Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

Purple Hearts Awarded to Eight U.S. Soldiers

Aired March 16, 2002 - 09:03   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: More now on today's latest military honorees, eight American soldiers wounded in battle now donned the Purple Hearts for their actions during the fight in Afghanistan.

Just a few hours ago at the Bagram Air Base, the members of the Army's 10th Mountain Division were honored.

And joining us from Bagram, our CNN's Martin Savidge, who definitely, we give the CNN medal to for his awesome coverage that he's bringing to us there from the front lines and beyond.

Martin, hello.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kyra, and thank you very much, that's very kind to say.

It was a very moving ceremony that took place inside of the hangar here at the Bagram Air Base, the second time that a Purple Heart ceremony has been held since Operation Anaconda got under way.

As you mentioned, there were eight recipients, all of them from the 10th Mountain Division, First Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, almost all of them involved in a ferocious firefight the first day that this operation started. Their firefight lasted some 16 hours.

It's always awkward sometimes to try to talk to a recipient because you don't know as the other person what to say, Congratulations? I suppose it is very much in order, but it's an honor that no soldier tries to receive.

But tremendous pride inside that hangar as expressed by their commander. That would be F.L. Hagenbeck, the general and the commander of the 10th Mountain Division. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. F.L. HAGENBECK, ANACONDA COMMANDER: You took them on on their terrain at 10,000 feet, two miles above sea level. You jumped on them with both feet when you got there. The platoon from Charlie Company and part of the Headquarters that came under that fire didn't roll over, didn't give up. They kept fighting for 16 hours. And those of you that were on other landing zones secured your objectives within two hours. You took the fight to the enemy, were reinforced that night, and latched onto these guys for the next four days. And you killed them in large numbers. You defeated and completely wiped out a sanctuary that they've held in this country for four to five years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: That was General Hagenbeck talking to those recipients and those gathered.

Let's talk about Operation Anaconda. It is now day 15, and it is still ongoing, although the soldiers involved admit it is very much now a mop, mopping-up or follow-on operation, however you want to classify it. They continue to rotate soldiers in and out of the lower Shah-e-Kot Valley. The reason for that, as you heard, the high elevations which they're working at, the very rugged, very difficult terrain, and, of course, the adrenaline factor, as they continue to meet some pockets of al Qaeda and Taliban resistance.

That's the reason they're out there, to try to find those pockets. There have been a few minor firefights, fortunately no casualties to report to you. They're also doing what's called sensitive site exploitation, looking into the caves, looking into the abandoned compounds, trying to glean information about the whereabouts of the leaders of the Taliban and the al Qaeda forces.

Canadian forces out there as well. For their troops, the first time to be involved in combat operations since the Korean War -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, our Martin Savidge, thank you so much.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's continue our discussion of matters military. To do that, we're joined by our retired Major General Don Shepperd, who is very actively engaged in our employ these days as military analyst.

General Shepperd, good to see you again, sir.

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Morning, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit -- take us down to that scene there, and listening to the general talk a couple of hours ago as he was addressing those recipients of the Purple Heart, and ultimately listening to one of the recipients with Marty, it sort of put us in that moment for awhile there.

And the interesting thing that I thought I heard the most about was the differences between this engagement, these firefights, and what was encountered during Desert Storm. Let's talk about that for a moment.

SHEPPERD: Yes, you bet. The general was honoring these people for their bravery, of course, and giving them the medal they don't want, which is the Purple Heart, but it's an honor this nation bestows. What the gentleman was saying that -- the major that was honored with the Purple Heart was saying, in Iraq, they were able to find out where the enemy was an engage him from a distance, and then go in and clean up. That was different than this operation, where they sat down amongst the enemy and began receiving fire right away.

Martin Savidge was with them, and he's described it wonderfully on the cnn.com Web pages. It's a tough fight over there, Miles.

O'BRIEN: What is -- are the troops ready for that? Was this something that was anticipated? Or do you get the sense that perhaps this was not -- I mean, for example, landing in, you know, this isolated valley and coming under what was described as withering fire, was this something they were ready for?

SHEPPERD: Well, you're always ready and prepared for battle, but you never know what you're going to run into until you actually get there. What happens when you get out of the helicopter and come under fire immediately is, of course you immediately take cover. As you start encountering casualties, basically what you do is, you take care of yourself, and then you go into buddy care, take care of your buddy.

And then you establish triage points with a medic and take care of the seriously injured, and then you set up procedures to evacuate them. In this case, you -- they couldn't evacuate them right away because it was too hot for helicopters to get in there. You would have lost more soldiers.

So the guys are sitting there taking care of themselves and their buddies, and the medics taking care of those seriously injured until you can suppress the fire enough for the helicopters to come in and get them and evacuate them.

Then, in this case, many of them were just patched up and sent into battle the next day if they weren't seriously injured. The others were evacuated to other places for medical care in the region and also back in Europe, Miles.

O'BRIEN: You know, you mentioned that delay in extricating those wounded, and if you read the book "Black Hawk Down" or recently saw the movie, I think you can perhaps identify with the decisions that had to be made at the top, what it's like to be a commander of an operation like that and have to be put in the position of making that decision, is it worth risking more troops to save those who are wounded, possibly losing some of the wounded ones on the ground?

Give us a sense of that. You know, you as a general officer have sort of dealt in that realm before. What is -- goes through the mind of a leader at those moments?

SHEPPERD: Miles, that's what command is about, is making tough decisions. And it rests on your shoulders as a combat commander to decide whether to go to all ends to rescue people or whether it's not worth trying to rescue them because you know you will encounter more casualties and more deaths. That's what command is about, and you'll second-guess yourself for the rest of your life. There's never any guideline other than your gut feeling. The commanders of this operation and the officers, in many cases, the senior officers, they're old war horses that have been in the Gulf War and perhaps other combat.

But the young kids are there for the first time, and Martin Savidge can tell you what it's like to be there the first time. You're scared, you're depending upon your leaderships, the NCOs and the officers, the older folks have probably have been there making these decisions, but it's tough. You do the best you can, Miles.

O'BRIEN: You know, it is a cliche, they say lonely at the top, but boy, that is exactly what you're talking about.

Let's -- I want to shift gears just quickly, because I wanted to talk about this before the morning got away from us, and that is this story that is coming out, and I'm not even sure really -- maybe you can help me understand what the sources might be, the possibility -- and I underscore that word, "possibility" -- that there might be a prisoner of war, a pilot from the Gulf War that is held in Baghdad.

What do you make of these accounts? Is there any credibility we should put in them? And if so, what should the U.S. be doing?

SHEPPERD: Well, the U.S. should be taking into account all current evidence that it has from all sources and seeing if an investigation needs to be reopened or statuses need to be changed because of new realities. I find it a stretch to believe that a man is being held POW this long after the war. It just doesn't make sense to me when all the others were released and others were exploited at the time.

On the other hand, at the end of the war, unless you have bodies or unless you have a complete accounting for people, you simply don't know. We are still trying to recover remains all over Vietnam from crash sites all over there. I worked on many rescues during the Vietnam War, and we left a lot of people over there that, even today, we simply have no idea, and in this case, with Commander Speicher, we simply don't know if he's dead or alive.

We're searching for those answers. We do not intentionally abandon people. And so we're trying to figure out what's the best and latest information, Miles.

O'BRIEN: What's your gut tell you?

SHEPPERD: My gut tells me that he was killed in action. We do not have his body so we can't prove it. Again, not unusual in a wartime situation, but it makes no sense for -- to me that Iraq would still be holding a man and being able to keep it secret for this long. It just doesn't make any sense.

O'BRIEN: All right. Major General Don Shepperd, retired, of the U.S. Air Force, our military analyst. As always, we enjoy conversation with you. Thanks for being with us on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

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