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American Morning
101st Moves Into Assembly Area
Aired March 21, 2003 - 08:41 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: Meanwhile, back here in Kuwait, there are certain units that have not advanced into Iraq just yet for reasons that military planners will not tell us but perhaps very soon they might be moving. That includes the 101st Airborne Division. And with that unit, embedded is CNN's Ryan Chilcote who can join us now live to tell us what's happening from his perspective.
Ryan, hello. Good afternoon.
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Bill. The 101st -- soldiers from the 101st Airborne have moved into an assembly area in the Kuwaiti desert. They moved out of a camp yesterday. They're now in this assembly area and basically prepared, posed, if you will, to move into Iraq should they get the word.
We are actually on a five-ton truck that some of the soldiers came in on and with me two soldiers, two rifleman, two grunts, as they like to refer to themselves, two infantrymen of the 187th Infantry Regime. With me first let's talk to Specialist Joshua Blair. Joshua, tell me about the ride coming in here. What was it like?
SPC. JOSHUA BLAIR, 101st AIRBORNE DIVISION. Pretty much it was bumpy and kind of loud because we were thinking -- quote-unquote -- it was going to be a scud alert or something like that on the way up here but we didn't have to worry about that too much. So it was a pretty bumpy ride up here.
CHILCOTE: Sure. And, Bill, just so you know there have been a total of four scud alerts since yesterday. The most recent just a couple of hours ago. That's where you're wearing this chemical suit. It's underneath the flap (ph) jacket. It's just a preventative measure should one of those scuds be carrying a chemical weapon. The soldiers already have these suits on and are ready to go.
Also with us with have Private Monroe Daniels and he has in front of him his backpack, which is almost larger than he is. Can you tell us about your backpack? How much it weighs? Maybe you can pick it up for us and show us some of the stuff it's got.
PFC. MONROE DANIELS, 101ST AIRBORNE DIVISION: All right. Actually I don't know exactly how much it weighs but I'm carrying like ...
CHILCOTE: Can you pick it up for us?
DANIELS: ... pretty much a lot of stuff. It's not that heavy once you get it on. You want me to put it all the way on? CHILCOTE: ... you can just pick it up. You don't actually have to put it on. I hope you get the idea of exactly how heavy that is. The 101st Airborne, they are light infantry and they like to carry everything on their back. How are you feeling right now holding that?
DANIELS: Getting a little tired right now.
CHILCOTE: Well he's a lot better shape than I am so that's pretty telling.
You know I wanted to ask you Monroe, I know you've been in the Army just nine months now. You know now you're sitting here in this assembly area, you might be going into Iraq. What do you feel about that? How do you feel about that?
DANIELS: Well it's kind of crazy because I first come into this unit and the next thing I know, bam, I'm over here. Got to go to war and just be glad when I get back home to my wife, you know.
CHILCOTE: You confident? You think you guys are going to be all right?
DANIELS: Yeah. I think we're going to be all right. Very confident.
BLAIR: Very confident.
CHILCOTE: Just to let you know -- well thank you very much you guys.
Just to let you know, Bill, even though we are in Kuwait, I mentioned the scud alert, this is not a safe place and our troops are not necessarily out of arms way even here. I mentioned earlier the four scud alerts. Those scud alerts, those alarms that prompted us putting on the protective gear and the gas mask for a short while, those were triggered by real missile attacks. I know of at least three Obabill (ph) 100 missile attacks that prompted those alarms for these soldiers. So even here in Kuwait, out of Iraq, out of the direct conflict, the soldiers are not necessarily out of harms way -- Bill.
HEMMER: Ryan Chilcote embedded with the 101st Airborne Division.
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 March 21, 2003 - 08:41 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, back here in Kuwait, there are certain units that have not advanced into Iraq just yet for reasons that military planners will not tell us but perhaps very soon they might be moving. That includes the 101st Airborne Division. And with that unit, embedded is CNN's Ryan Chilcote who can join us now live to tell us what's happening from his perspective.
Ryan, hello. Good afternoon.
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Bill. The 101st -- soldiers from the 101st Airborne have moved into an assembly area in the Kuwaiti desert. They moved out of a camp yesterday. They're now in this assembly area and basically prepared, posed, if you will, to move into Iraq should they get the word.
We are actually on a five-ton truck that some of the soldiers came in on and with me two soldiers, two rifleman, two grunts, as they like to refer to themselves, two infantrymen of the 187th Infantry Regime. With me first let's talk to Specialist Joshua Blair. Joshua, tell me about the ride coming in here. What was it like?
SPC. JOSHUA BLAIR, 101st AIRBORNE DIVISION. Pretty much it was bumpy and kind of loud because we were thinking -- quote-unquote -- it was going to be a scud alert or something like that on the way up here but we didn't have to worry about that too much. So it was a pretty bumpy ride up here.
CHILCOTE: Sure. And, Bill, just so you know there have been a total of four scud alerts since yesterday. The most recent just a couple of hours ago. That's where you're wearing this chemical suit. It's underneath the flap (ph) jacket. It's just a preventative measure should one of those scuds be carrying a chemical weapon. The soldiers already have these suits on and are ready to go.
Also with us with have Private Monroe Daniels and he has in front of him his backpack, which is almost larger than he is. Can you tell us about your backpack? How much it weighs? Maybe you can pick it up for us and show us some of the stuff it's got.
PFC. MONROE DANIELS, 101ST AIRBORNE DIVISION: All right. Actually I don't know exactly how much it weighs but I'm carrying like ...
CHILCOTE: Can you pick it up for us?
DANIELS: ... pretty much a lot of stuff. It's not that heavy once you get it on. You want me to put it all the way on? CHILCOTE: ... you can just pick it up. You don't actually have to put it on. I hope you get the idea of exactly how heavy that is. The 101st Airborne, they are light infantry and they like to carry everything on their back. How are you feeling right now holding that?
DANIELS: Getting a little tired right now.
CHILCOTE: Well he's a lot better shape than I am so that's pretty telling.
You know I wanted to ask you Monroe, I know you've been in the Army just nine months now. You know now you're sitting here in this assembly area, you might be going into Iraq. What do you feel about that? How do you feel about that?
DANIELS: Well it's kind of crazy because I first come into this unit and the next thing I know, bam, I'm over here. Got to go to war and just be glad when I get back home to my wife, you know.
CHILCOTE: You confident? You think you guys are going to be all right?
DANIELS: Yeah. I think we're going to be all right. Very confident.
BLAIR: Very confident.
CHILCOTE: Just to let you know -- well thank you very much you guys.
Just to let you know, Bill, even though we are in Kuwait, I mentioned the scud alert, this is not a safe place and our troops are not necessarily out of arms way even here. I mentioned earlier the four scud alerts. Those scud alerts, those alarms that prompted us putting on the protective gear and the gas mask for a short while, those were triggered by real missile attacks. I know of at least three Obabill (ph) 100 missile attacks that prompted those alarms for these soldiers. So even here in Kuwait, out of Iraq, out of the direct conflict, the soldiers are not necessarily out of harms way -- Bill.
HEMMER: Ryan Chilcote embedded with the 101st Airborne Division.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
