Everybody well that i hope you joining us is Phillip Carter senior fellow and tractor of military veterans and Society Program at the center for a new american security. His research focuses on issues that face veterans and military personnel for structure and readiness issues and Civil Military relations. His most recent article what america owes its veterans was published in this Current Issue of Foreign Affairs magazine. Serving in iraq from 2052 times to 2006 as an adviser to the state Department ProvincialReconstruction Team mr. Carter returned home to an increasing involvement in Veterans National affairs. As a civilian he is worked in the year as an attorney and business adviser and is currently teaching as an adjunct professor of law at georgetown university. Today he is with us as a moderator and friend of our keynote speaker flo groberg. While mr. Carter makes his way to the stage its my pleasure to introduce captain flo groberg, born in paris. [applause] its never a bad thing to be born in paris and in 2001 and naturalized american citizen after which he became flo groberg. He joined the army in 2008 and was twice deployed to afghanistan. It was during his second appointment that captain groberg captured a suspicious local men making his way to one of our patrols. Four died but many were spared as a result of his swift action but captain groberg spent three years in recovery. In his book 8 seconds of courage which will be available after lunch, he recounts his early life in frances Army Ranger Training and the courage to take a brave action that saved those many lives. How can we think a man whose sense of responsibility inspired him to take that action x. Perhaps president obama had the right idea when in 2015 and on veterans day he awarded our nations highest military honor the congressional medal of honor prominently displayed at the neckline captain flo groberg the first immigrant to be so recognized since the vietnam war. Please join me. [applause] wonderful. Many congratulations to you and thank you for being here with us. [applause] its a real honor and privilege to be here with you and one of the things i took away from your book which had a chance to read this week was despite the metal, despite your incredible bravery you are also a pretty humble and downtoearth guy. Theres this one story that crystallizes that and maybe you could tell everyone about the day that you fell into the sewage. Wow. My first tour in afghanistan and we had an incredibly great idea from the Civil Affairs folks to create, to pass out these cards, business cards to the local afghans in different villages in the point was if you saw the taliban or the taliban came to your village and threaten you or anything called the number on the back of this card and let us know. 75 of them couldnt even read so that was a problem. The best part about this which in plain sight is funny to me we had to put our cell phone numbers so what happened is the locals figured oh if we appear to be helping the americans and we call them and tell them there are taliban here and they think we are friends they will give us fuel and build retaining walls. Heck they are smart so they called us one night and they said the taliban is here and creating havoc so we took off as a unit to the village. To make a long story short the taliban was never there. What happened was instead in the pitch black of dark im over here knocking on doors trying to figure out where the enemy is and i open the door and they are mad at us because its the middle of the night. The next thing you know i fall into some sewage and some of you are still eating so we will go to pg healthy. It was one of those things that they are just going to dump it in their and thats when i fell and all the way up to my chest. I remember not realizing smelling it and seeing my guys. Oh no you are on your own. You are walking back. It was a tough fight. I had to get back in the truck to fight the taliban. Sometimes they had good ideas and that was not one. You have an unusual story of the Army Officers and the veterans i know. Your story is unique. How did you come to be an army officer . When i came i was 12 years old and i didnt speak english but i was adopted by a great man named Larry Groberg my father the came here to the maryland area but i was in high school. Right before going to high school with is 13 years old my uncle who was an imam and lived in north africa and Everybody Knows where that is, there we go. There we go. The terrorist organization came in the late 80s early 90s. It was a really westernized Muslim Country and my uncle thought that this was obviously wrong and it did not represent anything that he was preaching. Like many other algerians he put on a uniform and fought these individuals. In february of 1996 he was shot and beheaded and dismembered in front of my grandfather times grandfather. That was a testament the testament of the evil that was happening in the world. I kind of compared what happened to what is happening around the world right now. We see boko haram kill. The people and we just turn on the news like this is horrible and then we move on to the kardashians. Its just culture in the sense but if it happens at home and its on cnn or fox news thats thing that really bothers me as a young child. This evil could be happening over there and nobody talks about it but i remembered it. When i became u. S. Citizen my catalyst was 9 11. Here i was they attacked my uncle may attack my family and here i am a naturalized citizen of this country and as soon as i became naturalized my only solution was to join the military. We are lucky you did. You dont just choose the army, you choose the hardest part of the army going to Ranger School. What are some of the experiences for you in the army . You write a lot about training and combat. What drew you as a person than 2008 . It was a combination of all the sequences of event that happened in my life. You have to look at my father and my mother have to look my family my peers. Yet to look at my High School Coaches and my training in the military and the training i received well as a book with platoon leader. These experiences and actions allowed me to make a specific decision on august 8, 2012 which i believe a majority of my peers would have made as well. Talk about training. I wrote my first chapter about one of the most significant experiences my life was Ranger School. I kept hearing about Ranger School months and months prior. I never realized what it was until i got there. Its no joke. For those whom ive been through the crucible whats the ranger story . You are out there in three different phases and two meals a day maybe on average to sleep a couple of hours a night. You weigh approximately 100 pounds and you are going to enter 50 miles in a few days between georgia and florida. While i have a responsibility to lead men on a mission and follow i had moments where we were in a death march for 23 hours. We would just keep going up and down and i had a heck of a story in the book. I really never lost it. It changed my life because what Ranger School does its not because they want to see the toughest person in the world. Thats not the point of it. They want to be sure you have the stamina but its about what will you do when you are hungry and starving literally and you are dead tired. You havent slept for more than five hours in three days and you are supposed to lead men into action. What do you do . Also when you are not in a leadership position would you do . You are far away from everyone else. Well have integrity when no one is watching . These are the Little Things he learned. I learned a lot about myself and first of all between eating and sleeping i would eat. I would get sleep all day come everyday, everyday. Nope, when they given that choice 25 minutes before the next day starts, i was a hungry ranger. [laughter] i also learned a lot about myself and some things that i needed to fix to be an effective leader in combat and i also learned the reality behind realizing every single aspect and every single individual and understand their strengths and what their week mrs. R. And combined those drinks as best as you can to be an effective leader. Lets go to afghanistan, 2012. When did you deploy in what was your job during the second appointment . The second appointment i was running security detail and the eastern provinces of afghanistan afghanistan. He was the man. It was an unbelievable tour. For six months i got to ride in helicopters. I got to see some of the most beautiful parts of afghanistan and i got to read incredible folks. Once more got to see afghanistan from a completely different perspective than my first tour. Whatever the boss told me to do i did and this tour i was providing security and i did the mission as best they could. You are in the eastern part of afghanistan in an incredibly part rugged part of the country near mission was to meet and islamabad. What happens . Unfortunately the unit that was supposed to receive us received call and clear it out by the will have the which makes that rout unclear again. And so i had two command rs and afghan general to the f17 state department individual two majors which major and kennedy, and then my team of six include myself. And the enemy that summer had one model which was spectacular had attack so kind of pushing away from the small attack and they wanted to do Something Big so for that you have to have a lot of patience to really pick your target accordingly and when they saw this coming with that much grass they probably thought man this is christmas in july, you know this august, and they committed. So they had two suicide bomb rs ready to take us out. And so that day as were 700 meters into a 1100 meter movement they came at us with motorcycles in front of our patrol and i had actually put afghan army up front. To be honest with you i did not trust are them at the time to be behind us because we have too many green on blue and i didnt know this group of folks i thought with incredible afghan a soldier bus i didnt know these guys so i put them up front and a i wanted them to make our pier bigger to deter our potential threat and they did a heck of a job because when motorcycles came to u our patrol point guy, afghan soldier rifle are screaming and the motorcycle folks to dismount and start run aring away. But that was the whole point thats exactly what they wanted. At that point a man came out of the structure, young maybe had 20 years old and you know clean shaven, black man, and walking backwards. But thought, obviously, this guy is a threat i didnt know what the heck was wrong with him and where he came from and he did a 180degree turn and another 90 to my patrol which at that point prompted me to leave my position and scream at him while springting at him reached him hit him, grabbed him realized you know that he had a suicide vest on. Do whatever you can do at that point and throw him as far as away as quickly as possible because you have to save the bomb. So you dont think about death you think about doing your job so i threw him. I was changing same topic changing. My goal coming back from the deployment was to do the rest range of competition which you have to be pretty darn good you know well fit to do so some of the best of the best athletes do it and i was trying to compete it to do it there and lifting and working out a lot. I was i looked good right [laughter] i looked good. Well guess what, when i threw him he landed right on my street made me think maybe i wasnt lifting enough because he went no nowhere. He was a little big he was not big. Im note a big guy. He went straight down my street which, you know, i look back like man, could have done a little bit better. But he landed chest first and then he detonated so he committed and he had no matter what, that man was going to die that day. And so when he hit the ground he let go they came out and came out of his hand and everything went punish you lost four of your comrades and you were wounded as well i think number of your comrades were too. You wake up intermittently and you finally wake up and when is there not a soldier . I wases texting him but most important before i get that had i lost four incredible americans four individuals that i would do everything in the world to bring back. And griffin, major grey kennedy and state department [inaudible conversations] these men were nowhere near the bomb and for some odd reason in the rule of law, in a way of life they were picked, and left which im a Firm Believer that, you know, theyre out there looking over us and looking over me making sure theyre protecting me and protecting our families. But thats the craziest part about this whole story is the guy blew up at my photoand killed four others that were almost 30 feet away. And doesnt make sense but it is the way it is. But i my injurieses were there. But i woke up in launch, right, and im all sorts of drugged up i was pretty sure i had a pca which was allotted pressing every 15 minutes, and i see this this figure in front of me im like laying down. I look up and its got hair. Everywhere and it and hes talking to me hes like hey, man. So proud to meet you. Youre a hero looking at this guy im thinking are you the guy from korn the rock band from 90s early 2,000 freak on a leash are you Jonathon Davis like yeah, man. Why are you here . [laughter] where am i . You know and that was one of the coolest experiences Jonathon Davis was going through a pus tour at the time so he was out there you know, visiting the the troops. At a hospital where, you know, if you got hit, in afghanistan that is your first stop outside the country before you go home. And so he was out there supporting us and i thought i was hallucinating so i was figuring like i have heavy drugs here because if im dreaming about korn my goodness, i mean, i havent listened to korn in a while at that point. Its a small world and we were just texting literally just texting because he wants to do another uso tour and goim going back to afghanistan and al qaeda and back to po land and other areas it has been awesome. So you know, you go from being track star, army ranger compete in best ranger and youre pretty banged up and youve got a journey ahead. What what is that like and what are hardest parts of that . I mean, im impressed when i meet wounded veterans and you know the grit theyve got the perseverance to keep going. Tell us about that journey. Ill be honest with you it wasnt easy at first. I had a severe survivor skill i have severe and they call them mild concussion i call it a pretty damn good mild concussion because i couldnt remember they used to bring this picture of giraffe like a lion, and theyll give you math equation tough math equation with so like how many quarterses are in a dollar . Right and that look ill be like i was never really good at math i have no idea what to do now. [laughter] hey, you got me. Is this an s. A. T. Question theyre like no, whats one plus one . Tough one right there. But no, my brain wasnt working. I could look at the grandfather and i knew, i knew what it was like internally like i know what this is, but i just dont ask, dont dont know what it is and for six weeks it is pretty severe so they that was tough, and then you add the allot you add morphine you add benadryl to go to sleep at night, an then you close the door an you turn lights off and my demon inside my head were playing a lot of games. You know, they have a hell of a cocktail support their mission, and so no for months, months i was really struggling to the point where you con testimony plait suicide because youre so intrnlly defeated you have no reason to go on and it is incredible how you can feel that low. Its beyond depression and so i hear about the 20 veteranses that take their lives every day to me that is something that is powerful why i wear this ring as a reare minder that people have to question why . How . Guess what no taliban, no al qaeda, no no enemy has ever been as strong as my own deemen in my head. Think about that. I actually had the best of the best on my side always every time i went outside a wire to fight the enemy i had no support system at the time or so i thought when i was fighting those demons at night ands its incredible what they can do. I completely underestimated it. I had friends that took their lives while in service and i could not understand. Could not point like they have everything going for them, with right about and here i am in the same boat and thinking about the same outcome. And so that was tough. And honestly i dont think i would have made it unless it was for the support system i received which, you know, many of you if you dont know, if you remember anything about this remember the name travis mills. I always like to say im going to make him a superstar but hes been doing that for a long time a quadruple amputee and i got hit in april of 2012, and in november 2012 he walked into my room and changed the course of my, my life in 15 minutes. He was able to rewire me in a way that i didnt think was possible and listening to me an giving me advice also giving me a reality check i think thats what i needed for me. Everybody is different everybody has a trigger for me it was the reality check that i wasnt a failure because i had four People Killed under my watch and i had a purpose and a mission. And i couldnt get that through my own head until he came in, and told me like open up your eye stop being weak, and you know, youve got to be humble and see whats around you. Or there are guys that have a lot worse injuries than you. But it is i know it is so personal. But you have a responsible to rest of your life to earn the fact that youre on this earth and honor your family and brothers. One last one before you do which now youre with the boeing company and helping serve veterans honoring those the way you describe. Tell us a bit about what youre doing now and why thats so important to you. I made three decision iseses in any life three great decisions so i say. First one is you know joining the United States army. Thats the best decision i have ever made, you know, as a young man. I wanted to serve my country i wanted to go out there and avenge my uncle and i kale out with a completely different respect that i came out with love. Thats what i cam