[Chetry:] Twenty-seven minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Today we kick off an "A.M. Original Series," one that will track three military recruits, from their final days as civilians all the way through their deployment. Our Jason Carroll has been given unprecedented access by the Pentagon. And this morning, it's off to the Army for one high school football star, who traded the gridiron to be all he could be, literally. And Jason Carroll is here with much more on the story. We were talking about how important you felt it was to show the whole story, for people from deciding on recruitment all the way into what it's like to actually go to war.
[Jason Carroll, Cnn National Correspondent:] Right. We've never done it. It's something that I've always wanted to do. And thankfully with the help of the Pentagon now we've been able to do it. You know, with so many men and women putting their lives on the line in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, we set out to chronicle what the military experience is like for them from the moment they leave home, through deployment. And we begin with Will McLain.
[Carroll:] This is Will McLain, 18 years old and a week away from taking the oath to enlist in the Army.
[Will Mclain, U.s. Army Recruit:] More people in here.
[Carroll:] We gave him a video camera to show how he was passing the time. There were lots of parties.
[Mclain:] It's always funny, because even when I'm partying with my friends or something like that they always have to throw those Army jokes in.
[Carroll:] How have your friends taking the news so far? What have they been...
[Mclain:] They think I'm doing a good thing. Like they figured it's better than just rotting away in Rosamond, you know.
[Acosta:] Rosamond, California, Will's hometown. It's in the western Mojave Desert, a large stretch of land with a small population, about 14,000. A place where dirt bike riding is surpassed only by motorcycle racing in popularity. A place Will McLain can't wait to leave.
[Mclain:] I'm kind of glad to be getting out of this little town, you know, because it gets old. There's a lot of things you will miss here.
[Acosta:] We met up with Will, his last day at home before he left to join the Army. A day his 12-year-old brother didn't want to leave his side.
[Mclain:] I think it kind of hits him more that I'm leaving. Like, this last week I think it's truly hit them and my family.
[Acosta:] Like a lot of high school football players, McLain had dreams of pursuing a career in the pros.
[Mclain:] I could think was that I'm going to go pro, no matter what. You know. And then pretty much, I guess in junior, I realized there were a lot bigger fishes in the sea.
[Acosta:] Yes. [voice-over]: McLain says early this year, he began to really think about the advice from his uncle.
[Mclain:] I know my uncle always use to tell me, you know, you need to have a back-up plan. You need to have a back-up plan. And that's what I figured the most, I would do the best bet.
[Acosta:] Will had grown up with guns and always liked the idea of joining the military. So he tried to convince his parents to allow him to enlist before his 18th birthday in May.
[Mclain:] They didn't want to sign the papers and I needed to come back a year later. Like I hate you, you sign the papers. So this way, they made me wait until I was 18 so that, you know, the blame is fully on me. The way my mom worded it, she doesn't want to be responsible for sending me to Afghanistan.
[Acosta:] And now with time running out at home, reality is setting in.
[Mclain:] I'd say about a week ago it truly hit me. That's when I forgot how to sleep and stuff. I just pretty much lay there and think about it, oh, man, you know, I'm leaving in a week. I'm leaving in three days. I'm leaving in a day.
[Acosta:] For Will's parents, Bill, a construction worker, and his wife Laurie, Will's future now taking shape.
[Bill Mclain, Father:] We're all worried that he'll come home in one piece. He might be 5,000 miles away. But he knows there's people that care about him.
[Carroll:] The next morning came the good-byes. And one last word of advice.
[Bill Mclain:] Head down, brain on, OK? She wasn't looking forward to this moment.
[Carroll:] Yes. I'm sure there were a lot of mothers out there who have moments like that. Next, we'll show you what happens as Will, the civilian, becomes Private Will. He'll be heading to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. That's where he'll be completing his 13 weeks of basic training. And again, it's not just going to be Will who we're going to be following. We're actually going to be following three of these recruits, heading into different parts of the Army and chronicling their experiences as they go along the way.
[Chetry:] I mean, just from a mother's perspective, you know, it really takes a lot yet to just you have to allow your children to make their own decisions. But when it's one that you're so fearful for their safety. And especially knowing, you know, we're in an active war. We're in active wars and we don't know how long we're going to be in it.
[Carroll:] And you heard from her there, this was not a decision that they were completely behind. This was a decision that they wanted him to make. Again when he wanted to do this when he was 17, they said no way. No way are we going to allow you to do this. We're going to wait until you turn 18, then you make the decision.
[Chetry:] Well, we'll look forward to seeing how it goes for him and the other two. Jason Carroll, great job. Thank you.
[Carroll:] You bet.
[Chetry:] Right now it's 31 minutes past the hour. A look at the top stories. The alleged White House party crashers have now declined an invite. That would be an invite to appear before the House Homeland Security committee. A spokesman for the Salahi say they have already given information to Congress and the Secret Service and have nothing more to say. One House member says the couple may be served with a more forceful invite, a subpoena. Also, New York state lawmakers rejecting a bill to legalize same- sex marriage. The vote was 38-24. Advocates of gay marriage say Republican supporters of the bill were scared off by the recent election in New York's 23rd congressional district. In that race, a Republican who supported gay marriage was forced out of the running by hardline conservatives. The first woman accused of having an affair with Tiger Woods is going to be holding a news conference. New York nightclub hostess, Rachel Uchitel has denied that affair so far. Her lawyer, Gloria Allred said that she will be appearing at a news conference, but will not be speaking. Allred will be speaking on her behalf. Woods has apologized on his web site for unspecified transgressions. We'll have more on that a little bit later. But meanwhile, let's head back to John in Brussels, Belgium this morning. Hi, John.
[Roberts:] Hey, Kiran, a rainy day outside of NATO headquarters here in Brussels. But inside, it's very dry and there are a lot of people who are talking today about the way forward in Afghanistan. Just how many troops will NATO countries commit to the conflict there. In addition to the 30,000 that the United States is sending in. The United States wants as many as 7,000 NATO troops. It doesn't look like it's going to get that number at this point. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be here first thing tomorrow morning, she'll attend the ministers' meeting. They don't want to twist arms too hard. But they certainly want to make the point that they believe that Afghanistan is the world's problem, as we were talking with Ambassador Richard Holbrooke just a few minutes ago, that Al Qaeda represents a threat not just to the United States, but to all of the world, particularly here in Europe. And it is incumbent upon the member nations of NATO to get together and support the cause there. Secretary of state Clinton before she heads here is going to make an appearance today before the Senate Foreign Relations committee. Yesterday she was on a bit of a hot seat before the Senate Armed Services committee along with the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. Some pretty pointed back-and-forth over a number of points, Democrats unhappy that the United States is sending 30,000 more troops there. Republicans unhappy about this idea of what they call a timeline. And that would be the beginning of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in July of 2011. Our congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, wraps up yesterday's hearings.
[Dana Bash, Cnn Senior Congressional Correspondent:] Tough questions for the president's national security team. Most not about the 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, but confusion over whether the July 2011 date to start withdrawing is a hard deadline.
[Voice Of Sen. Carl Levin , Chairman Armed Services Committee:] It is that date conditions? Based or not?
[Unidentified Male:] No, sir.
[Bash:] That sounded definitive. But the date-certain became less certain, when pressed by GOP senators, who call a deadline a dangerous signal to the enemy.
[Sen. John Mccain , Arizona:] Will we withdraw our forces based on conditions on the ground? Or based on an arbitrary date?
[Robert Gates, Defense Secretary:] We will be in a position in particularly uncontested areas, where we will be able to begin the transition.
[Mccain:] Let's suppose you're not?
[Gates:] I think we will be in a position then to evaluate whether or not we can begin the transition in July.
[Mccain:] Which is it? It's got to be one or the other? It's got to be the appropriate conditions or it's got to be an arbitrary date.
[Gates:] We will have a thorough review in December 2010. If it appears that the strategy is not working and that we are not going to be able to transition in 2011, then we will take a hard look at the strategy itself.
[Bash:] Later Secretary Gates admitted after the December 2010 assessment
[Gates:] the president always has the freedom to adjust his decisions.
[Bash:] Secretary Clinton signaled flexibility, too.
[Sen. Lindsey Graham , South Carolina:] Have we locked ourselves into leaving, Secretary Clinton, in July of 2011?
[Hillary Clinton, Secretary Of State:] I do not believe we have locked ourselves into leaving. But what we have done is to signal very clearly to all audiences that the United States is not interested in occupying Afghanistan.
[Bash:] But the defense secretary conceded the exit date is aimed in part at politics at home.
[Gates:] I think the other audience, frankly is the American people, who are weary of, after eight years of war, and to let them know this isn't going to go on for another 10 years.
[Bash:] That didn't convince some of the president's fellow Democrats at another hearing later in the House.
[Rep. Eliot Engel , New York:] My fear, as is the fear of so many others, is that we could easily get bogged down in an endless war.
[Admiral Mike Mullen, Joint Chiefs Chairman:] This is not open- ended and we're are not going to escalate.
[Bash:] The defense secretary who called the region the "epicenter of extremist jihadism," got quite passionate at one point. Saying every service member is deployed with his signature. And if he thought they would get bogged down with no hope of success in Afghanistan, he "wouldn't sign the orders." Dana Bash, CNN, Capitol Hill.
[Roberts:] And again, the secretary of state appearing today before the Senate Foreign Relations committee. From there she'll get on a plane and she will be arriving tomorrow morning first thing here at NATO headquarters to talk to the other ministers of the NATO countries to see what they are willing to contribute to the way forward in Afghanistan. Kiran?
[Chetry:] All right. We look forward to hearing from her. John, thanks. And also a quick programming note, you don't want to miss an exclusive interview this Sunday, Afghan president, Hamid Karzi, speaks with our own Christiane Amanpour for the first time since President Obama announced his new war strategy. We're going to get Karzai's reaction, only on "Amanpour" this Sunday at 2:00 p.m. Eastern. And still ahead, the NFL coming out with new rules that go into effect this week regarding how the league handles players with concussions. We're going to be talking to a doctor who was once the team doctor for the Pittsburgh Steelers about how significant these changes are. Will they help protect players from head injuries and neurological troubles down the road. It's 37 minutes past the hour.