Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
With U.S. Air Force
Aired April 10, 2003 - 08:20 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Our Gary Tuchman is with the U.S. Air Force. He is near Al Kut, at a forward airbase, about 50 miles from Baghdad.
He joins us now by videophone.
Gary, what's the latest?
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, hello to you.
Just six days ago, this was an Iraqi-controlled base. It was right in the center of Iraq, only 45 miles southeast of Baghdad. But the coalition took it over six days ago, and made it into a virtual city. They are flying planes, like these two C-130s behind me, flying helicopters in, and more than 1,800 U.S. service people, mostly Marines, are living here now.
I want to give you a shot of something very interesting in the background that gives you an idea of how the coalition controls this area. In the background there, it's hard to see, but we want to show it to you. Those are patriot missile launchers. We've been telling you over the past two or three weeks they've been putting patriot missile launchers in Iraq. Those are the launchers to protect this base. We arrived here on a transport sortie. We brought 15 Marines to Iraq for the first time; 65,000 people have been transported via sorties since this war began.
With us right now is Major Dave Michaels with the U.S. Marine Corps.
Major Michaels, why are these bases being set up all over the country?
MJR. DAVE MICHEALS, U.S. MARINES CORPS: As you know, the Marine Corps air wing, the focus of that is to support the young man on the ground out there. He's 18 to 20 years old. The reason this war has been able to go so fast is because of planes like these and the helicopters can come in. One of the C-130s in one hour can take what an entire day for three trucks to come up here. So it cuts down on the convoy time. We can gets the supplies right there, as we need them, and we push forward as fast as you've seen and it's been pretty fast.
TUCHMAN: 1,800 people, how long will they be here?
MICHEALS: We have no idea. Everybody would like to go home as soon as possible, but not before the job is done. We're all happy to be here, and things are going well.
TUCHMAN: Major, thank you.
We want to tell you, it's very loud, it's very austere here. There is no refrigeration. There are no showers. There are really no bathrooms. It gives you an idea, but that's what people here are going to deal with at bases throughout Iraq, because that's the name of the game right now, having the military stay at bases that used to be controlled by the Iraqis.
One more thing we want to tell you, as we came here... (AUDIO GAP)
... 50 feet. The pilots do that to avoid Iraqi radar.
Paula, back to you.
ZAHN: Gary Tuchman, thanks so much. Quite a transformation there.
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 April 10, 2003 - 08:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Our Gary Tuchman is with the U.S. Air Force. He is near Al Kut, at a forward airbase, about 50 miles from Baghdad.
He joins us now by videophone.
Gary, what's the latest?
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, hello to you.
Just six days ago, this was an Iraqi-controlled base. It was right in the center of Iraq, only 45 miles southeast of Baghdad. But the coalition took it over six days ago, and made it into a virtual city. They are flying planes, like these two C-130s behind me, flying helicopters in, and more than 1,800 U.S. service people, mostly Marines, are living here now.
I want to give you a shot of something very interesting in the background that gives you an idea of how the coalition controls this area. In the background there, it's hard to see, but we want to show it to you. Those are patriot missile launchers. We've been telling you over the past two or three weeks they've been putting patriot missile launchers in Iraq. Those are the launchers to protect this base. We arrived here on a transport sortie. We brought 15 Marines to Iraq for the first time; 65,000 people have been transported via sorties since this war began.
With us right now is Major Dave Michaels with the U.S. Marine Corps.
Major Michaels, why are these bases being set up all over the country?
MJR. DAVE MICHEALS, U.S. MARINES CORPS: As you know, the Marine Corps air wing, the focus of that is to support the young man on the ground out there. He's 18 to 20 years old. The reason this war has been able to go so fast is because of planes like these and the helicopters can come in. One of the C-130s in one hour can take what an entire day for three trucks to come up here. So it cuts down on the convoy time. We can gets the supplies right there, as we need them, and we push forward as fast as you've seen and it's been pretty fast.
TUCHMAN: 1,800 people, how long will they be here?
MICHEALS: We have no idea. Everybody would like to go home as soon as possible, but not before the job is done. We're all happy to be here, and things are going well.
TUCHMAN: Major, thank you.
We want to tell you, it's very loud, it's very austere here. There is no refrigeration. There are no showers. There are really no bathrooms. It gives you an idea, but that's what people here are going to deal with at bases throughout Iraq, because that's the name of the game right now, having the military stay at bases that used to be controlled by the Iraqis.
One more thing we want to tell you, as we came here... (AUDIO GAP)
... 50 feet. The pilots do that to avoid Iraqi radar.
Paula, back to you.
ZAHN: Gary Tuchman, thanks so much. Quite a transformation there.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
