Around the World in 8 Days -- With Donald Rumsfeld

Thursday, June 1:

You've heard of the military term "0-dark-30" but you hope you never have to experience it. Well it's 12:30 a.m. as I leave home and head to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. ABC News is going to be the pool for all the TV networks on a trip that Mr. Rumsfeld is making to Asia and NATO. We call these VIP Pools. They usually involve the vice president, secretary of state, and secretary of defense. One TV network takes turns as pool on each of the trips.

I'm excited at the prospect of flying around the world but I know it will be a grueling itinerary. Everyone meets at Andrews AFB at 1:30 a.m We're flying on a military E-4B, a Boeing 747 jumbo jet that can refuel in the air. Once we board the aircraft we know it will be a full 24 hours before we land in Singapore.

Mr. Rumsfeld likes to take this plane on long trips so he doesn't waste time stopping to refuel. The plane is one of the former Cold War airborne command posts capable of directing a nuclear attack. While it sounds pretty sophisticated, inside the plane it actually looks like a relic from the 1970s. The technology is old.

The plane is a little more comfortable than flying coach, but not much. Mr. Rumsfeld gets his own cabin in the front of the plane. Then there's a conference room with voice and video connections to the Pentagon. Next is a small cabin with 21 seats that the news media uses. Only 13 are filled on this trip. The rest of the plane is made up of communications consoles. The secretary's traveling party occupies some of those seats; the aircraft crew uses the rest. In the very back of the plane are seats for more crew members and some bunk beds assigned to the top officials on the trip. The cockpit crew uses the upper deck.

All the food is stored and cooked onboard. It's hearty and good, but nothing special. The flight attendants, all members of the Air Force, are very friendly and helpful. I've brought along eight DVD movies to watch on my laptop.

We have to make one stop along the way to pick up the secretary. Mr. Rumsfeld gave the commencement address the day before at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. We land before dawn and refuel the plane while we wait for him to arrive.

By 8 a.m. Mountain time he's onboard, and we're off to Singapore. Mr. Rumsfeld walks through the plane saying hello to everyone onboard. He remembers my cameraman Hank Brown from previous trips.

The 18-hour flight from Colorado to Singapore is not as bad as I had feared. Between eating breakfast, lunch and dinner, a background briefing on the trip, and two airborne refuelings, there isn't much continuous downtime. I watch a couple of moves and visited the cockpit.

Friday, June 2:

Singapore is 12 hours ahead of Washington, DC. We land at 4 p.m. Singapore time and head straight to the Shangri-La Hotel. We travel in the secretary's motorcade so traffic is halted and we move at a fast pace. The Shangri-La is a luxury hotel and host for the conference on Asian security that Mr. Rumsfeld is attending.

On the way to our rooms, we walk past the lush and inviting tropical swimming pool. I'm glad I packed my swim suit, but I fear it will never leave my suitcase. It doesn't.

For a 73-year-old secretary, Mr. Rumsfeld is in great shape and has a lot of energy. After an 18-hour flight, he goes right to work and holds a news conference with the traveling press corps. He wants to talk about the Asia conference. We want to talk about Iraq. The story about the alleged misconduct of Marines in Haditha is topping the news at home. I ask Mr. Rumsfeld whether he can assure the American people that any evidence gathered in the investigations will be made public. He's annoyed at the question but answers it anyway. His response makes it on the evening news in the United States.

Our local stringer in Singapore helps me feed the videotapes to London where they are distributed to the other TV networks. The only opportunity I have to actually see Singapore is riding in the car to and from the feed point. Singapore looks lovely. It is very modern, clean and safe. Remember, they cane people here. They don't even want you to chew gum.

Saturday, June 3:

The breakfast buffet at the Shangri-La is the most incredible I have ever seen, an expansive combination of Asian, European and American foods. I have dim sum and noodles. Not a traditional breakfast, but delicious.

This day is taken up with the conference on Asian security but reporters still want to know about Iraq. At a stakeout following one of his bilateral meetings, Mr. Rumsfeld is again annoyed by questions on Iraq. Again, his response makes the news.

This evening we have what is called an "off the record" with Mr. Rumsfeld and other officials. It's basically a cocktail party. I have to leave early to feed the tapes so I don't get a chance to speak with the secretary. But I chat with his senior military adviser and squash partner, Adm. James Stavridis. He's friendly, extremely bright, and a three-star admiral about to get a fourth star. I learn he's 50 years old. That's younger than I am.

Sunday, June 4:

We leave Singapore today and head for Hanoi, Vietnam. But first a stop at the USS McCampbell, a guided missile destroyer that's visiting Singapore. The event seems jinxed. Secretary Rumsfeld is on the bridge for a ceremony when a table of food accidentally collapses and startles everyone. Then, I almost lose both members of my camera crew.

Soundman Gary Rosenberg has to help solve a problem with the ship's sound system for Mr. Rumsfeld's remarks out on deck. Running around in the blazing sun and high temperature, he begins to suffer heat stroke. I send cameraman Hank Brown off the ship to get an exterior picture, and he slips on the gangway and sprains his thumb. Fortunately, the injuries aren't serious. On the plane ride to Hanoi, Mr. Rumsfeld's doctor checks Hank and bandages his hand.

I drop the Singapore tapes off with our local fixer so he can feed them. I didn't plan to feed any tape from Hanoi because it was a Sunday evening and all we were scheduled to do was motorcade to the hotel. The main events would be Monday.

En route to Hanoi, Mr. Rumsfeld decides to hold an on-camera media availability on the plane. His remarks are important, but there is no way I can order a satellite feed out of Hanoi tonight. I have a backup plan.

Because our hotel has high-speed Internet access, with the help of the crew, I transfer the video to my laptop computer and basically e-mail it to Washington. It is an involved and complicated process that takes an hour and a half to transmit five minutes of video. But it works and everyone gets what they need. Room service dinner at the hotel and then bedtime.

Monday, June 5:

This is Secretary Rumsfeld's day in Vietnam. We visit the defense ministry, tour the historic Temple of Literature, have lunch at the U.S. office that's working on identifying remains of those missing in action, and meet the prime minister.

I'm worried about feeding our tapes via satellite from Hanoi. I have ordered a feed for this evening but it has not been confirmed. We rarely feed from Hanoi and we are told it is not easy and things often go wrong. The people at Hanoi TV have not responded to our faxes to assure us that everything is OK.

I decide to send Hoa, our local fixer in Hanoi, to the television station to make sure its has the order. He calls me to say everything will work fine but, of course, they need the permit from the Ministry of Information. Well we had been working on this feed for a week and no one ever said anything about a permit from the Ministry of Information. Now the feed is hours away, and we don't have a permit.

In desperation I find the media person from the U.S. embassy and tell him my problem. He calls a Vietnamese national who works at the embassy who knows someone at the Ministry of Information. The Vietnamese person calls his friend who, it turns out, is with me at the welcoming ceremony for Mr. Rumsfeld at the Ministry of Defense. She and I make contact. I put her in touch with Hoa, my local person. Sure enough by 1 p.m. we have the permit, with all its official seals and stamps, in hand. I feel a lot better.

We get a chance to do a little sightseeing in Hanoi before the feed. Members of the traveling press corps along with Capt. Dave Romley from the Pentagon press office hop in a van and head for Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum.

We take some pictures and then want to see the spot where Sen. John McCain was shot down. Our driver, who can't speak English, doesn't know where it is. Capt. Romley calls our hotel hoping the concierge will know the location. He speaks to seven different people before finding one who thinks she knows where it is. If it wasn't the middle of the night in the United States, we would have just called the senator and asked him.

The concierge sends the driver down some narrow winding streets but it turns out not to be where McCain was captured. It's even more impressive. The wreckage of a B-52 shot down by the North Vietnamese is memorialized in a small pond in a residential area, the wheels sticking up out of the water. We take some pictures and head to the infamous Hanoi Hilton, the prison where captured Americans were held and tortured.

Only a third of the prison remains. The rest was torn down to build a new hotel. There are some exhibits and artifacts about the American pilots. For someone like me who is old enough to remember the Vietnam War and how it tore this country apart, it is somewhat strange to be welcomed in Hanoi.

Tuesday, June 6:

We're in the motorcade with Secretary Rumsfeld heading to the airport for our flight to Jakarta, Indonesia.

In other countries police stop traffic and let the motorcade breeze through -- not here. Police are unable to control the hoards of mopeds in the Hanoi streets. We do the best we can, limping through the congestion and sometimes even stopping as the way is blocked. To an outsider it seems the residents of Hanoi take their lives into their hands when they drive their mopeds on the streets. We witness a couple of accidents on the way to the airport.

By noon we've arrived in Jakarta. Mr. Rumsfeld spends the rest of the day in meetings and a cultural tour of the National Archives Museum. Minutes before he arrives at the museum, a monsoon hits, doors blow open, and the building starts leaking water. The secretary arrives in the pouring rain and goes on with the tour.

Following a meeting with the Indonesian defense minister, Mr. Rumsfeld gets a very direct message. The minister tells him and the assembled media that the United States is perceived as overbearing when it comes to telling the rest of the world how to fight terrorism.

We stay overnight at the Four Seasons, a very nice hotel but not enough time to enjoy it.

Wednesday, June 7:

Most of the day is spent on the plane for a 15-hour flight to Brussels, Belgium, the last stop on the trip. We have three meals and a background briefing on the upcoming NATO defense ministers meeting.

I get a chance to go to the cockpit to see one of the two in flight refuelings. The pilots make something that's complicated and dangerous seem routine. The plane uses so much gas that two tankers are used to refuel. The tanker gets into positing above our plane and goes on auto pilot.

The pilots on our 747 manually fly the plane up to the tanker. We are dangerously close. A hose pops out of the back of the tanker. We open the refueling door on the front of the plane and in a matter of seconds the connection is made and the fuel flows. Our pilots must continue to fly manually as the tanker gets lighter and our plane gets heavier. It's quite intense and potentially dangerous, but they make it seem easy.

We arrive in Brussels at 4 in the afternoon. Even after 15 hours on the plane, Secretary Rumsfeld gets right to work. Off to NATO headquarters for a meeting with the Afghan defense minister and the secretary general, then to the hotel for a meeting with his British counterpart before dinner.

Christophe Schpoliansky from our Paris bureau meets me in Brussels and takes care of feeding the tapes. Now that we've reached the last night of the trip I have my first opportunity to have dinner outside the hotel. The crew and I have a nice meal at a nearby French restaurant. I'm asleep before 11 p.m.

Thursday, June 8:

The final stretch: a few meetings and NATO and we're headed home, an easy day, or so I think. Up at 7 and off to NATO to be in place for Mr. Rumsfeld's arrival. While he's attending a closed meeting, I check in with the assignment desk in Washington.

It's not even 2:30 a.m. there and the editor on duty Laura Greene sounds frazzled. She tells me that White House correspondent Martha Raddatz has just called to say that U.S. forces have bombed a house in Iraq and killed terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. All of a sudden the focus of the day changes dramatically. The only thing we will do today that matters is get Mr. Rumsfeld's reaction.

We tell his media people what we need. They say they're working on it. Even though Mr. Rumsfeld is in a perfect position to get on television in America as the story first breaks, his aides decide he will not say anything until the president makes his remarks at 7:30 a.m.

I shout a question to him as he walks into a meeting with the Ukraine defense minister. He won't react now. "Maybe later," he said.

The secretary waits until his previously scheduled news conference at 9 a.m. Christophe and I make arrangements with NATO to have it fed out live to London and on to the United States and the other pool members.

A little time left to buy some Belgian chocolates and a NATO polo shirt before it's time to head to the airport. Mr. Rumsfeld finishes early and his motorcade leaves without the press corps. We worry if we miss the flight we'll be in trouble because our passports are on the plane.

Luckily, we make it to the airport just as Mr. Rumsfeld is ready to board the plane. We're all set to relax for the seven-hour flight home when press secretary Eric Ruff comes in to say Mr. Rumsfeld wants to talk to us about al-Zarqawi. Ruff wants it to be on the record but not for cameras.

I appeal that if it is on the record it should be on camera. While we're negotiating, Mr. Rumsfeld walks in. I say to him that he's been complaining that there are not enough positive stories about Iraq. Here we have one and wouldn't it be a good idea for him to speak on camera. He thinks about it for a second and says OK.

Be careful what you wish for, you may get it. I've made more work for myself and the crew.

We cover the secretary's remarks and now I have to make arrangements to distribute the tape once we get back to Washington. Captain Romley, let's me make a call from the plane. Be brief, he says, it costs $9 a minute.

I call the Washington desk and let it know Mr. Rumsfeld talked on camera on the plane and we need to distribute the tape upon arrival. I manage to spend only $9 of taxpayer money.

We're on the ground at 6:30 p.m. Instead of heading home, I take the tape to the Washington bureau and make sure it is fed to the pool members.

Home by 9:30 p.m. and in bed an hour later. It was quite a week.