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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview With Mike Durant

Aired August 10, 2002 - 09:27   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: For more now on the type of training and the risks that members of the U.S. military face in the war on terrorism, we're joined from Huntsville, Alabama, by Mike Durant, an Army Black Hawk pilot during the 1993 U.S. operation in Somalia. He was held captive after a crash.
Mr. Durant, thanks very much for joining us this morning.

You went through this training. How valuable was it for you?

CWO MIKE DURANT (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Good morning, Anderson.

I've always said that the survival school training that I went through at Fort Bragg was only second to flight school for me in my entire military career. I think it's invaluable. There's a lot of reasons for that. I think primarily it's because it covers a lot more than just what soldiers might have to face in captivity. It teaches things that apply both in training and in wartime in the areas of survival.

You know, there's a lot of aircraft incidents that occur on a daily basis. And if we're faced with adverse environmental conditions, survival school teaches us a lot of very valuable things to help us make it through those type of challenges.

COOPER: It'S officially called SEAR, survival, evasion, resistance, and escape. I know a lot of it is classified, and we obviously respect that and aren't going to go into too much detail about some of the aspects of it. But tell us, if you will, how much of the reality of being held captive, as you were in Somalia, in Mogadishu, is different than what you learned in school. I mean, is there any comparison?

DURANT: I think there is a comparison. Obviously there's limits that can't be exceeded in the training environment, but where they can place the emphasis in particular on the psychological aspects, they do so very well. And it makes facing the real thing easier to handle, I would say. You know...

COOPER: Take us back, if you would, and put us in your shoes, I mean, in your frame of mind when you were taken captive in Somalia. I mean, what is that like? As you mentioned, the psychological aspect of it has got to be just extraordinarily tough.

DURANT: Well, it's something you never think you're going to face. When you go to survival school, I don't believe there's one student that goes there that ever thinks they're ever going to use this in the real world, and we hope that none of them ever would.

And when it actually happens, it's absolutely incredible, it's overwhelming. Usually in most cases it's in the middle of a very hostile environment, there's probably a firefight going on, or there was one just previously. And the enemy is very aggressive. It's as dynamic a situation you'll probably ever face in life.

And I can say that without a doubt that in the middle of it all, there were several points throughout that capture and then subsequent captivity where I relied on specific things that I had been taught in survival school to help me figure out what I should be doing next.

COOPER: Now, you in a sense were, I mean, in many ways, but you were lucky to go through this, because not all Army pilots do, is my understanding. I mean, do you think this is something that should be extended to all Army pilots?

DURANT: Well, absolutely, and there's a big change in the type of conflicts that we get involved in. In the past, there were clear lines, and we sent the people that crossed those lines and went into enemy territory to schools like survival school.

Today, with the different unconventional type conflicts that we get involved in, there are no longer any clear lines. So there's a larger number of people that are exposed to potential capture.

The good news is there are initiatives under way to intercorporate survival training near the level of what goes on near Fort Bragg today into flight school at Fort Rucker, Alabama. And I think that's a good move.

COOPER: All right, Michael Durant, thank you very much for being with us this morning. I spent a lot of time in Somalia, and it's a pleasure to talk to any service member who was there. Thank you very much for being with us this morning.

DURANT: Thank you.

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