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American Morning
U.S. Troops Fired Upon in Kuwait Earlier Today
Aired October 14, 2002 - 09:40 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: U.S. troops were fired upon in Kuwait earlier today. We've reported on that for the past couple of hours. American forces were already in dangerous places fighting the war on terror. Some have to get ready for the possibility of a war with Iraq.
Jamie McIntyre is with some of those in a CNN exclusive. He's reporting live onboard a U.S. carrier in the northern Arabian sea by way of videophone.
Jamie, in this exclusive report, hello again to you.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, hello, Bill.
It is a little calmer here. Some of the planes are returning from their operations over Afghanistan. And they are -- this is the squadron of Superhornets just landing just now. It's actually about 5:41 in the evening here. They're just wrapping up operations for the day. This is not an exercise. This is an actual combat operations. And, in fact, this is the first time the Navy has permitted a live broadcast, news broadcast from a carrier, while they're engaged in actual combat operations.
Now that said, it's fairly peaceful over Afghanistan at the moment. They have not had to drop any bombs or take any action in anger, but nevertheless, not far from the minds of these combat pilots are the -- what they might face if they have to go up in Iraq.
And we talked to some of the pilots here, and they said, look, we understand what's going on. We haven't been told anything other than the fact that this is a routine six-month deployment. But we know that if war comes with Iraq, we're likely to stay in the Persian Gulf. Right now, they're in the Arabian Sea. They will be moving to the Persian Gulf. They won't say exactly when.
We're looking on the deck now, and can see a couple of F-14 tomcats and an F-18 over on the carrier deck. Right now, an S-3 Viking is returning from today's mission. We'll try to catch it. It's going to be very noisy here.
As you see, the S-3 Viking, those are used for refueling. So, Bill, combat operations going on here on the USS Abraham Lincoln. In the back of their minds, everybody thinking about possible operations in Iraq, but nobody's really talking about it officially.
HEMMER: Such precision, such requirement, too. Thank you, Jamie. Jamie McIntyre, by way of videophone there in the northern Arabian sea there, onboard a U.S. aircraft carrier. Operations exercises is still under way today.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 14, 2002 - 09:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. troops were fired upon in Kuwait earlier today. We've reported on that for the past couple of hours. American forces were already in dangerous places fighting the war on terror. Some have to get ready for the possibility of a war with Iraq.
Jamie McIntyre is with some of those in a CNN exclusive. He's reporting live onboard a U.S. carrier in the northern Arabian sea by way of videophone.
Jamie, in this exclusive report, hello again to you.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, hello, Bill.
It is a little calmer here. Some of the planes are returning from their operations over Afghanistan. And they are -- this is the squadron of Superhornets just landing just now. It's actually about 5:41 in the evening here. They're just wrapping up operations for the day. This is not an exercise. This is an actual combat operations. And, in fact, this is the first time the Navy has permitted a live broadcast, news broadcast from a carrier, while they're engaged in actual combat operations.
Now that said, it's fairly peaceful over Afghanistan at the moment. They have not had to drop any bombs or take any action in anger, but nevertheless, not far from the minds of these combat pilots are the -- what they might face if they have to go up in Iraq.
And we talked to some of the pilots here, and they said, look, we understand what's going on. We haven't been told anything other than the fact that this is a routine six-month deployment. But we know that if war comes with Iraq, we're likely to stay in the Persian Gulf. Right now, they're in the Arabian Sea. They will be moving to the Persian Gulf. They won't say exactly when.
We're looking on the deck now, and can see a couple of F-14 tomcats and an F-18 over on the carrier deck. Right now, an S-3 Viking is returning from today's mission. We'll try to catch it. It's going to be very noisy here.
As you see, the S-3 Viking, those are used for refueling. So, Bill, combat operations going on here on the USS Abraham Lincoln. In the back of their minds, everybody thinking about possible operations in Iraq, but nobody's really talking about it officially.
HEMMER: Such precision, such requirement, too. Thank you, Jamie. Jamie McIntyre, by way of videophone there in the northern Arabian sea there, onboard a U.S. aircraft carrier. Operations exercises is still under way today.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
