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American Morning

U.S. Troops Returning from Front Lines in Eastern Afghanistan to Await New Orders

Aired March 20, 2002 - 08:48   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.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: With Operation Anaconda over, U.S. troops are returning from the front lines in Eastern Afghanistan to await new orders.

CNN's Martin Savidge was one of the first television reporters to travel directly into the heat of the battle there, and now he, too, is on his way home. Here are his own words reflecting back on an 80-day tour of duty there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): And essentially what it meant was that we came in before the mission began, spent about a week working with the soldiers, living with them, eating with them, training with them, going into military briefs, having full access to everything, the planning, the intelligence reports. We knew everything before it was going to happen, and that was such a rare and remarkable opportunity as a journalist.

And then, of course, you go on the mission. Probably the first two times when we tried to fly in in the CH-47s after Operation Anaconda got under way were the most fearful for me, once in the daytime and then once at night, because you're packed into that helicopter, literally one body on top of another. Your flying often in the darkness. You're hearing reports coming in from the front lines, heavy fighting, that the LZ is under attack, and you're thinking, my God, in about 60 seconds, I'm going to land right in the middle of this, and I'm locked inside this helicopter, and it's essentially a flying bomb. And you've got all that ammunition, and you know that one stray bullet will turn the thing into a massive fire, and your chances of getting out are pretty slim.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where's that fire coming from?

SAVIDGE: And then after that, I suppose the mortar fire, the gunfire. I've covered conflicts before, but always from the periphery. I mean, I've been shot at and mortared and missiled, but you're always on the outside looking in, and you always had an escape route. You had vehicle and usually a driver, and you knew right way to get out. If things got too hairy, you left. I knew going in that there was no way to leave. And for good or the bad or whatever, you were there until the outcome was finally decided, and I think that is something that sticks in your head. But it's also been a great experience. I mean, I look at the remarkable journey that I've done. I've now gone from spending a month and a half in the man-made canyons of New York City and the horror of ground zero, and then to go from that to the valleys where the fighting was raging in Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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