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CNN Sunday Morning

The Training Behind Army Rangers' Missions

Aired October 21, 2001 - 07:24   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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Friday night's hit and run Commando raids were the first time the Pentagon has acknowledged boots on the ground in the military campaign in Afghanistan. The special forces included Army Rangers.

Retired General David Grange is a 30-year veteran of the Army, and has served as a Ranger and Green Beret.

Good morning to you, General.

GEN. DAVID GRANGE (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning.

SAVIDGE: From what we know, is this a fairly typical operation?

GRANGE: Quite so. A raid is the Ranger essence. That's what they train for. They train constantly, every month of the year, in all types of terrain. They are shock troops. They're the best infantry the United States Army has.

SAVIDGE: We have some video I think we can roll at the same time. But let's talk about the training and the advance preparation that goes into getting ready for such a -- if it's a routine mission, if you can call it that.

GRANGE: Well, everything is rehearsed all the time. Every mission is rehearsed. They plan in great detail.

SAVIDGE: Can you see the flak jackets going on here?

GRANGE: Yes. Of course, a flak jacket, protective armor depends on the situation. If they have to walk a long ways, they may not wear it, they may choose not to. If they're going right on the target, they will. You see Rangers moving to a helicopter for a helicopter assault, a raid operation. This is training in the United States. Again, it's all based on surprise, speed and violence of action.

SAVIDGE: Now the operation that took place in Kandahar, a nighttime operation. Jumping at night not that unusual, certainly been done for a long time. But what sort of person, what sort of soldier actually says, "I'm going to jump out of an airplane in the middle of the night onto an enemy position?"

GRANGE: Parachuting in on a target is just a means of getting to the target. Once you get on the ground, the actions on the objective, on the target, are the same. But the -- they train at night constantly. The Rangers own the night. The Rangers are very comfortable fighting at night.

SAVIDGE: We're looking here at the video that was released from the Pentagon, as they obviously exit the aircraft. What goes through a Ranger's mind at this point?

GRANGE: Well, there's fear, everybody's afraid; but you control it. And what's more important to the Ranger at that time is not letting his buddy down, or himself.

SAVIDGE: Then we have the dramatic footage of the parachutes blossoming at night there. What is going on? How carefully coordinated is that? It must be done so, obviously, to prevent running into other aircraft, running into people.

GRANGE: Again, a lot of training, a lot of planning. It is timed very closely. However, if something goes astray, if something is not exactly as planned, they're trained to adapt to that change.

SAVIDGE: And another thing that comes to mind as you see, this is obviously previous training. When the Rangers go in by a parachute, how do they get out?

GRANGE: Well, quickly. When you get to the ground, when you're on the ground, you get rid of the parachute right away, your equipment, and you get your weapon ready for combat immediately, and then move off to the objectives. It's very fast.

SAVIDGE: Not surprising, they jump right on target?

GRANGE: Not surprising. You remember, you want surprise. They can jump off-set and move to a target. In this particular case, the objective, they decided to jump on the target.

SAVIDGE: All right General, thank you very much for joining us.

GRANGE: Thank you.

SAVIDGE: We'll talk more about this later.

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