Great Inventions, Recreation, Entertainment and Food

Great Inventions, Recreation, Entertainment and Food

Aired December 25, 2003 - 22:00 ET

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

AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again and happy holidays.This year as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers first flight and 100 years since Henry Ford had a better idea about building cars we were struck by how cool it must have been to be present at the creation.By all accounts the Henry Fords and the Orville Wrights and the George Eastmans of the time had an enthusiasm for what they were doing that was infectious to the point of contagion. They were young men in a hurry and that is rarely a dull thing to watch.Lately on the program we've been profiling budding entrepreneurs, young men and young women in a hurry or, as we've been calling them, "On the Rise." Are they the Fords of our future or the Edisons or the Warren Buffets?Do they share the same enthusiasm and drive and imagination? You bet they do. And do their adventures make for great stories? We think so but they're the real sales people here and we put them all together tonight for an hour to make the case. We hope you'll enjoy it, first though a quick look at the day's news.

(NEWSBREAK)

BROWN: We call these segments "On the Rise" and mostly we mean that in a figurative sense, companies that are up and coming, doing something new and interesting.But we begin tonight with a company that's on the rise in the literal sense as well. It's called Slingshot Kite boarding and it's getting people to rise far above the water or the snow in a new sport for the intrepid among us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)UNIDENTIFIED 

MALE: It's so much fun, so much lift.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The kites are absolutely insane.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kite boarding is pretty innovative. It's such a diverse sport.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These need to be in the water and in the snow.

 JOHN DOYLE, BOARD DESIGNER: Slingshot is a company that produces kite boards, accessories, kites, kite boards and everything to do with kiting.

TONY LOGOSZ, CHIEF DESIGNER, CO-FOUNDER: First you wear a harness around your waist. The kite generates so much power that you can't hold onto all that power without actually being attached to it. You have your board and you have your control bar which steers the kite. It goes from your bar or lines up to your kite and you have your kite in the sky and the kite is big. The average kite is 13 to 15 meters. That's pretty much kite boarding in a nutshell.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Going to launch me?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which one (unintelligible)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Way out there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Slingshot is four bros that came together.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We started this company because we love the sport and we thought we could build a better product that anyone else out there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had four in-house R&D people. It's a team effort on designing. Tony, he does all the kites.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to have the good bottom in the new graphics.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I do a lot of the foot strapping pads and handles and the fins. When I get ideas I draw the templates and shape them out of foam. Things are constantly being invented and upgraded and evolving. Then I get bored.

JEFF LOGOSZ: We started this business in the bedroom in my house for the first two months because we didn't have an office space available. Chris, I know you're going to Fiji on Friday.C. 

LOGOSZ: We're taking four of the top team guys and finishing up on the video and the rest of the photos.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Part of our strategy was because we're the new kids on the block was to be first in our own backyard. We consider our own backyard the 

U.S.CHRIS WYMAN: At first it was, OK, can we establish a brand? Can we make a brand work, have this different image and this quality product that's like no one else out there?

J. LOGOSZ: We started out at 300 percent growth and then we went down to 200 percent growth a year and this year it's finally getting nice because we're down in the double digit growth which is 50 percent growth and that's where it's getting more manageable. We all went through that athletic stage and now that we're getting older this is a great venue to give opportunity back to kids and through the sport especially too.

WYMAN: We've had the entire team in town and we're shooting off of the next year's 2004 product. Everybody that I bring on the team is the new upcoming most bad-ass kid in the future. They've got a little attitude about themselves. They've got a good look and they have their own riding style.

DOYLE: It's fun begin at the beginning level of a sport. That way you can evolve with it. Here you got something brand new that's just in constant evolution.

WYMAN: I'm sure the next mission statement is, OK, how much money can we make doing this but we still got to have fun. The bottom line is we got to have fun while we're doing it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still ahead on this special "On the Rise" edition of NEWSNIGHT he's got an outlaw's name but a business that's making money the old-fashioned way. You'll meet Jesse James and his motorcycles.And a drink with a kick and the energetic young man who invented it.From New York this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: So what's in a name? As the guy who's turning out the kind of motorcycles that every James Dean wannabe in Hollywood seems to want these days who brings a sort of Wild West spirit to it all, something he just may have gotten from a renegade ancestor who shares his name.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSE JAMES, WEST COAST CHOPPERS: My name is Jesse James. This is West Coast Choppers. I build motorcycles. I kind of build them, every one of them like I'm building it for myself. It's hard for me to let them go which means that I'm pouring a lot into it, you know. I'm doing everything just the way I like it and I guess, you know, people think that's cool.We make our own chassis, tanks, fenders, front ends, exhaust, wheels, you know, everything but the motor and transmission we make right in this shop here. This is where I work up here. This is like kind of where I do my thing. This is like a blank sheet of canvass where I start.I used to be a bodyguard. You know one day I came home and said, you know what, I really want to do something I love and I never thought this would ever pay my bills. I rented a little corner of a friend of mine's shop, which is about half the size of a garage and I remember like two days after I was there two of my friends came in, Jim and Fast Eddy and I remember exactly what they said. He'll be out of business in a month.My first clients were a lot of just friends and acquaintances until like people I've never met or seen face-to-face would like send me a check. I did a bike for Shaq, Keanu Reeves, Goldberg, Tony Martin from the Falcons and then just a bunch of other people with lots of money.Kid Rock and I have actually went back and forth for about a year and we've never really hooked up until finally he came down to see the shop when someone that walks in here never been here and doesn't really know what to expect it's like Willy Wonka and the motorcycle factory.

KID ROCK, ENTERTAINER: Every time you see a bad ass chopper pull up, everyone's going is that a Jesse James? Is that a Jesse James? His name is getting out there. It's all over man. He's like a mini rock star at this point.JAMES: I get like 20 people a day come and asking how much it is to build them a bike. I'd say they average between $3,000 if I really like you to like $125,000.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can buy a brand new Harley for $16,000. That's a down payment on one of these.

JAMES: Bill Harley and Willie Davidson aren't actually out there making the gas tanks for their bikes or they're not actually out there bending pipes and designing wheels and stuff like that. It's just a name, you know.If someone walks in that door with $100,000 tomorrow and wants a Jesse James bike, Jesse James is actually going to be making it. It takes a few weeks but that's so fulfilling and then what even takes it a step further is when you could jump on it and I'm going down the freeway and I feel the acceleration and the way the bike works and then I can look down and see my reflection in something that I made. How many people can say that?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: OK, as brand names go it isn't exactly Coke or Pepsi, not yet at least but ask the young makers of this new soft drink and they'll tell you the troops in Kuwait asked for it before heading into Iraq. It's got a ton of caffeine so it's making a splash with another group of young people who also need to stay wide awake but for admittedly less weighty reasons. And, yes, the name's a little strange but it has moxie.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, I'm Hobie Buford (ph) and these are the headquarters for Bawls Guarana. 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Guarana, may I help you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The product is basically a high caffeine soft drink. There are no vitamins or minerals. It won't make you healthy. It will just keep you up. The name Bawls stands for Brazilian American Wildlife Society. Guarana only grows on shore vines so (unintelligible) Rain Forest you can't get Guarana.The Guarana berry is very similar to the coffee bean. It contains a lot of caffeine. That's what we make the soft drink with. It contains about triple the caffeine of Coca Cola.And this is my office here. When I started this company I was 23 years old. I did the concept as independent study my senior year at Cornell University and after that I had to get a job so I put the business plans sort of in action.The most challenging part of - really the whole thing of course is getting the financing. I went to the banks just about getting a loan. They said maybe he's selling more Bawls than - he's making more money off Bawls than he is off (unintelligible).We've actually been pretty lucky. We've either doubled sales or more every year since we started but we found a very strong niche within the computer gaming industry. You're talking about a market that's generated more sales than movies last year so it's really a great market to be a part of. (Unintelligible) Manhattan and what we have here tonight is a LAN party.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In order to play the games for so long they need to stay up. They need to stay awake. Bawls allows them to do that. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four Bawls I had tonight. That doesn't sound right but that's a lot of caffeine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're now distributing 31 states. Our facilities are in Newark, New Jersey, St. Louis, Missouri and Los Angeles, California.We're here at our bottling facility here in Hillside, New Jersey where we bottle all our Bawls Guarana. We'll produce just over a half million cases this year. The bottles are coming from Germany. The caps come from Ecuador and the guarana comes from Brazil.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't expect to get any shut eye. In fact, don't even expect to blink. A special non-slip bottle for when your hands start shaking. I can't tell you the number of people who said this will never work and that you're wasting your time so I think that's really just something you really have to believe in yourself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love Bawls. I really do.

(END VIDEOTAPE) 

BROWN: Coming up on NEWSNIGHT "On the Rise" we'll bring in some music and the young woman who gives new meaning to the term one man, make that one woman band.And then, a young man who's making his mark in music that his parents or grandparents might find appealing.From New York this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) 

BROWN: The young woman you're about to meet was pulling in a comfortable income engineering software for a big computer company, top of the world at a young age only that's not what she wanted. What she wanted was to make music and now she does. We caught up with her as she was beginning her tour.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VIENNA TENG, MUSICIAN: My name is Vienna Teng. I'm a singer, a songwriter and pianist hoping to go all over the country in the next few months in support of my debut CD which is called Waking Hour.I started singing before I could talk and so I have these like nonsensical syllables in the songs I was singing but like I would be dead on in terms of the pitch.A lot of the venues I'm playing right now are small clubs or coffee houses. Vienna was the name that I came up with when I was a kid. I really liked the name of the city and I also knew that there was a thriving music scene there especially in the classical period.When the CD came out I just felt like it would be a nice gesture to that 12-year-old me that I was keeping that name.

DAVID LETTERMAN, "LATE SHOW" HOST: I've heard the entire CD. There's not a dud on this.

TENG: Being on Letterman it was sort of surreal. Here I am running, you know, working out of my kitchen and suddenly being thrust into, you know, this nice hotel in New York and taking the limo to the studio and all that. It was sort of a Cinderella story.

LETTERMAN: Vienna Teng everybody.

TENG: I spend a lot of the time during the day at home. I'm my own booking agent for the most part, answering e-mail, making phone calls. It's not my favorite part of the job. The biography, a couple of press quotes, the cool thing about this age of computer development is that I can basically run my whole operation out of my kitchen. I'm just paying my dues for now.In the middle I do find a bit of time to do some writing at my piano and work on some new songs. The music is all in my head. I moved onto one of the busiest streets in San Francisco (unintelligible). When I first moved here I didn't really have - I didn't have a piano yet. I had developed also trying to play the guitar and I can't really play guitar. So, I was being lazy and trying to think of all the one finger chords. You know sliding my finger. There is a guitar song but I'm going to spare you and play it on the piano.I wanted to write my own songs and so you kind of have to surround yourself with all sorts of other things. I used to be a software engineer until recently, majored in computer science. I think that if I had studied music all the time I would probably write a lot less.If I put my own CD in the player and was really impressed or moved by my own music I think that would be success.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Since we first reported this story, Vienna Teng has hired a management team so she no longer has to book her own gigs. It's a start.Moving on think of this segment as musical medley, here now the voice of a new generation one that also brings alive the memory of an old generation and what a voice it is. We take you to the fabulous Plaza Hotel where the show is about to start.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen the world famous Oak Room is proud to present

 (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a jazz piano player and singer. I started playing when I was three, playing the piano when I was three and some of my biggest influences when I was about five years old were boogie woogie piano players like Jerry Lee Lewis that kind of style.Around like 12 or 13 I started playing clubs here in the city. It was cool. I mean I wasn't even allowed - technically allowed to set foot in the place, you know, because I wasn't legal and I don't think I - I'm still not. Most of the time I don't get nervous, you know, and I just kind of think about the music and as soon as I hit the piano I'm in another world and the audience becomes a separate thing.As much as I want to communicate with them and I talk to them and try and interact...The word is the.Before I went in to record the CD I met with Phil Ramon (ph) a number of times. We both decided that, you know, it had to be - no matter what it was it had to be honest and it had to be musically representative of where I am right now at 19.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The most important thing is the genuineness. He's totally what you see is what you get. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I started writing when I was nine and then one day I just asked my mother if she would write lyrics. Since then we've been writing music together. I wrote the music and she'd write the lyrics.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In this past year he started to write the lyrics himself which was very exciting for him because he never thought he would do the lyrics. He was always musical starting that I noticed was age three.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just practicing up for the Metronome. I have a certain tempo right like this. It's like playing with a band.We're in my room now at home in Manhattan where I grew up. Ella Fitzgerald and Count Bassie, a lot of Nat King Cole, this is all Sinatra, (unintelligible). Don't show the Cliff Notes, some family friends, Sammy Davis, Jr. This was one with me and Tony Bennett and me and Jennifer Love Hewitt (ph). That, never mind. My father he was a very important person to me. When he first passed away I remember I wrote songs right after and, you know, I guess it was kind of an outlet for me. He's a big part of who I am. Anything I do he's kind of a part of.I think, you know, to a certain extent you're a product of your influences and then there's the other half of it that you know you try and say something new, be innovative. That's what jazz to me means.My focus is to just play for people who want to listen whether they're young, whether they're old. I'd love to have everybody as an audience. Hopefully, one day maybe I will.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, "On the Rise" turns to food and beverage, first a man who likes chocolate. I mean he really likes chocolate.And then, the bakery that will bake to order so that you don't have to.Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Some people want to be the next Bill Gates or the next Warren Buffet. The man you're about to meet wants something simpler, something sweeter. He wants to be the next Willie Wonka.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys want some chocolates?Hello. My name is Richard Musinsky (ph). Owner, executive chef, pastry chef of Ricard (ph) Chocolat. I do a whole different slew of gourmet, high-end, 100 percent organic products. I started my business in '99. So coming up, maybe, like, three or four years now, I don't have anyone in this with me.So I'm led up to creating everything, from the packaging, to the ganash (ph) flavors, to the marketing, to the PR, cold calling, whatever it is.(on phone): This is Richard from Ricard Chocolat calling.Have some chocolate.I'm not here just to have another product that is there for people to indulge in.Americans, they haven't really got a great education when it comes to chocolate.To give you a little bit of an idea of what I do...The expresso-infused 72 percent dark chocolate-covered popcorn...Smells delicious. It's dinner for tomorrow night.I do personalized silkscreening on the chocolates.I'm going to take and dip the Manhattan mix to basically represent the typical hard-working Manhattan person.Just chow 'em down.The majority of the ingredients, I try my hardest to get at the Greenmarket at Union Square.Hello. How are you?It's nice to be able to talk to somebody that's actually growing some of your products.Here you go.I'm going to show you some stuff that I'll probably get kicked out of, like, the Chocolate of the Month Club or something for showing you.Basically, what I'm making here, this is a ganash that you would be familiar to the soft centers and the little chocolates.I can't believe that I make a living by doing this. It's like living the Willie Wonka dream.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "WILLIE WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY")

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's chocolate!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's chocolate?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's chocolate!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of my dreams in life is to open up a shop that was themed kind of the same way as "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." And you could actually have, like, theater enrolled into the shop, or you could have, like, little oompah-oompahs running around.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "WILLIE WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY")

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): If you are wise, you'll listen to me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): If you are wise, you'll listen to me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): If you are wise, you'll listen to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's kind of a whole theory behind, you know, like, the staying like a child.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "WILLIE WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY")

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (singing): ... in a world of pure imagination...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I always told myself that I never wanted to have to put a tie on and go sit behind a cubicle every day from 9:00 to 5:00, because I would just go crazy.This is the order that goes to the Mercer Hotel.These are all -- they use these boxes for their VIP suites.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello. (UNINTELLIGIBLE), (UNINTELLIGIBLE)? Thank you very much.It's difficult to find a passion in life. But if you find it, I think it's definitely something to hold onto. And I think it makes sense to give up whatever you have to give up to be successful with that passion.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Our on the rise series has covered many businesses with unique subjects, but rarely has this title seemed so perfect. Meet the Deers at the Dancing Deer Bakery in Boston, who take their treats very seriously and whose products are literally on the rise.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dancing Deer Baking Company, incorporated in 1994. We're a baking company here in Boston, Massachusetts, and we make fresh-from-scratch, all-natural, really great-quality cakes and cookies.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We bake to order. Your order comes in, we're going to bake it for you.Up until 2:00 today, we don't really know what is shipping out the door tomorrow.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm Trish Carter (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm the president and chief executive officer and chief floor-sweeper.We started the baking company because we saw an opportunity to make higher-quality food to go with the gourmet coffee trend.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This molasses clove cookie is what we came out with. And we thought it would be, you know, a two-month thing. And it made our company. We developed a whole line of cookies around it. We've won all sorts of awards, both, you know, sort of the food industry Oscars.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every day, I would say, sort of three- quarters of production is devoted to this line of cookies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty ounces of cookies, 20 cookies, individually wrapped, chocolate chip.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anyone can make a great cookie.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How's it taste?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The rest of it is pulling together a team of people that like what they're doing and being able to run the business.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a different recipe. This is a recipe with raisin taste.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's one thing to make a cookie, it's another thing to put them out 52 weeks a year and have them get to the customers in great shape and beautifully packaged.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm really not happy with that one.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that We go back to the chocolate chip cookie shortbread, and we look at size.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can I show you the rest of the bakery and what we do here?This is actually a very small batch for us. It's about 100 cakes. It's blueberry sour cream nut. It's handmade, you know, it's a lot of trouble, it's not the most efficient way to produce it, but it makes the most beautiful cake.We make money. We're growing at a pretty rapid clip. We grew 33 percent this year over the last year, and we're shooting for 50 percent this coming year.We think we can be in the $20 to $50 million range in a two- to five-year time frame. And we want to do that without compromising anything about who we are. If it stops being fun, we'll get out.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, on to fashion that's on the rise. First, to shoes that aren't just fashionable but comfortable. Imagine that. And then to an on the rise success story, Triple Five Soul.A break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Something I'm blissfully unaware of, the price of being a dedicated follower of fashion. For millions of women, the bill comes due in sore feet crammed into shoes that look good but feel distinctly otherwise.Which makes this a good time to tell you about an orthopedic surgeon with a radical idea. This doctor decided that shoes should -- get this -- be comfortable and fashionable at the same time. Now, that's news.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TARYN ROSE, SHOE DESIGNER: ... are shaped like a woman's foot.I'm Dr. Taryn Rose. I'm an orthopedic surgeon who turned into a shoe designer.I make shoes for all different aspects of a woman's life. The philosophy behind the company is, I want to be well dressed with a sense of well-being. And a lot of what that includes is comfort while looking great.A lot of people think comfort's not sexy. But I feel that when you're able to be yourself, that's when you're at your sexiest.That's where all of the finishing occurs.All of our manufacturing and design is done in Italy.That's cute.I go there three to four times a year to supervise the design part.T-strap. I can wear this when I tango.As a young woman who was a resident in orthopedic surgery, I wanted to look fashionable, but I also had to work on my feet 12 to 14 hours a day. So it was really important for me to look good and feel good at the same time. And when I started shopping for shoes, it was really difficult to find both together. So I decided that I would research the industry, and I ended up starting the business in 1998.The shoes are technically very difficult to put together, because there's a full arch support in the footwear. There's a lining called Poron (ph), which is a cushioning material that doesn't collapse over time.So all of those factors add to the cost of the shoes. But the consumers are getting more for their money.This is my New York walking shoe.We have three flagship stores in the U.S., New York, Beverly Hills, and San Jose, California.What I found in meeting the customers in our own retail stores, and in our accounts, as they try on the shoes, so often there's that moment where they go, Oh! Oh, my God! or, Wow! and I call it the Taryn Rose moment.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, wow. These are wonderful. Oh, those are fabulous.ROSE: The shoes range from $280 on up to $500 to $800 for a boot.This is our headquarters in downtown Los Angeles.I'm more familiar with the Beverly Hills flow.When I first started the company, I worked out of my house, and we started with $70,000 of initial sales. And five years later, we're up to $16, hopefully $18 million this year.There's certainly some very difficult moments in an entrepreneur's life. You start to question what you've done. But as you get over each hurdle, you get stronger from it. As we say in surgery, that which doesn't kill you will make you stronger. And it's really true, being an entrepreneur.In the end, I feared regret more than I feared failure, so I keep moving forward.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Fair to say the designing woman you're about to meet is no longer on the rise. She's risen big-time since we first met her. Her fashions are now in fashion from Los Angeles to Brooklyn, where Camella Elke (ph) and Triple Five Soul first got started.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I started when I was 19. It basically evolved from nothing. I mean, literally nothing. I lived in my store. I had a sewing machine, which was just my art and my livelihood. And I opened the doors to friends. You know, I was making clothes for friends. I mean, I think I remember the first time one of my friends said, Oh, my God, I saw it on someone we don't know. That was a big thing to, like, see it on someone we didn't know.I realized, wow, this is a business. You know, I had people waiting for me to sew up stuff, but putting it in a box and then taking it overseas to Japan, or picking it up for their store over here in SoHo, you know. So I was, like, Hmm, this is -- I guess this is a business now. I've got to get it together.It's really, like, this universal, global streetwear lifestyle. I think when you come in here, it kind of has a art gallery sensibility. It's got what's happening in New York City. It's just really interactive. You can come in, you can see this (UNINTELLIGIBLE). You can hear the new music that's being played or out there or just unreleased. You can see the artwork that's being displayed. It just paints a picture of the lifestyle.It's mainstream, but it's still really underground. It's, like, I think we're getting more mainstream, only because we're getting out in more stores.We've expanded into Europe, we're really popular in Japan. We have three stores in Japan, and we have a store in Hong Kong.Triple Five, Williamsburg.People are amazed by our offices. They're just, like, Wow! The office is really different from the store. But at the same time, there's still that sense of openness. We wanted a space that was open, so, like, designers are next to production people, next to salespeople. So everyone kind of understands the language of the company.And I think that's what really works well for us, the fact that everyone's involved with everything.I have a really good crew of people, and a lot of great managers. I'm not sitting there all night, literally, like, making it happen. I'm confident that they can handle it.I think it's such a cute design that we don't even need the back.It's a lifestyle brand, it's not just hip-hop. The definition of streetwear is basically clothing that has, like, function and utility that you can rock all day long and into the night and feel comfortable and relaxed.I think that's what Triple Five is, if that's answer.Music's really important. I think music and fashion definitely go hand in hand.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) from Stone's Throw Records.We're starting to do a lot of stuff for Stone's Throw in terms of marketing and promotion. We kind of have, like, these relationships where we flow people gear.What's everybody wear? Double Xs?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We give them the music, they give us the clothes. It's a good relationship.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stone's Throw crew, Camella, Sandra, Triple Five Soul.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi.UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're keeping our eye on certain up-and- coming artists. But we just approach them, and they're, like, really psyched to work with us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll send you all our music too.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Yes, please. Bye, now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm a deejay.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Aspiring deejay.Now I'm just looking into other creative projects, like some deejaying. I'd love to get some Triple Five Soul sounds going on and Triple Five Soul homewear, or -- and then me personally, I'm working on outside creative projects just for myself, because it's, like, about that Renaissance time of creating again.And I'm not trying to get too business-minded all the time, or I'll go crazy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT and on the rise, high technology on the rise with the iPod deejays.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Finally from us tonight, the kind of guys who, back in my high school and maybe yours too, back in those days, might have been running the AV cart. Now they're pretty cool. The difference, 40 years ago we had Bell and Howells. Forty years later, they have iPods.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Mr. Deejay.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Normally, deejays deejay through their vinyl or CDs. And we use iPods.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which are MP3 players. They're very small, the size of a deck of cards.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm Andrew.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I'm Andrew.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we're Andrew-Andrew (ph). That's the name of our company.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's queued up now. So when you're ready and press Play.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: iParty is a chance for anyone who comes to the club or the lounge to become a deejay.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ready? One.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Basically, you take a number. And then when we call your number on the red sign above the bar, you come up, and we let you deejay.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's your cue, babe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At iParty, we don't play the music, you play the music.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So whenever you're ready, press Play, and move that over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Andrew-Andrew publishes a weekly play list. So you can, like, look over and decide what songs you want to play. It changes, you know, weekly. We'll take some off and we'll add some new songs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have any questions?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's different types of people that go to iParty. There's a lot of music heads, people that really know music. And then there's also some people that...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That are very tech-savvy and that are more into the technological aspect of it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you used an iPod before?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, a little bit. Not that much. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, good. You look like you're kind of a tech-savvy gal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's people that come in that have no idea what MP3s are. And they have no idea how to deejay. And we kind of catch them off-guard. And they're usually the best people to deejay. Deejay or, you know, something like, say, MP3-jay.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The true beauty of using iPod (UNINTELLIGIBLE) is to deejay. Imagine wanting to deejay, and taking all of this with you in a car.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In a cab, in New York City, in a cab.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we deejay with iPod, all we have to take is this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of people do get the impression that what we do is a lot easier than deejaying. It's actually a lot more intense than deejaying, because we have to teach someone new every seven minutes how to deejay.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Seven minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Roughly how many songs is that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One way to tell that they're having a good time is that they'll start, like, crowding around the deejay, like, they'll actually be in a line. They can't wait to get on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dancing, dancing is a good sign. They stop deejaying. Their seven minutes is up, and they immediately go back for another number.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, doctors.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And when they get really drunk, that's always a good sign too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're having a party. We're down here generating interest in iParty tonight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a weekly party in New York that we've been doing for about a year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We see iParty possibly going to other cities.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You come in, you get a drink. We -- you take a number.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today is the first day that we're going to try and do it here in Miami.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The i-pods have about a 1,000 songs on them. And what happens is, you deejay.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a big red timer. You see, it's like a game show.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's kind of like karaoke.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a branding thing. We -- for, like, three years, we've dressed, we've matched every day for three years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A hundred years from now, if there are still clubs, if there are still deejays, they will be using MP3s. They will not be using vinyl.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: MP5s.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: MP 

(UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: MP11, you know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: MP208.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's going really well. It seems like the right people are here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I think it's going pretty well.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And that's it for this on the rise edition of NEWSNIGHT. We hope you enjoyed the program and are having a wonderful holiday. We'll see you soon.Good night for all of us here at NEWSNIGHT.

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

Injured Troops Return from Iraq; New Medic Training Reducing Combat Deaths

Injured Troops Return from Iraq; New Medic Training Reducing Combat Deaths

Aired December 24, 2003 - 22:00 ET

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

AARON BROWN, HOST: Good evening again from New York. I'm Aaron Brown.Of all the pieces we do on the program, and all the stories we tell, few have touched a nerve quite like the ones you're about to see. We know this because you've told us so in your letters and e- mails and phone calls. We also know because when the tape rolls and the pictures play and the stories unfold, it is tough to watch sometimes and it is impossible to turn away.The stories reported by NEWSNIGHT'S Beth Nissen concern people, mostly young people, who have sacrificed much, and the men and women who make it their duty to help them. They are the wounded and the injured of the American combat operations, and the doctors and the nurses and the therapists who tend to them. These are sad stories, some of them terribly so. Yet what moves us more has little to do with sadness and more to do with strength and heart and hope. So war stories in a moment. War stories with a difference. First, a news update. 

(NEWSBREAK)

BROWN: Back on the first of May on board the "USS Abraham Lincoln," President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq have ended. No one knew then how the fighting would continue or escalate for weeks and months to come. That is one kind of battle in this war.Another kind is being fought every day, fought by servicemen and women who have been injured or wounded. A long fight. Back to health and full function or as close to it as they can get. It is their stories we focus on now in Beth Nissen's reporting. 

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When we did this first story in May, the Pentagon reported 495 U.S. troops wounded in action in Iraq, another 66 were listed as injured in non-hostile incidents, such as military vehicle accidents, accidents in camp.The most seriously wounded of these casualties were medivaced back to the U.S. Most to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. We took a camera crew to Walter Reed and reported the first in what was to become a six month series of stories on the wounded and injured from Operation Iraqi Freedom.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NISSEN (voice-over): Specialist Jason Blakemore of the 101st Airborne has injuries typical of those suffered by U.S. troops in Operation Iraqi Freedom. 

SPC. JASON BLAKEMORE, 101st AIRBORNE: A grenade was thrown over the wall and exploded between five and eight meters from me. I counted 47 pieces of shrapnel that had actually entered my body. And most of them were very small, about the size of a BB. No bigger than a dime. 

NISSEN: Yet large enough to do serious damage. 

BLAKEMORE: One of the pieces came down and nicked an artery in my -- under my clavicle and punctured my lung. 

NISSEN: He was lucky. Medics got him into a helicopter into a field hospital in less than an hour. Surgeons in the field and at military hospitals in the U.S. say the war wounded fell into two groups: those with internal injuries and those with fractured limbs. 

LT. COL. WILLIAM DOUKAS, MD, CHIEF OF ORTHOPEDICS, WALTER REED MEDICAL CENTER: We've seen everything from blast injuries, to gunshot wounds, to motor vehicle accidents. 

NISSEN: That's how Private First Class Richard Michael was hurt. His Humvee slam into another military truck on an Iraqi road at night. 

PFC RICHARD MICHAEL, U.S. ARMY: I broke my humorous, which also damaged the radial nerve. I ruptured my spleen. And they also took it out. I've got a compound fracture of my femur and a compound fracture of my tib-fib. 

NISSEN: Like Private Michael, many of those injured in Iraq have needed multiple surgeries to pin fractured bones, repair major organs and arteries. Recovery time varies. Many of those injured seriously enough to be sent back to U.S. hospitals are facing months of rehab. 

MICHAEL: They said it could take up to a year, year and a half, to fully recover. And they don't even know if it will fully actually recover. I'll get most of it back, but I don't know if it will ever be the same. 

COL. CRAIG SHRIVER, MD, CHIEF OF GENERAL SURGERY, WALTER REED ARMY MEDICAL CENTER: These patients will have some discomfort and pains that come up further on down the line, probably throughout the rest of their lives. And every time that occurs, it will bring back the memories of why this happened, and the battles and so forth. 

NISSEN: The medical staff at Walter Reed is deeply concerned about injury related psychological trauma and works with every patient to reduce depression, flashbacks. Private Michael has been spared those. Like Private Jessica Lynch, he has no memory of the moment of injury. 

MICHAEL: So that helps a lot, you know. I won't have that actual terrifying memory, you know, in my mind. 

NISSEN: Private Blakemore does. He keenly remembers those first eternal minutes of terror after the grenade blast. 

BLAKEMORE: It's very scary, not knowing if you're going to get to see your family again, not knowing if you're only going to have one arm, or if you're only going to have one leg, or one foot. It's very scary. 

DOUKAS: They have psychological hurdles to overcome. And they are in a fight for their own destiny in that regard. 

NISSEN: The combat phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom is over, but surgeons, physical therapists, and trauma counselors say injured soldiers are still fighting. 

SHRIVER: They're fighting for physical recovery. They're fighting for mental recovery. They are fighting every day. It's not over for them. 

NISSEN: And may not be for many years.Beth Nissen, CNN, Washington, D.C.

(END VIDEOTAPE) 

BROWN: When we come back, the central hub and way station for casualties. We'll visit with the doctors and nurses and patients at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. A break first from New York. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: More than 8,000 American military men and women have now been medivaced out of the theater of operations for a variety of reasons. Everything from sprained ankles and kidney stones, to the destruction done by snipers and RPGs and roadside bombs.The injured are taken from forward field hospitals to Baghdad or to Kuwait, then on to Germany to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center just south of Frankfurt. We went to Landstuhl in September. And even then, it was one of the busiest trauma centers in the world. On any given day, the work is heart-wrenching, difficult, and vital. It is not, however, pretty. We warn you. Some of the images in this story are quite graphic. 

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NISSEN (voice-over): They keep coming -- the medivac planes from Baghdad and Kuwait. 

COL. RHONDA CORNUM, MD, COMMANDER, LANDSTUHL REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER: We get medivac aircraft every day. Sometimes they come with one or two patients. Sometimes it's an aircraft that has 60. 

NISSEN: Since the start of the war, more than 6,600 uniformed men and women from Operation Iraqi Freedom have been treated here at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. They keep coming, a steady stream of the accidentally injured and the sick. A steady stream of service members with battle injuries months after the major fighting stopped. 

CORNUM: Since the end of major combat, we really have had an increase in our total patient load. Not only have we had more patients total, but the severity of either their injuries or their illnesses has been greater. 

NISSEN: That's because of blast injuries from rocket propelled grenades and IEDs, the improvised explosive devices taking an almost daily toll on convoys and units in Iraq. An IED blast hit specialist Joshua Gearing. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you hear that louder in one ear? 

JOSHUA GEARING: I've lost about 60 percent of my hearing. It got half my wrist blown off on the left side. My right arm shattered the bone right here, just basically the elbow itself. 

NISSEN: Sergeant Mariah Lee has photos on his laptop of what an enemy RPG did to his truck.

SGT. MARIAH LEE, U.S. ARMY: That's where I was sitting.

NISSEN: And graphic photos of what the blasts did to his foot. 

LEE: It was like two to three centimeters of the Achilles tendon was basically taken out by the blast itself and left a nice size hole in there. They said, expect a long recovery. And you know, I definitely expect that. It's not -- no overnight fix. 

NISSEN: Many injuries seen at Landstuhl are much more serious. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We see a lot of amputations, some of which are done by the blast itself, some of which are done because they're not salvageable limbs. We see a fair number of head injuries, both penetrating head injuries from shrapnel, and closed head injuries from sort of concussions. These are life altering and sometimes life ending events for some really brave kids. 

JOYCE GRAY, INJURED'S MOTHER: We thought it was over. We thought the war was over. And to me, it seems like they're getting hurt worse. 

NISSEN: Joyce and Alan Gray were flown by the military from Illinois to Landstuhl after being told that their son, an Army corporal, had a life threatening blast injury to his upper leg. 

ALAN GRAY, INJURED'S FATHER: We had received a call from the Army. And that our boy had been injured.

NISSEN: Their son was taken to one of Landstuhl's eight ORs, all operating on 12 hour shifts, almost around the clock. Surgeons stopped the bleeding, saved Corporal Gray's life, did what they could to save his mangled leg. A. 

GRAY: It's looking good. We're hoping and praying that it stays that way, because if it stays that way, then he won't lose his leg. But if, you know, if it changes...J. 

GRAY: Then they might not have enough tissue to wrap around the bone. A. GRAY: I didn't think he was going to make it. Oh, mercy.

NISSEN: Almost all those who make it to Landstuhl, do make it. Of more than 6,000 Operation Iraqi Freedom patients treated here, only two have died. 

CORNUM: We are very proud of what we've been able to accomplish here. People really see the mission. I mean, they really see that every day, they're saving lives. 

NISSEN: Most of the military's sick and wounded stay at Landstuhl for only a few days, a few weeks at most. A small number, about one in 10, are treated and returned to active duty in Iraq. Most are sent on to hospitals in the U.S., such as Walter Reed in Washington, D.C., for further surgery, treatment, rehab.Clearing Landstuhl's wards, it's ICU, it's ORS, it's recovery rooms for the next wave of patients from Iraq. They keep coming, the medivac flights from Baghdad and Kuwait. They keep coming, the casualties of war.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NISSEN: It's something most journalists learn early in their careers. There are no issues, only people. First at Walter Reed and then at Landstuhl, we reported on the growing number of U.S. military casualties in Iraq by telling the stories of people who'd been wounded or injured.But we met other people in the wards and ERs and the Ors, who are a vital part of the story. The doctors, the surgeons, the nurses who are giving so much of themselves to save, to salvage the lives of the wounded and injured and sick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NISSEN (voice-over): Major combat may be over in Iraq, but not here. At Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, Army and Air Force medical teams are still fighting hard every day to save the lives, the limbs, the prospects of those medivaced in from Baghdad and Kuwait. 

LT. COL. RONALD PLACE, MD, CHIEF DIVISION OF SURGERY, LANDSTUHL REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER: If anything, we're seeing more patients now than we were during the actual combat phase. 

NISSEN: Landstuhl's eight ORs operate on 12-hour shifts, almost around the clock. 

LT. COL. ELIZABETH BOWIE, HEAD OPERATING ROOM NURSE: We have done as many as 32 surgical cases per day, depending on what's going on in Iraq. 

NISSEN: Landstuhl's nurses see it all. 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Extremities, fractures, amputations. 

STAFF SGT. ARTHUR TIMMS, ICU NURSE: Heat stroke, heat exhaustion. 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gunshot wounds, shrapnel wounds, motor vehicle accidents. 

NISSEN: Many here worry that they are starting to wear down, to show the strain of seeing incoming casualties almost every day for six months. Many of the wounded have serious blast wounds, head injuries. 

TIMMS: The hardest part is to see them when they first get here. You try not to let your emotions come out when you see how badly they're hurt. 

NISSEN: Emotions are very close to the surface. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bad days are, you know, these young soldiers with horrible injuries. And they're just kids. 

NISSEN: It is wrenchingly hard for even battle-hardened commanders. 

CORNUM: I mean, I've pulled people out of wrecked helicopters and dead people. And they were people I knew sometimes. But somehow, when you get to the operating room and you're getting gravel out of some kid's leg, and he's younger than yours, that's really hard. 

MAJ. FELICIA HOPKINS, ICU CHAPLAIN, LANDSTUHL REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER: Staff experiences trauma also. People see us in uniforms and think we're just kind of -- so systemic. We do everything in route, step, route, step, route step. What you're really seeing is the person in the uniform, the mother who may be a surgeon, the nurse who is a single parent who has a teenager that she left behind. 

NISSEN: Work in the wards is especially hard for reservists, such as Staff Sergeant Arthur Timms. He painfully misses his wife, the two teenagers and a four-year-old he left back home and may not see for a year. Work in the ICU, he says, helps give him perspective. 

TIMMS: I can't complain. I mean, when you think about complaining, just open one of those doors and look in one of those beds. 

NISSEN: Those beds are always full. As fast as Landstuhl stabilizes patients and air vacs them to military hospitals in the U.S., there's another planeload of incoming wounded. Regular stress counseling sessions help staffers cope. Doctors and nurses say they also draw courage from their patients, who often set an example of selflessness, of greater concern for their buddies than themselves. 

CORNUM: A guy will come in, and he is -- a part of his foot's missing. And his question is what happened to the guys that I was with? That's their biggest concern. They are great Americans. 

NISSEN: Almost every day, more of those Americans arrive. Landstuhl staffers start another hard 12-hour shift, trying to stabilize the patients, support each other, fulfill their mission. 

MAJ. STEPHEN LINEX, CRITICAL CARE NURSE: These kids are over there, doing their best. They deserve to have us do our best. So we're just going to try and keep taking the best care of them that we possibly can, try to put them back together. 

NISSEN: And keep working toward the day when the buses no longer come, when the last casualty is treated and on the way home.Beth Nissen, CNN, Landstuhl, Germany. 

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: In a moment, the next step. One of the toughest on the way home. Break first from New York. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Over the summer, the tenor of the war in Iraq changed. There were more and more attacks on U.S. troops. First weekly, then almost daily. Attacks using RPGs and homemade bombs.And there is a terrible truth here. The new Kevlar body armor has saved many lives, but it is body armor. It protects only the torso, not the limbs. The result has been the greatest number of amputees the military has seen since Vietnam. And many of them are sent to Walter Reed to Ward 57. 

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NISSEN (voice-over): They are airvaced here to Walter Reed Medical Center, to Ward 57, the orthopedic ward, where specialists work to heal, to save shattered arms, crushed legs. 

1ST LT. RONALD STEPHENS, ACTING HEAD NURSE, WARD 57: We are very busy. Currently we have 24 beds assigned, and we have 24 beds that are full. 

NISSEN: In one of those beds, Specialist Chris Atherton, who lost much of his left arm July 26, when an RPG hit his Humvee. 

SPC CHRIS ATHERTON, U.S. ARMY: It's a weird feeling, because I feel like my hand's still there and I can move it, but it's not there. 

NISSEN: Just down the hall in Ward 57, Staff Sergeant Ryan Kelly, whose lower right leg was mangled in a bomb attack on his convoy July 14th. 

STAFF SPC. RYAN KELLY, U.S. ARMY: They attempted to save it, but hey weren't able to. They tried for I think six hours is what I was told. And then, when I woke up, the leg was gone. 

NISSEN: Walter Reed has treated 24 amputees from Operation Iraqi Freedom in the medical center's new $3 million amputee center. The priority after surgery? Quickly replace what's been lost with a state of the art prosthetic limb, custom fit with the help of 3D computer imaging. Once measured, most amputees get their prosthesis within days. 

KELLY: Oh, I'm so excited, because I'm ready to get my leg, ready to get walking again, and ready to get back to work. 

NISSEN: Doctors and nurses here say that attitude is common. Amputees are almost incredibly positive, despite grievous injuries. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think they would have some anger towards it, but most of them, it doesn't. I mean, they're soldiers. 

NISSEN: Anger, bitterness, depression. All may hit later. But in the weeks after being wounded, most amputees are overwhelmed with their good fortune that their injuries weren't worse. 

KELLY: The simple fact that it's a below the knee amputation makes me extremely lucky, because I'm only compensating for one joint. I got to compensate for an ankle. 

NISSEN: The amputees are grateful, as GIs say, to be above ground. 

ATHERTON: I'm good. I am happy I'm alive. 

NISSEN: But their lives are drastically different. Amputees go to regular therapy sessions, occupational therapy, psychological therapy. Gradually, they give voice to their worries, their fears. 

COL. RICK MALONE, MD, ASSISTANT CHIEF OF PSYCHIATRY: A lot of the people who come back having lost limbs, they're afraid of sexuality, for example. What is it going to be like, you know, rejoining their spouse? Another common reaction is how are my kids going to react? 

NISSEN: Specialist Atherton has thought a lot about his two- month-old daughter, born after he was deployed to Iraq. He's sad to think he'll never hold her in both arms. He's hoping that won't matter to her. 

ATHERTON: I think it will be the same. I think she'll look at me the same, as a father. That's what's most important, you know. 

NISSEN: Having only one arm won't change his plans to go back to school, become a history teacher. Having only one leg won't change Staff Sergeant Ryan's plans to work as an EMS for a fire department and continue weekend service in the Army Reserve. 

KELLY: I'm going to hit a point a few months down the road where I'm going to be walking and doing everything like I used to. And I'm going to say, you know, no big deal. 

NISSEN: Yet Walter Reed staffers say they hope no one shrugs off what these soldiers have been through, what they've suffered. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that makes a big difference in how they adapt long-term. I wonder if five or ten years from now, the -- you know, people in their home towns are going to recognize the sacrifice that they made, and there's still going to be that appreciation. 

NISSEN: Appreciation for how many lives have been changed, forever reshaped by the war still being fought in Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NISSEN: Since World War II, amputations have been almost emblematic war wounds. Those of a certain age remember the double amputee in the 1946 film, "The Best Years of our Lives."But amputation such a critical and permanent injury, is relatively rare Another critical and permanent injury is more common, burns. About 10 percent of the injuries in modern wars are from burns. Operation Iraqi Freedom is no exception.Burn injuries are often life threatening, always life altering. They are difficult to treat, difficult to heal. And we should warn you, can be difficult to look at.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NISSEN (voice-over): It is one of the most dangerous forces troops face in Iraq. Not just enemy fire, but fire itself. Burn injuries from grenade blasts, explosions, flaming fuel can be so critical that special burn flight teams are constantly on call to medivac the most seriously burn injured to Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio. The burns teams have been brought in 67 of the burn injured from Iraq so far. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The severity of injuries that you see in a burn center is amazing. I mean, you won't see it anywhere else. It's amazing what the body can put up with and still function. 

NISSEN: Specialist Aaron Coates is amazed he is alive after a rocket-propelled grenade hit the fuel truck he was driving near Kirkuk August 30th. 

SPC AARON COATES, U.S. ARMY: I am burned from my fingertips, up to just past my elbows on this end. And this one, I was burned from my fingertips, all the way up to my shoulder. This one I had burns all the way down to the bone. The bone itself was burnt. So they had to amputate six of my fingers. And all five of the single just nip the tips on these two. 

NISSEN: Specialist Gabriel Gariga suffered second and third degree burns over 53 percent of his body when two humvees collided and ignited at a checkpoint just south of Baghdad July 14th. 

SPC. GABRIEL GARIGA: My clothes were all charred from you know, it was burned off. And my burned skin was hanging off. And I just -- it just looked bad from what I could see on myself. 

NISSEN: Burns are often as bad is they look. The skin is a vital organ, the body's largest. 

LT. COL. LEE CANCIO, MD, DIRECTOR, U.S. ARMY BURN UNIT: We don't fully appreciate what the skin does for us until we see a major burn. Once the skin is damaged or gone, it's not possible for the body to prevent bacteria from invading from the outside in. 

NISSEN: Burn wound care is a constant battle against infection, involving daily dressing changes, cleaning wounds, wrapping wounds. It is some of the most difficult nursing work there is. 

CAPT. DENNIS ESTRADA, ASSISTANT HEAD NURSE, BURN UNIT: You touched them, it hurts. You bathe them, it hurts. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you have to scrub, of course, to get any dead skin off. And when you do that, it's just painful. ESTRADA: And I say, if you have to scream or whatever, please do it. But unfortunately, it's something that we have to do. 

NISSEN: So is surgery. Specialist Gariga has had 20 operations so far, many to cut patches of unburned skin from his back and graft them onto his burned legs, arms, and hands. Surgery is followed by intensive often painful physical therapy. 

MAJ. WILLIAM AIKEN, HEAD NURSE, BURN UNIT: You start an immediate rehab, get their hands moving, get their shoulders moving, because if that skin tightens up, they can't -- you know, they can't comb their hair, they can't brush their teeth, they can't open a door, they can't use their hands in activities of daily living.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you get it?

NISSEN: Most of the Operation Iraqi Freedom patients have burns to their hands, arms, and legs. Specialist Edward Stevenson's lower legs were burned almost to the bone when his convoy hit two explosive devices near Tikrit October 1. 

SPC. EDWARD STEPHENSON, ARMY: The pain's a constant thing. I have pain all the time. You know, they give me medication. And it dulls the pain, which helps. But it's always there.

NISSEN: Not all of his pain is physical.

STEPHENSON: I've had a lot of flashbacks and nightmares. All I remember is hearing my two friends screaming. I myself was screaming, because my hands were starting to melt due to the heat. 

NISSEN: The burn unit team knows burns leave psychological scars as well as physical ones. 

MAJ. SANDRA WANER, MD, BURN SURGEON: It's very psychologically traumatizing, because it's disfiguring. They have scars every day they'll look at that. That will never be completely normal. They'll be reminded of that every day. 

NISSEN: Yet, nurses and doctors here say most of the young soldiers on the unit are remarkably resilient, positive. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got the attitude, I can't go back and glue my fingers back on, I know that. There's no point in sitting here worrying about it. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't regret this happening. I don't regret going to Iraq or anything. I feel like I served my country. You know, I've been through the worst; it can only get better. 

NISSEN: Day by day, step by step. Beth Nissen, CNN, San Antonio, Texas. 

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: When we come back, it wasn't the life he would have chosen. But now a young man is fighting and learning how to live all over again. The story of Luis Calderon. Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: We try to pay close attention to the e-mails we get from viewers. And in August, we received one from Luis Calderon, the father, the proud father he wrote, of a son who had been critically injured in Tikrit in an accident. For several weeks, Luis the son was in intensive care at Walter Reed, just down the hall from the only casualty of this war whose name most Americans know: Jessica Lynch. It was hard for Luis the father to see the media focus so completely on Private Lynch and her unit. "They are recognized, deservedly so, as heroes," he wrote to us. "But my heart cries out, what about Luis?" So this story is about Luis. 

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NISSEN: The photos of Luis Calderon in the family album are like those of thousands of other young men. Luis as a star fullback in high school. Luis and his wife Darlene on their wedding day. The pictures change after his enlistment in the Army. His deployment to Iraq as a tank mechanic with the 4th Infantry. Then in one snap, the image is changed from this, to this. Luis' father got the phone call from Iraq May 5. 

LUIS CALDERON, FATHER: The individual identified himself as the Army captain. So that almost killed me right there. But then he said that my son had just suffered an accident. 

NISSEN: An accident involving Luis' 70-ton armored vehicle and one of the hundreds of walls in Iraq painted with the image of Saddam Hussein and systematically destroyed by U.S. troops. 

SPC. LUIS CALDERON, 4TH INFANTRY DIVISION: We saw two murals with Saddam's picture on it. So then we got the permission to knock them down, because we had some heavy armored vehicles. 

NISSEN: But when Luis rammed into the wall, it broke in half and fell forward on his tank. A crush of debris slammed through the open hatch, breaking his neck, damaging his spinal cord near the base of the neck. 

CALDERON, FATHER: They're saying he's a complete quadriplegic. In other words, he's not going to have full function of all four extremities. 

NISSEN: After more than two months in intensive care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, Luis was finally stabilized and transferred to the spinal cord injury center at the V.A. hospital in Miami. Doctors and physical therapists here are working to increase the limited movement he has in his shoulders and upper arms. 

DR. ALBERTO MARTINEZ ARIZALA, CHIEF, SPINAL CORD INJURY CENTER, MIAMI V.A. HOSPITAL: The central nervous system, specifically the spinal cord, has some inherent capacity to heal itself. But it does so poorly. We're hopeful with time that he'll regain function. 

NISSEN: After three months of painful effort, Luis has made progress. Using an arm brace he can now move the joystick on a motorized wheelchair. Although he cannot move his hands, his fingers. 

CALDERON, SON: Working with my hands, really that's the hardest thing for now for me. My personal goal is to just move my hands. And if I move my hands, I will be the happiest guy. 

NISSEN: It as constant struggle for him, balancing hope that he'll improve with accepting and learning to live with his injuries. 

CALDERON, SON: I haven't accepted I'm a quad yet. I can't believe it. I'm in a dream still. I don't know. A big maybe.

NISSEN: He has been depressed. He has been angry at fate, at himself for miscalculating how the wall would fall. Yet he says he has no regrets about enlisting, about serving in Iraq. 

CALDERON, SON: I was just a soldier. I was just doing my job. 

NISSEN: Luis' father, a retired 31-year veteran of the Air Force, is proud of his son and wishes others were, too. Operation Iraqi Freedom casualties injured in accidents, he says, are overlooked, don't qualify for Purple Hearts, don't get the media attention given to those wounded in combat. 

CALDERON, FATHER: He was in the same danger. He was in the same danger every day. He was eating the same sand, in the same heat, with the same enemy. What was different? Doesn't my son get any kind of recognition? I don't mean a parade with confetti and a national hero. No, just a pat on the back, job well done. 

NISSEN: It matters, he says, when members of the community, like these children from a local grade school, come by with cards full of glitter and encouragement. It would matter, he says, if more administration officials visited those injured while in service to their country. 

CALDERON, FATHER: Give these kids some love, because they will never know that anybody cared if nobody tells them. Somebody has to tell them. 

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NISSEN: As we continue to report the story, the numbers of the wounded and hurt from Operation Iraqi Freedom are still climbing. The total of those wounded in action is nearing 2,000. Almost 350 others have been injured in non-combat incidents, accidents. But the numbers of those affected by these war wounds and injuries is much higher. For every private first class or specialist fighting to recover at Walter Reed or Brooke Army Medical Center, there's a mother, or a father, or a wife at the side of the bed, or in the physical therapy room. They, too, have been through great pain. They, too, are trying to recover. 

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NISSEN (voice-over): It is an under recognized form of collateral damage: the trauma suffered by the families of the war wounded and injured. A battalion of mothers, fathers, and nearly half the U.S. Armed forces married, spouses and children. Darlene is the wife of specialist Luis Calderon, injured May 5 in Tikrit. 

DARLENE CALDERON, WIFE OF INJURED SOLDIER: Everything's changed drastically in our lives now. My whole life is centered now around the hospital. I'm here every day. I bring him fluid every day. Seven days a week, I'm here. 

NISSEN: So are the parents of Specialist Calderon, one of the most grievously injured soldiers thus far in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Luis' neck was broken and his spinal cord damaged when a wall fell on the tank he was driving, leaving him a quadriplegic at 22. It is hard for his father to see Luis, who was once so fast on the football field, now unable to move his hands, his legs. 

CALDERON, FATHER: When you as a father see that it just breaks your heart. But then, you know, you gather yourself and then you say, "Hey, if he's coping with it I sure as heck have to cope with it." 

NISSEN: Coping can mean upheaval for the entire family. To be with their son, Luis' parents moved to the U.S. from Puerto Rico. His father, an experienced facilities manager, took the first job he could find: as an electrician in the V.A. hospital in Miami where his son is being treated. 

CALDERON, FATHER: I only have one priority in this world now, just one. And it's Luis. 

NISSEN: His family's devotion has helped steady Luis, has restored his crushed spirits. 

CALDERON, SON: I used to pray every day, every day, every day. They always thought that you're going to be all right, you're going to be all right. Don't worry about this. We're going to be there for you. 

NISSEN: Family support can help the seriously injured, medically, psychologically. 

ARIZALA: This is a major ordeal. It helps to have people help you, you know, get through this. Doing it alone is very, very hard. 

WANEK: That support is extremely important. Extremely important to their long-term how they do. 

NISSEN: Many of the wounded face long months of rehab, years of adjustment. Corporal Robert Jackson, known as B.J., is in his third month of rehab at Brooke Army medical center in San Antonio. He lost his lower legs and was seriously burned on his hands and arms in a grenade attack in August. 

CPT. ROBERT JACKSON, ARMY, NATIONAL GUARD: I get a lot of assistance from my wife. I can't do anything. Can't, like, get up and walk to the kitchen to get something. 

NISSEN: Jackson's wife Abby, a nursing student, is now a full- time nurse to her husband. She coaches him through daily physical therapy exercises. She also feeds him through a stomach tube, helps him bathe, dress, move. 

ABBY JACKSON, WIFE OF INJURED SOLDIER: Some nights when I get into bed I'm like, oh. You know, I don't know if it's so much for me. I think it's so much more frustration for my husband. Because I see how much he wants to do and things he would like to do with the kids. 

NISSEN: Two little girls, one nearly 3, the other just a year old. B.J. can do little to help Abby with the children. R.

 JACKSON: Can't hold them, pick them up and hold them. Because my hands don't move, and I have a tube in my stomach. So it's hard to set them on my lap. 

NISSEN: It's also been hard to see their reaction to his injuries. Their daughter, Berlynn (ph), was distressed to see daddy so hurt. A. 

JACKSON: It took her two days before she would go near his wheelchair. She was really scared. And sometimes now, she's afraid she's going to hurt him. She always says, "Me no hurt you." 

NISSEN: Doctors and therapists say just being with children, with loved ones, motivates patients such as B.J. to get stronger, recover faster. 

WANEK: It's important to these guys, they come back and know that they are loved, they're appreciated for what sacrifice they made, and that's acknowledged. 

NISSEN: A key step in helping them move on in lives much changed. Beth Nissen, CNN, San Antonio. 

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, one reason why families get their sons and daughters back alive. The 91 Whiskeys and their work in the field. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NISSEN: Medics are a relatively modern invention. In ancient times, most wounded SOLDIERS lay where they fell. By Napoleon's time, there were litter bearers who picked up casualties after the battle. Medics in World War I were the first to get substantial field training. And by World War II, a wounded G.I. had an 80 percent chance of surviving if he was treated by a medic within an hour. Every war from Korea to Operation Desert Storm has seen general improvement in the training of combat medics. But this war has seen a breakthrough. Civilians might call them super medics. In military lingo, they're the 91 Whiskeys. 

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NISSEN (voice-over): At Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, soldiers drill for a biochem attack, practice how to take care of themselves on the battlefield, and how to take care of others: the wounded, the injured. These are the Army's newest combat medics. Military designation, 91Ws, or 91 Whiskeys. The most advanced combat medics ever fielded by the U.S. military. 

LT. COL. BRUCE MCVEIGH, BATTALION COMMANDER, 222ND MEDICAL BATTALION: Before, they were trained at very rudimentary levels. Basic putting on bandages, pressure dressings, stop the bleeding. Now we're teaching them to manage the airway, manage the bleeding, and also be able to learn the procedures they need to get that soldier packaged up and evacuated back to the next level of care. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you all save some of those bodies?

NISSEN: In 16 intensive weeks of classroom work and practice drills, 91 Whiskey trainees certify as full-fledged EMTs. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you doing? My name's Eric. 

NISSEN: They learn how to intubate (ph) patients, insert IVs, start medications. 

MASTER SGT. ROGER THOMPSON, ARMY: A lot of these young soldiers who are going to go right to Iraq. That's why every soldier that we send out has to be pretty much ready to step out the door and do their job day one. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The pressure up here. That's it. That's it.

NISSEN: 91 Whiskeys practice on each other. They practice basic nursing care on patients at nearby Brooke Army Medical Center, taking vital signs. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: RPB 149 over 84.

NISSEN: Doing patient assessments, some on casualties from Operation Iraqi Freedom. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does it hurt at all? 

PVT. 2 JASON GUTIERREZ, 91 

WHISKEY: It's so much information you've got to keep in your mind. It feels like a year's worth of training crammed into, like, 16 weeks. 

NISSEN: The emphasis is on hands-on training. More critical procedures are practiced on human simulators, computerized mannequins with working lungs, circulation, human skeletal structures. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You will feel for the fourth rib.

NISSEN: Computers monitor and control the simulator's breathing, pulse rate, bleeding, which change in response to the treatment. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. You've got open fractures.

NISSEN: All treatments are recorded by a human controller, who reviews how well the trainees manage to do in ten minutes in the dark. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would wait for a sling for the attitude of your patient. Before those other things, you've got to stop the bleeding on your patient. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Has bleeding been controlled? 

NISSEN: The simulated injuries are typical of the most serious wounds seen in Iraq: open fractures, burns, amputations. 

LT. COL. ERIN EDGAR, DIRECTOR, COMBAT MEDIC TRAINING: Soldiers still die in combat the same ways they always have. We're trying to prevent those causes of death that are preventable. Largely bleeding from limbs, you know, controlling bleeding and managing airways and breathing. 

NISSEN: And medics have to learn to do that under combat conditions. Exercises are designed to simulate the chaos, the confusion of an active battlefield. 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm feeling a pulse on this patient! 

NISSEN: Noise levels, stress levels, are high. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How long you going to take? He's dying! 

SPC. CHARLES SCOGGINS, 91 

WHISKEY: You've got bodies laying all around. Some are dead. Some are alive. If this person is alive, you've got to treat them. You've got to do what you can to keep them alive and move to the next person. PVT. 2 

SHAUNTELYA TYLER, 91 

WHISKEY: If you can't work under pressure, you have people out there who are depending on you, and you're going to let them die. 

EDGAR: You can never replicate the real thing. But I think we get them to the point where they have a pretty good idea of what's expected of them. 

NISSEN: Nothing does that as effectively as the last phase of training, a week in the field. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold up. Hold up. 

NISSEN: 91 Whiskeys go on patrol, respond to calls for help. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Blackhawk down! 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My arm! 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've wasted too much time, let's go! Let's go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You guys have everybody out? 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go! Let's go! 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An amputation over here. This soldier has a head wound. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hurry up. You need to do a rapid assessment. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Incoming! 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Make sure you roll him over, and make sure he has no injuries on his back. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are not moving fast enough! 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One, two, three.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's move, let's move, come on. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go! 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pick it up! 

NISSEN: They try to remember all they've been taught: reassure the patient. 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hang in there, come on, stay with me. 

NISSEN: Reassess the patient. 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Check his airway, breathing, and circulation. 

TAYLOR: I don't know I know it but I know I do. I learned it, they said it. I'm grasped it, and I'm using it. 

NISSEN: So are the 91 Whiskeys already deployed in combat. Anecdotal reports from the field give graduates of the two-year-old program, plus the forward field hospitals, credit for saving hundreds of lives. 

EDGAR: The chances that America's sons and daughters are going to come home alive from these deployments are better now. They're doing a great job out there. 

NISSEN: Beth Nissen, CNN, San Antonio. 

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: We'll wrap up this special edition of NEWSNIGHT in just a moment. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: We've got a couple of minutes. Let's talk about a couple of things. We've seen the devastating injuries that many of these young men and women have suffered. We've seen the kind of medical care they get. What kind of emotional care do they get? Because some of these injuries, the burns, the amputations, have profound emotional impact. 

NISSEN: It's interesting, the figures out of Landstuhl, the No. 1 category of injury being treated is fractures. No. 2 category is psychiatric disorders. People who are so disturbed by what they've seen, that they need to be medivaced out of the field of combat. When you're in the wards at Walter Reed, at Brooke Army Medical Center, you would expect a certain level of depression, of anger, even of bitterness. That often happens in the days immediately following injury and often happens years later. But in the weeks following injury, there is enormous, heartening, good, positive attitude that comes out, almost unbelievably so. 

BROWN: This -- I remember this. One of the young men in one of the stories talks about he suffered this horrible injury. And he talks about feeling guilty that he's not with his unit. He really wants to go back with his unit. 

NISSEN: I make that a standard question I would ask every patient. If you could be transported anywhere right now, where would you go? And without exception, they said back to their unit, back to Iraq. Even ones who have suffered the most grievous injuries. 

BROWN: And will their care go on for as long as they need it? 

NISSEN: Yes, in the V.A. system, which is well equipped to do that and is a better system than its reputation would suggest. Many of these centers, like the spinal cord injury center located in Miami, are at the forefront of treating amputations and in developing prosthetic devices. 

BROWN: Thank you for your work tonight, and thank you for your work on this series of stories, which I think has touched all the people who watched the program over the last six months. They've been extraordinary. 

NISSEN: Thank you. 

BROWN: Thank you, Beth Nissen. Good to have you with us tonight. That's our report. We'll see you again next time. Until then, good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT.

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