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American Morning
Coast Guard Undertakes Mission to Make 8-Year-Old Florida Boy's Dream Come True
Aired January 16, 2002 - 07:45 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.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Since September 11th, the Coast Guard has been on heightened alert protecting the American coast against any seaborne attack. But the Coast Guard has also undertaken another mission: to make an 8-year-old Florida boy's dream come true. Justin Clark built a set of 16 wooden toy sailboats, each with a message of hope for the victims of September 11th. His single wish was to sail them out to sea, and just this past Monday a Coast Guard cutter deployed the first of Justin's fleet in the Gulf of Mexico. Justin Clark, a little boy with a big heart, joins us now along with his grandfather, George Richard, and the Coast Guard's Jason Mitchell.
Thanks very much for being with us this morning.
JASON MITCHELL, U.S. COAST GUARD: Thank you.
COOPER: This is a really, really sweet idea. Justin, I want to start off with you. First, I just want to read what -- what you wrote in each of these boats. And what you wrote was, "I would really appreciate it if you say a little prayer in your own way for the families of the September 11th tragedy or our people overseas who are protecting our freedom." Why did you want to do this, Justin?
JUSTIN CLARK: Because I felt bad for what happened; because of the planes crashing into the twin towers. I felt really bad because of it and I wanted to do something.
COOPER: And where do you hope these boats end up?
CLARK: I don't really know. I don't really know about that.
COOPER: Yeah? You hope they go pretty far, though.
CLARK: Yeah, go anywhere. I hope they end up about anywhere where somebody can find them.
COOPER: OK. And, George, you decided to -- you're his grandfather and you helped him build these boats. You decided, though, that it wouldn't be enough to just send them off into the bay in Tampa, that's right?
GEORGE RICHARD, JUSTIN'S GRANDFATHER: Right. We live on the bay and I'm a boater, and I didn't want to go to far beyond the confines of Tampa Bay. So we started looking for a way to get them out pretty far, and that's where the Coast Guard came in. And that's in the (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
COOPER: Does it -- Justin, does it give you a good feeling to know that these -- these boats are on their way?
CLARK: It's a really good feeling.
COOPER: George, was Justin very affected by the attacks on September 11th?
RICHARD: He was, very much so. He couldn't understand how, you know, people could come to our country and really disrupt our way of life. And he was quite concerned about that and he expressed it to his parents.
COOPER: I see you -- I know you contacted the Coast Guard. Jason Mitchell is with us this morning from the Coast Guard. Jason, when you heard this request, what went through your mind?
MITCHELL: Well, I was -- I was very impressed by the young man's thoughts and efforts with regard to this little project that he undertook. I discussed it with the command and the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) St. Pete (ph) thought it was also a very -- a very neat idea; a very thoughtful creative -- we could tell that he -- he was very -- very concerned about what happened September 11th.
COOPER: And, Jason, have the boats -- the boats have been deployed? And where are they now?
MITCHELL: Yes, sir. The Coast Guard Cutter (UNINTELLIGIBLE), which is over my soldier here -- you can see the crew behind me. The Coast Guard Cutter (UNINTELLIGIBLE) took these boats offshore, and it's -- it's quite simple, I (ph) arranged about 120 nautical miles apart and as far as 95 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. They were -- they were deployed in groups of five and one group of six. So we think we've got a pretty good spread on the boats.
COOPER: All right. Just very briefly, Justin, you build these boats with your grandfather. Was it difficult building these boats?
CLARK: Yeah, it wasn't that easy. The hardest part was probably putting (ph) the weights on it to hold it up.
COOPER: Yeah.
CLARK: That was probably the hardest part.
COOPER: And I see you have little American flags on them. Was that your idea?
CLARK: Yeah, that was my idea at the beginning, to put the flags on them.
COOPER: All right. Well, it was really a good idea. And, Justin, we really appreciate you being with us this morning, as well as George Richard Clark and Jason Mitchell. Thanks very much all for being with us. It's a very nice story and we'll try to keep track of where the boats wind up.
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