|
CNN SHOWDOWN: IRAQ
Update from Air Base Near Iraqi Border
Aired March 31, 2003 - 12:13 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's check in now with another one of our embedded reporters. Gary Tuchman is at an air base near the Iraqi border. Gary, it's this time of night, just after dark, just shortly after 8:00 PM here in the Persian Gulf. It's at a time when we often see almost every night a lot of airstrikes. I assume pilots, crews are getting ready where you are.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, for the 11th night in a row, the pace here is very intense. We know that the ground war has been very fierce, but the air war has been absolutely no contest. Between 16,000 and 18,000 sorties have now flown over Iraq.
Iraq, according to Air Force officials here, according to the pilots we've talked to, have put nothing in the sky, except some artillery, which has all missed. Most of the pilots who are here, the men and the women, fly at least one mission each and every day. A short time ago, we talked with a pilot who's flown five missions in the last 48 hours alone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJ. "WARDO", A-10 PILOT: Yesterday was pretty awesome for the A-10s. There was about six A-10s up north of Basra working almost all day during the daylight. And we found a bunch of armor out in the open and killed -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE) a lot of tanks, APCs, vehicles, trucks that were all (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: The weather conditions continue to be perfect. We look in the sky right now, we see hundreds of stars, and we see no moon. And that no moon makes it easier for the pilots. Wolf, back to you.
BLITZER: And what about the notion that the heat is beginning to -- it's getting a little warmer here now, especially during the daytime hours? Is that a factor whatsoever for these pilots?
TUCHMAN: Well, as you can see right now, there's a plane just pulling out. I want to give you a look at that, Wolf. But you're right, it is getting a little warmer, but it's still not oppressively hot. As a matter of fact, we are right near the border of Iraq right now, and I can tell you that at night it has stayed relatively cool.
So the weather is not a big problem yet. However, if this continues weeks and weeks, by the end of April it starts getting oppressively hot. Wolf, back to you. BLITZER: Gary Tuchman. We're all going to become weather forecasters when this war is over. Thanks for that report.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
|
