Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Event/Special

Families of Pentagon Victims Carry Olympic Torch

Aired December 21, 2001 - 12:13   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.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're going to take you now to the Pentagon, live for a ceremony in honor of those who died there on September the 11th. It's a ceremony around the carrying of the Olympic Torch. That torch, on its away from the East Coast, all the way to Salt Lake City where the Winter Olympic Games will take place, in February.

This is a scene that has been repeated in many cities around the United States, but, at the Pentagon, it has a special meaning. You're seeing family members of those who died, the 189 who died when that plane crashed into the Pentagon on September the 11th. We are told the event is sponsored by the Salt Lake City Olympic Organizing Committee.

And we also know that, running the Olympic Torch to the Pentagon this morning, was Chief Petty Officer Bernard Brown. He works in the Navy office at the Pentagon. An office that lost several staff members, but even more than that, Chief Petty Officer Bernard Brown's son was aboard Flight 77, the American Airlines flight that crashed -- that was flown into the Pentagon by the terrorists.

And we know that running the torch out of the Pentagon -- away from the Pentagon -- onto its next destination, will be Sergeant Christopher Braman. Braman went into the burning Pentagon to save three people, one of whom survived. For his efforts, Braman received The Purple Heart, and he received a Soldier's Medal of Bravery for risking his life to try to retrieve the Marine Corps flag in the Pentagon. That flag, by the way, flew aboard the latest space shuttle mission.

Let's listen a little bit here and watch.

(APPLAUSE)

That ceremony took place just a few moments ago. That tape just came in to CNN.

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