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American Morning

Lincoln Carrying President Only a Few Hours From Port

Aired May 02, 2003 - 08:03   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: Back to the Lincoln right now, carrying the president only a few hours, again, from port in San Diego. Mr. Bush became the first sitting president to land on a carrier when flying out to that ship yesterday. He went on board late yesterday afternoon. The speech went down last night.
Frank Buckley up this morning with us to take us through the morning hours there on the Lincoln -- Frank, good morning again.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

A great deal of excitement here on the USS Abraham Lincoln. The president still aboard, but now the focus of that excitement really shifting to seeing family members. They've seen the president. Now they want to see their family members, who they haven't seen for nearly 10 months.

Let me show you some of the activity going on here in the hangar bay. You can see that everything is all packed up, or at least is in the process of getting all packed up. These are all the things from H.S.4, which is the helicopter squadron aboard USS Abraham Lincoln. The air wing gets all of its stuff packed up and they get off here in San Diego.

And three members of H.S.4 joining me right now.

You ladies have all been packed up for hours now, just sitting here waiting to go and get off.

We'll ask you first, Charisma White (ph), how are you feeling today?

CHARISMA WHITE: I'm feeling really good, really excited. I can't wait to see my parents. I haven't seen them in, god, almost a year now. Waiting to see my fiance. He got home, actually, about a week ago. He was out here also, serving with our battle group. So I cannot wait to see him. It's been a long time.

BUCKLEY: Great. Lisa Dougherty (ph), how about yourself? Who's going to be meeting you at shore?

LISA DOUGHERTY: My family, my mom, my dad and my brother. It's been a while. I'm really excited.

BUCKLEY: And we also have Sharon Smith (ph).

Sharon, tell me about your excitement and what's the first thing you're going to do when you get off this ship?

SHARON SMITH: Oh, the first thing I'm going to do is see my kids, talk to my son and my daughter.

BUCKLEY: How old is your daughter?

SMITH: My daughter is 10 months. My son is four years.

BUCKLEY: Wow. Your daughter is 10 months and your son is four years old? You haven't seen them for how long?

SMITH: About seven months.

BUCKLEY: Oh, man.

SMITH: Yes.

BUCKLEY: That's a difficult thing. Tell me how you're feeling about that. What is it that you hope to say to them? What are you going to say to those kids?

SMITH: Well, I call them every day. I talk to them every day. He knows I'm coming home. I talked to him today. And he knows that I miss him and love him so, hi.

BUCKLEY: Well, congratulations and welcome home early, but just a few hours you'll be home to see the family.

Thank you very much.

Really excited folks here aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln -- Bill.

HEMMER: Unbelievable. Talk about sacrifice.

Frank, thanks for that.

Frank Buckley on board the Lincoln.

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 May 2, 2003 - 08:03   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Back to the Lincoln right now, carrying the president only a few hours, again, from port in San Diego. Mr. Bush became the first sitting president to land on a carrier when flying out to that ship yesterday. He went on board late yesterday afternoon. The speech went down last night.
Frank Buckley up this morning with us to take us through the morning hours there on the Lincoln -- Frank, good morning again.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

A great deal of excitement here on the USS Abraham Lincoln. The president still aboard, but now the focus of that excitement really shifting to seeing family members. They've seen the president. Now they want to see their family members, who they haven't seen for nearly 10 months.

Let me show you some of the activity going on here in the hangar bay. You can see that everything is all packed up, or at least is in the process of getting all packed up. These are all the things from H.S.4, which is the helicopter squadron aboard USS Abraham Lincoln. The air wing gets all of its stuff packed up and they get off here in San Diego.

And three members of H.S.4 joining me right now.

You ladies have all been packed up for hours now, just sitting here waiting to go and get off.

We'll ask you first, Charisma White (ph), how are you feeling today?

CHARISMA WHITE: I'm feeling really good, really excited. I can't wait to see my parents. I haven't seen them in, god, almost a year now. Waiting to see my fiance. He got home, actually, about a week ago. He was out here also, serving with our battle group. So I cannot wait to see him. It's been a long time.

BUCKLEY: Great. Lisa Dougherty (ph), how about yourself? Who's going to be meeting you at shore?

LISA DOUGHERTY: My family, my mom, my dad and my brother. It's been a while. I'm really excited.

BUCKLEY: And we also have Sharon Smith (ph).

Sharon, tell me about your excitement and what's the first thing you're going to do when you get off this ship?

SHARON SMITH: Oh, the first thing I'm going to do is see my kids, talk to my son and my daughter.

BUCKLEY: How old is your daughter?

SMITH: My daughter is 10 months. My son is four years.

BUCKLEY: Wow. Your daughter is 10 months and your son is four years old? You haven't seen them for how long?

SMITH: About seven months.

BUCKLEY: Oh, man.

SMITH: Yes.

BUCKLEY: That's a difficult thing. Tell me how you're feeling about that. What is it that you hope to say to them? What are you going to say to those kids?

SMITH: Well, I call them every day. I talk to them every day. He knows I'm coming home. I talked to him today. And he knows that I miss him and love him so, hi.

BUCKLEY: Well, congratulations and welcome home early, but just a few hours you'll be home to see the family.

Thank you very much.

Really excited folks here aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln -- Bill.

HEMMER: Unbelievable. Talk about sacrifice.

Frank, thanks for that.

Frank Buckley on board the Lincoln.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com