOD, the explosives experts, the combat engineers with the mine sweepers, etc., to make sure that everywhere a marine puts in a shovel into the dirt or lays a spade or takes a pick to the dirt to build their positions, it is absolutely safe.
This is our scout sniper team that supports the company. We call them Ma Bell. They can reach out and touch someone at any given moment. They have superb capabilities, very, very disciplined marines, have gone through rigorous training standards to achieve the standards that they are able to achieve.
HEMMER: Twenty-four hour watch?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty-four hour watch all around the perimeter all the time.
This is the forward line of troops, what we call the FLOT. This is where the marines have been digging in for the last two and a half weeks. Along here, this is Sgt. Santa Cruz's squad. Sgt. Santa Cruz is right here. This is one of my favorite holes that we call 6-5 because it's straight out of the manual, straight out of the textbook, absolutely perfect.
HEMMER: Is that so?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything is the way it's supposed to be and you can tell they put a lot of hard work into it.
I'll tell you, one of the biggest things we have to maintain out here is hygiene. The men who get sick, whether it's from the water, the dirt, etc., these guys are staying young and strong, Bill. He was a little bit sick the other night, weren't you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell your mom you're OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mom, I'm OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, good.
And over here we've got Gold's Gym, a little pull up bar action. And then we have our tricep extensions.
HEMMER: Nice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All with engineer tape, sand bags.
HEMMER: All improvised?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes. Then we have a bench press over there, tricep extensions and a nice little curl bar, all with sand bags.
HEMMER: Only in Afghanistan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Got to keep strong.
HEMMER: Oh yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right here we're finishing up digging a crawl trench. You can never finish digging in the defense. In that, with a crawl trench, it keeps them safe as they're moving from position to position so that if there is any fire coming in, nothing stops a bullet like dirt. Cpl. Ramsey (ph) continues to work. This is Sgt. Hot Rodriguez from New York City.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's the rules?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep digging.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then what?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Digging.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then what? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Digging.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then what?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then what?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Digging.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then what?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then digging.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then what?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And digging, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then maybe some heat, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
HEMMER: The reason why you're here is because of what happened on September 11. How did these guys react to those events?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had young men, we're talking 19, 20-year- old men, this Generation X that everybody calls them, hitching rides with truckers, taking cabs, borrowing cars, doing everything they could possibly do to come back and fulfill their duty to their country. You know, we hear so many things from the greatest generation about this generation. Well, I say this is a next greatest generation right here before you today.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Teshain Tomko (ph), walking the line here, the perimeter at Kandahar, a very proud man, almost like a football coach, walking up and down that line, calling all of his men by nicknames. He knows every one of them and says something to every one that he passes by.
A performance piano major at the University of Illinois, Leon. Now he's here in Afghanistan and says he would not be anywhere else right now when it comes to his calling in the U.S. marines.
Leon, see you again in about 30 minutes time. From Kandahar, back to you.
HARRIS: All right, very good.
Bill Hemmer, thanks much. We'll see you in a bit.
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