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Morning News

USS Cole Memorial Set to Begin

Aired October 18, 2000 - 10:52 a.m. ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Live pictures now from Norfolk Naval Base in Virginia. Any minute now, about eight minutes from now, we expect the memorial service to begin for the 17 sailors who died onboard the USS Cole almost a week ago today.

Watching some dignitaries, also families members of those that died get off a bus and get ready to be seated for this memorial service.

Let's quickly bring in our Mark Potter, who is standing by at Norfolk.

Mark, if you could set the scene for us?

MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I sure can, Daryn.

I can tell you, the emotions have started flowing, even before the ceremony begins. There have been a couple of things that have happened that have brought the crowd to their feet and brought quite a few tears to people's eyes.

Behind me right now, the family members are coming in. Everybody is on their feet out of respect for them. They came in -- they started coming in just a few moments ago and it's a very sad moment here.

They did meet with the president a short while ago. He wanted to meet with them individually, and privately. That has occurred and now coming they are coming here for the ceremony. Everybody is on their feet.

We also saw a short while ago, the injured sailors come in here. Those who could walk, came in first. The crowd went to its feet. They applauded and then seven ambulances drove in. Each ambulance carrying a sailor who has been hospitalized. Only one sailor is unable to be here today, and she went through surgery earlier this morning for a broken leg. All the others are here. The seven others who are hospitalized, despite their injuries, insisted on being here today, and the Navy has done everything that it can to honor their wishes and they are indeed here.

Daryn, back to you.

KAGAN: All right, Mark Potter, we will be checking with you throughout the morning. Once again, the service set to begin about six minutes from now.

To give us some perspective of what we will see and hear during the ceremony is Alec Fraser (ph). He is a former captain of an Aegis destroyer, the same model and vessel of the USS Cole; currently, conveniently, president of the Turner Properties.

Glad to have you back with us again this morning. Good to see you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning.

KAGAN: We heard earlier a Navy official say: You know, we don't have a textbook for putting together these kind of ceremonies and that's a good things because you don't want to have tragedies like this occur, and yet it makes it difficult in a time like this, when you are trying to comfort families and show respect for those that gave their lives. What do you think we will see? What are they trying to accomplish with today's memorial service?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think, Daryn, that you will see a lot of emotion. This is not just a gathering of the Navy sailors and their families. It is a gathering of a term that sailors use for each other and that term is called "shipmate." Shipmate is someone that you can trust, someone you will give your life for, someone who will give their life for you.

That bond sort of results in a saying that we had in the Navy: One hand for the shipmate, one hand for yourself.

So what we will see today is the Navy family giving that one hand to both their shipmates and to the families of the Cole.

KAGAN: All right, well, thank you very much. We are going to have you stand by and stay with us, and watch the ceremony as it takes place, and we are going to watch it live here on CNN.

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