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CNN Live Sunday

U.S. Marines Get Ready for Possible Assault on Kandahar

Aired December 02, 2001 - 15:19   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.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: A possible final assault on the last Taliban stronghold of Kandahar could include hundreds of U.S. Marines on the ground. And CNN's Walter Rodgers is one of the journalists accompanying the U.S. Marine forces, and he has more now from southern Afghanistan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our Father, who art in heaven...

WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A Protestant chaplain leads U.S. Marines in prayer as the anti-Taliban ring draws tighter and tighter around Kandahar. The Marines paused at their base in the Afghan desert Sunday, this as the coalition military build-up continues.

The Roman Catholic Eucharistic minister, Major Bo Higgins, said -- quote -- "We are definitely getting prepared for what lies ahead." Higgins' full-time job is a Marine intelligence officer, and he said the war is reaching a culmination point.

MAJOR BO HIGGINS, MARINE INTELLIGENCE OFFICER: Definitely as the Taliban is looking, a lot of the pressure, kind of a snake kind of squeezing in on them, and hopefully, they'll be -- you know, we can get them out of there in the pretty near future. So we'll see.

RODGERS: Both Roman Catholic and Protestant services offer the prayer of Isaiah that the sword may be beaten into plowshares and the spears into pruning hooks, but peace still seems quite distance from this Marine base camp.

MARINES PRAYING: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

RODGERS: This Marine lance corporal, Alezar Hernandez (ph), said he attended the mass because he got a sign: newly arrived pictures from his wife of their baby daughter, Meli Gross Anjelica (ph).

LANCE CORPORAL ALEZAR HERNANDEZ, U.S. MARINE: Sure enough, the pictures were there, and I thought, I've got to go thank the man upstairs for this one.

RODGERS: Meanwhile, the number of Marine attack and support helicopters at this desert base nearly double overnight, and nearly all of the pilots complained of the terrible dust they have to fly through, but Captain Doug Sanders says his Cobra helicopter is more than ready to fly.

CAPTAIN DOUG SANDERS, MARINE HELICOPTER PILOT: She's fast, she flies low, is very agile in combat, and that's what is going to keep me alive. They'll have a tough time keeping up with it.

RODGERS (on camera): Nearly everyone here is beginning to speculate on when the final push for Kandahar will begin. It is not at all certain these Marines will be participating in that, although one officer said -- quote: "We're here for a purpose. We'll tell you after we do it."

Walter Rodgers with Task Force 58 in southern Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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