[applause] it afternoon. Everyones well fed, i hope. Joining us at lunch today is philip carter, senior fellow and director of military veterans and the Society Program at the center for a new american security. His research focuses on issues that face veterans and military personnel, force structure and readiness issues and several military relations. His most recentat article, what america owes its veterans is published in this Current Issue of Foreign Affairs magazine. Serving in iraq from 2005 until 2006 as an advisor to the state Department Reconstruction team, mr. Carter then returned home to increasing involvement in veterans and national affairs. As a civilian he worked in the private sector as a business advisor and he is currently teaching as anan adjunct professor of law at georgetown university. Today he is with us as a moderator and friend of our keynote speaker. So while mr. Carter makes his way to the stage, it is my pleasure to introduce the captain. [applause] never a bad thing to be born in paris. In 2001, a naturalized american citizen, after which he. [inaudible] joined the army in 2008 and was twice the play to afghanistan. It was during his second deployment that they tackled a suspicious local man making his way toward one of the patrols, setting off the man suicide vest. Four died but many were spared as a result of his swift action. Captain grover spent three years in recovery. His book, eight seconds of courage which will be available after l lunch recounts his early life and friends, his tough Army Ranger Training and the courage it brought him to take the brave action that saved those many lives. How can we think a man whose own sense of responsibility inspired him to take that action. Perhaps president obama have the right idea when, in 2015 and on veterans day he awarded our nations highest military honor the congressional medal of honor to captain grover, the first immigrant to be so recognized since the vietnam war. Please join me. [applause] wonderful. Many congratulations to you. Thank you for being here with us. Its a real honor and privilege to be here with you. One of the things i took away from your book, which i had the chance to read this week, was despite metal, despite your incredible bravery, youre also pretty humble, downtoearth guy. Ttheres one story that crystallizes that and maybe you can tell everyone about that day that you fell into the sewage. While. My first tour in the afghanistan and we had this incredible great idea to create, to pass out these cards, there like business cards to the local afghan in different villages and the point was, if you saw the taliban or if they came into your village, just call the number on the back of it and let us know. About 75 or some of them couldnt even read so that was a problem. The best part about this in hindsight is that we put our translators phone numbers, so what happened as the locals figure if we appear to be helping the americans we just call them and tell them the taliban here and they commonly think were friends and they will give us fuel and the build is a retaining wall and a mosque. They called us one night and said hey, taliban is here so we took off to that village. To make a long story short, the taliban was never there. What happened was that it was pitch black dark and im over here knocking on doors tried to figure out where the money is and people open the door mad at us because its the middle of the night. The next night i fall into sewage. Some of you are eating so we will go pg and, it was one of those things that we flush the toilet and they just dump it in there and thats where i fell in all the way up to my chest. I remember not realizing what i was in and then smelling it and then seeing my guys im asking for help and there like no sitter, you are on your own. Your walking back. It was serious. It was a tougher fight to get my guys back on the truck that was to fight the taliban. Im sorry, sometimes we had good ideas. That was not one. Thank you. You have an unusual story of all the Army Officers i know, your story of how you came to be army is unique. Its really striking. Tell us how you came to be an army officer. Why did you join. When i came to the United States has about 12 years old. I didnt speak english. I was adopted by a great man, my father and we came here and moved to bethesda maryland when i was in high school. When i was 13yearold, my uncle who lived in algeria they tried to take over the government with radical islam in that part of the world and it was a really westernized muslim country. My uncle who thought this was wrong and did not represent what he was teaching and like many other algerians, he put on the uniform and fought these individuals. He was shot and beheaded and dismembered and put in a box and sent back to my grandfather. That was a testament of the evil happening in the world that no one was really paying attention too. I kind of compare what happened then to whats happening around the world now. We see boko haram killing 300 people and we see it on the news and we say this is horrible and we move on to the kardashians. Its just culture, in a sense, but if it happens at home its on cnn and fox news for the next 17 days. Thats the thing that really bothered me as a young child that so much evil could be happening over there and nobodys talking about it but i remember it. I was a freshman in college at 911 and they killed my uncle, attach my family and now here i am a naturalized citizen of this country and as soon as i get naturalized the same type of individuals come in and create terror to my new adopted country. My only solution was to be part of the solution. You dont get to choose the army, you choose the hardest l. Rt of the armyy and within that you chose the hardest part of that and you go through Ranger School. What were some of the formative experiences in the army . You write about your time and training in combat. What made you into the person that was there on august 8, 2012. Accommodation of all the sequential actions of my life. You have to look at my mother my father my family and my peers and mymy coaches and my Time Training in the military and so on. The training that i received as a platoon leader and the men who surrounded me. These experiences and actions allowed me too make the decision in 2012 which i believe the majority of my peers wouldve made as well. You talk about training in the army, i wrote my first chapter about one of the most significant expenses of my life which was Ranger School. I kept hearing about Ranger School months and months prior to going through Ranger School when i chose infantry as a path of my military career. I never realized what wasnt i got there. For those who havent been through that, what is the ranger story. 62 days of training and youre out there in three different phases and two meals a day, maybe, you sleep on average a couple hours a night coming your caring a sack that weighed approximately hundred pounds and youre going over 250 miles in the course of 52 days over some really severe terrain between georgia and florida and while having the responsibility to lead men on Certain Missions and then follow, it was tough. We were death marched for 23 hours. You just keep marching up and down. I thought i lost the equipment but i didnt los loser, i was dragging it but thats howard exhausted you are. It changed my life. They called ranger training leadership school. They want to physically make sure you have the stamina to uphold and succeed, but its about what will you do when youre hungry, youre starving, literally, and youre dead tire tired. You havent slept more than five hours and three days. Your caring all this weight and youre supposed to lead men and decisive action, what do you do. They also watch youtube. When youre not in leadership, what you do . Your far away from everyone else, are you gonna pull security . And have integrity or are you going to go to sleep question that these are Little Things you learn. I learned a lot about myself. First of all, if i have to choose between eating and sleeping, i. E. I had no idea, i wouldve day everyeep all day. When they give me that choice, you can sleep or you can, i ate. I was hungry. I also learned a lot about myself. Some of the faults i had and i needed to change to be an effective leader. I also learned the realityat betwee behind utilizing every single asset in your platoon which means every single individual and understanding their weaknesses and the strengths and combining those strengths while eliminating the weaknesses as best you can to be an effective leader. Lets go to afghanistan in 2012. What was your job during your second appointment. The second appointment i was running security detail and what he owned was 45. [inaudible] in the Eastern Province of afghanistan. He had five provinces total and he was the man. It was unbelievable to her. For six months, every single day i got to ride in helicopters and see some of the most pitiful parts of afghanistan and meet powerful and incredible folks. Most importantly i got to see afghanistan from a completely different perspective than my first tour. Whatever the boss to me too do, i did. This to her, i was providing security and i got to see generals and did the best i could. See her in this eastern part of afghanistan, incredibly rugged country, mountains as tall as anywhere in the world and you wanted to accompany the boss for a meeting and take it from amthere. This was one of those meetings. This was my first tour. Every wednesday at 10 00 a. M. , the governor of east afghanistan wanted to run the security meeting for 30 minutes. Obviously i wasnt in a take the fall for that meeting. He didnt want to go. He made his own schedule, i advised him on it, he didnt want to go every week because then we become a threat and we become a target. In 2012, we have been gone for quite a few weeks and they had a previous meeting with all his leaders and the next day we decided to fly out to the security meeting on some of the topics the night prior. They wanted to address those with the governor. We got there and i was supposed to have 12 or 15 escorts. Unfortunately, the unit that was supposed to receive us decided they would call about 15 minutes prior. It made the route unclear again. So i had to brigade t commander. [inaudible] two majors and then my team of six including myself. The enemy that summer had one motto which was to do something big. For that you have have a lot ng patience. You have truly pick your target accordingly when they saw us coming with that much brass they probably thought this is christmas in july, in august and they committed. They had two bombers ready to take us out so that day, as we were 700 meters into an 1100meter movement, they came at us with motorcycles in front of our patrol. I had actually put the Afghan National army up front. I was be honest with you, i do not trust them at the time to be behind us because we had too many green on blues happening out there and i didnt know the skipper folks. I fought with some incredible Afghan Soldiers but i didnt know these guys. I put them up front and i wanted them to make our patrol appear bigger, to deter any potential threatd. They did a heckuva job because when the motorcycles came toward our patrol, the point guy, the afghan soldier started screaming which forced the motorcycle folks to dismount and start running away but that was the whole point. That was what they wanted. At that point a man came out the structure, young, maybe 20 years old, cleanshaven and walking backwards. Then it. Obviously this guy was a threat and didnt know what the heck is wrong with them and where did he come from and he did a 180degree turn and another 90degree turn and edlead my position and screamed at him, reached him, hit him, grabbed him and realized she had a suicide vest on. Do whatever you can do at that point which is thrown as far away as possible. So, you dont think about that, you just think about doing your job. So i threw him my goal, going back from the deployment was to go to the best ranger competition which youve got to be pretty darn good and fit to do so. Some of the best of best do it and i was trying to compete. I was lifting a lot and working out a lot. I looked good. Guess what. When i throw him, he landed right in my street which made me think maybe i wasnt lifting enough because he went nowhere. Or he was a a little big. He was not big. To be honest, i was bigger than him. He went straight down my feet which in hindsight, i can look back like man come on you couldve done a little bit better. He landed chest first and then he detonated. N so he came in and committed. The matter what that man was going to die that day. So when he hit the ground he let go and sought, his hand and everything went black. You lost four of your comrades that day whose names are inscribed on a bracelet on your wrist. You were wounded as well. I think a number of your comrades were as well. Wake up intermittently and you wake up and who is there, not a soldier. I was just texting one of them yesterday. Most importantly, i lost four incredible americans and four great friends. For individuals that i would do everything in the world bring back. Major gray, major kennedy and state Department Number one these men were nowhere near the bomb and for some odd reason and the rule of law and p they were picked and left our world which i am a Firm Believer there out there looking over us in looking over me and making sure they are protecting me and protecting our families, but thats the craziest part about this whole story. The guy blew up by myy feet and killed four others who were almost 30 feet away. That does make sense but it is the way it is. My injuries were there but i woke up and i was also on some drugs at that point. Im pretty sure i was pressing every 15 minutes and i see this figure in front of me. I was like laying down and i look up and its got Hair Everywhere and hes talking to me and hes like a man, so proud to meet you, your hero, im looking at this kind of thinking are you the guy from corn, the rock band from the 90s and early 2000s. Are you Jonathan Davis . Is ikea man i like why are you here, where am i. That was one of the coolest experiences. Jonathan davis was actually goingg through a u. S. Tour at the time so he was out there visiting the troops at a hospital where, if you got hit in afghanistan, that is your first stop outside the country before you go home. He was out there supporting us and i thought i was hallucinating. I was figuringik ive got some really heavy drugs because i must be dreaming about corporate my goodness. I havent listened to cornyn while at that point. Small world. Im telling you. Him and i we were just ittexting. Literally just texting with him because he wants to do another uso to her and im going with general dunford back to iraq and afghanistan to other areas. Its been awesome. So you go from being a ranger to compete in best ranger and youre pretty banged up and youve got a journey ahead. What is that like and what are the hardest parts of that . Im impressed when i meet wounded veterans and the great theyve got, the perseverance to keeput going, tell us about that journey. Ill be honest with you. It wasnt easy at first. I have pretty severe. Oncussion, i call it a damn good mild concussion because i can rememberik there were these pictures of giraffes and lions in the give you math equations , tough math equations like how many quarters in a dollar,ha grigh right. [laughter] id look at him and i said i was never really good at math but i have no idea what to do now. You got me. Is this an sat question . Do like no part whats one plus one. Thats a tough one writer. My brain wasnt working. I can look at the graph and i knew what it was. I knew it was internally but i just dont know what it is. For six weeks it was pretty severe so that was tough. Then you add axes and morphine and benadryl for me too go to sleep at night and then you close the door and you turn the lights off and my demons inside my head were playing a lot of games and they have a hell of a cocktails to support their mission. For months i was really struggling to the point where you contemplate suicide is because really youre so internally defeated, you have no reason to go on. Its incredible how you can fill that low. Its beyond depression. When i about the 20 veterans who take their livesrf everyday, that is very powerful thats why i wear this ring as a reminder that people have to question why, how . No taliban, no al qaeda no chechnya and, no enemy has ever been as strong as the enemies in my own head. Think about that. I had the best of the best on my head. Had the best support system, or so i thought, when i was fighting those demons at night and its incredible what they can do. I completely underestimated it. I had friends who took my their life and i could not understand. They had everything going for them, and here i am in the same votehtmnd. That was tough. Honestly i dont think i wouldve made it if it were not for the support i received, especially travis mill. If you remember anything, remember the name travis hell. I was like to sam going to make him a superstar but hes been doing that for a long time. Hes a quadruple amputee. I got hit in april 2012 and in november 2012 he walked through my room with four prosthetics and change the course of my life in 15 minutes but he was able to rewire me in a way that i didnt think was possible by listening to me and giving me some advice, and also giving me a reality check. I think thats what i needed, for me. Everybodys different. Everybody has a trigger. For me it was reality check y w wasnt a failure because i had four People Killed on my watch and i still had a purpose and omission. I couldnt get that through my own head until he came in and told me open up your eyes, stop being weak y, youve got to be humble and see whats around you. There are guys that have a lot worse injuries and you, but i know its a personal but you have a responsibility for the rest your life to earn the fact that youre still on this earth and honor your brother shooting come home and honor their families. Ot you go to questions in a minute. I want to ask one last question before we do. Now, with the boeing companyin and youre helping serve veterans in honoring those just the way you described, tell us about what youre doing nowow t and why thats so important to you. I made three decisions in my life. Three great decisions. So i say. The first one is joining the army. Thats the best de