Gregory Vice President of programs for the World Affairs counsel and the chair of this Conference Planning committee paid thank you for all your hard work. [applause] good afternoon. Everybody well fed i hope. Joining us at lunch today is Phillip Carter senior fellow and director of military veterans and Society Program at the center for a new american security. His research focuses on issues that face veterans and military personneld, force structure and readiness issues and Civil Military relations. His most recent article what america owes its veterans was published in its currentha issue of Foreign Affairs magazine. Serving in iraq from 2,522,006 as an adviser to the state department for Reconstruction Team mr. Carter returned home to an increasing involvement in Veterans National affairs. As a civilian he has worked as in the private sector as an attorney and business adviser and is currently teaching is an adjunct professor of law at georgetown university. Un 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 eight pleasure to introduce captain flo groberg born in paris. [applause] never as bad thing to be born in paris. 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 d deployment that captain groberg encountered a suspicious man making his way toward one of our patrols. Many were so spared as a result of his swift action but captain groberg spent three years in recovery. His book 8 seconds of courage which will be available after lunch recounts his early life in france as an Army Ranger Training and the courage it brought him to take the brave action that saved those many lives. How can we thank a man whose own sense of responsibility inspired him toe take that action . 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 seen prominently h displayed on his neck line to captain flo groberg the first immigrant to be so recognized since the vietnam war. Please join me. [applause] wonderful. 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 take away from your book which i had the chance to read this week was despite the medal, despite your incredible bravery you are also a pretty selfeffacing and downtoearth guy. Theres one story that crystallizes that and maybe you could tell everyone about that day you fell into thent sewage. Wow. My first tour in afghanistan and we had an incredibly great idea for the Civil Affairs folks to pass out these cards like business cards to the local afghans in different villages in the point was if you sought the taliban or the taliban threatened you areou 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 was in hindsight its funny to me. We have to list cell phone number so what happened is the locals figured if we have here to be helping the americans and we call them and tell them there is taliban here and a common they think we are friends they will told us a retaining wall and help us at the mosques. They are smart. They called us one night and they said hey the taliban is here creating havoc so we went as a unit to the village. To make a long story short the taliban was never there. What happened instead in the pitch dark im over here and we are not nondoers trying to figure out where the enemy is. People are mad at us because its the middle of the night. The next thing you know i fall into sewage. Some of you are still eating so we will look go pg healthy. It was one of those things that you just dump it in there and i fell in all the way up to my chest and i remember not realizing what i was in and smelling it and im asking for help and they said no, you were on your own. You are walking back. It was tougher to get back in the truck than to fight the taliban. Im sorry. You had a lot of good ideas and that was not one. You have an unusual story and all the veterans i know the story of how you came to the army is very striking. Tell us about that and how did you become an army officer . I joined. I came at 12 years old and i was adopted by grad great man named larry groberg. Right before going to high school when i was 15 years old my uncle who was an imam and lived in north africa if Everybody Knows where that is. There we go. There we go. The gia came in the 90s trying to take over radical islam and that part of the world. It was really westernized and my uncle thought that this was obviously wrong and did not represent anything that he was preaching so like many other algerians he put on a uniform and fought me and in february of 1996 during the ceasefire he was shot and beheaded and dismembered and sent back to my grandfather. That was a testament of the evil but to be honest no one paid attention to it today compared to what happened in algiers to what happens around the world now. Its just culture in a sense but if it happens at home its on cnn fox news for the next 17 days. That really bothered me as a young child that so much evil could be happening over there and nobodys talking aboutut it. When i became a u. S. Citizen my catalysts with 9 11. I was a freshman in college and here i was protecting my uncle in protecting my family and here i am a naturalized citizen of this country and the same type of individuals come any create terror. My only solution was to be part of joining the military. We are lucky youu did. You dont just choose the army you choose the hardest part of the army and it goes to Ranger School. What are some of the formative experiences for you in the army . He right a lot about training and combat. What you made you the person that was there on august 8, 2012 . It was a combination of all the sequence of events that happen in my life. You have to look atatot my fathr and my mother and my family and my peers. You have to look at my High School Coaches and my trackck coaches. You have to look at my training in the military and the training i received as a platoon leader and the men that surrounded me. These experiences and segments of actions of allowed me to make a specific action on august 8 of 2007 which mime majority of peers would have made that decision as well pay talk about training in the army i wrote my first chapter about one of the most significant experiences in my life which was Ranger School. After hearing about Ranger School months prior when i chose infantry as a path in my military career i never realized what it was until i got there. Its no joke. For those who havent been through it what is your ranger storyha click. You are out there in three different phases and you eat two meals a day maybe. You sleep an average of a couple of hours a night. You have to carry a rock sack the weight approximately 100 pounds in going over 250 miles in the course of a few days over some pretty severe train to reign in georgia and florida and having the responsibility to lead men in certain responsibilities and then follow. It was tough. I had moments where the death march is what we would call it you keep going up and down and i had a heck of a story in the book. It changed my life. What Ranger School does and its not because they want to make it the toughest person in the world. Thats not the point of it. They want to make sure this way you have the stamina but what do you do when you are starving literally and you are dead tired. T and also you are not in the leadership position. These are Little Things learn the first of all if i choose between eating and sleeping, i would sleep all day every day. When they gave me the choice, sleep or eat, i ate. I was hungry. [laughter] i also learned a lot about myself. I learned the reality behind utilizing every aspect i am understanding what their weaknesses are and combining those to be an effective team. Lets go to afghanistan in 2012. What was your job during the second deployment . Guest what he owned was 45 different houses in Eastern Province offpr afghanistan with five provinces total. It was an unbelievable tour. For six months, seven days a week i got to ride in helicopters and see some of the most beautiful parts of afghanistan and more importantly afghanistan and a completely iny different perspective. My first tour was a platoon leader so whatever the boss told me to do i did. I was providing security the best i could. So you are in this incredibly rugged country and august 8 your mission was to accommodate getting a solid [inaudible] every wednesday at 10 00 in the morning they wanted to run a security meeting for 30 minutes and so obviously i wasnt going to be the boss of every meeting. He didnt want to go every week. We havent gone in quite a few weeks so they had a previous meeting with all of the leaders at jalalabad if we decide to fly out to the security meeting and they wanted to address it. So we got there and the unit that was supposed to receive us left so i had to brigade commanders, an afghan general, two majors and then my team of six including myself. The enemy that summer had one modelas which was spectacular attacks. They wanted to do something big. For that you have to have a lot of patience and pick your target accordingly. When they saw us coming they probably thought this iss christmas in august. They had two suicide bombers ready to take us out so 700 meters into an 11 toward either movement, they came out with some motorcycles in front of the patrol. I put Afghan National army upfront. I will be honest with you i didnt trust them at the time to be behind us. I didnt know this group of folks. I thought with some incredible Afghan Soldiers but i didnt know these guys. I wanted them to deter any possible threats and they did a heckuva job. They forced the motorcycle guys to start running away. That was the whole point thats what theyt wanted. A man came out of the structure young maybe 20yearsold, cleanshaven, walking backwards. So obviously he was a threat and then he did the turn and at that point it prompted me to leave my position and i reached him, grabbed him and realized he was just as i thought. You do whatever you can do at that point we just throw them as quickly as possible. You dont think about death you just think about doingng your j. My goal was to do the best i could which you have to be welded to do so. I was trying to compete to make it. So i have been working out a lot. I looked good. [laughter] when i threw him he landed right in my face which made me think maybe he i was inflicting enough. He wasnt a big. I was bigger than him. He went straight down. Looking back i thought i could have done better. He landedbe chest first and he committed. No matter what, he was going to die that day. When he hit the ground it came out of his hand and went. So you lost four of your comrades that day whose names are inscribed on a bracelet on your wrist and you were wounded as well. I think a number of your comrades were. You wake up intermittently and finally wake up. Who is there a . I lost four incredible friends and individuals i would do anything to bring back. These men were nowhere near the bomb and for some odd reason thd the rule of law in a way of life they were picked and left the world which iowa Firm Believer that they are up there looking over us and looking over me and making sure they are protecting our families, but thats the craziest part about the whole story is that he blew up at my feet and killed four others were almost 30 feet away. It doesnt make sense that its thbut thatsthe way it is. My injuries were there that i woke up and im drugged up at that point. Im pretty sure i was prepping every 15 minutes and i see this figure in front of me. Iurur look up and its got Hair Everywhere and hes talking to me hey, man, so proud to meet you. Im looking at him thinking are you the guy from korn, the rock band from the 90s and early 2,000, like argue Jonathan Davis and he said yeah man. Im like why are you here . [laughter] he was going through a tour at the timtumor atthe time said hee visiting the troops at a hospital where if you got it that is your first stop out of the country before you go home. He was out there supporting us and i thought i was hallucinating. [laughter] i thought i was on some really heavy drugs because if i was dreaming about korn [laughter] hadnt listened to korn for a while at that point. Small world. We were texting because he wants to dowa another tour with. You go from being a track star army ranger and you are pretty banged up and happy journey ahead. What is that like and what are the hardests parts . The grip theyve got and perseverance to keep going. Tell us about that journey. I will be honest with you it was not easy at first. They called it a mild concussion but i called it a damn good mild concussion because i couldnt remember how there were these pictures of giraffes and lions and math equations like how many quarters an in the dollar. [laughter] and i would look at him like i was never good at math i dont know. [laughter] youve got me a. Whats one plus one. Tough one right there. But now my brain wasnt working. I could look at the draft and i knew what it was. What i know what this is but i just dont know what it is. And for six weeks it was pretty severe. Then you add in the medications, morphine, iv benadryl to sleep at night and you close the door, turn off the lights and my demons inside my hea of my heade playing a lot of games and having a hell of a cocktail support for their mission. For months and months i was struggling to the point you contemplate suicide just because you are sthey were so defeated e no reason toca go on. Its incredible how you can feel that low. It is beyond depression. So when i hear about the 20 veterans to take their lives every day come too me that is something very powerful and why i wear this ring as a reminder qthat people have to question why, how. No taliban and al qaeda, no chechnya an no enemy has ever bn as strong as my own demons in my head. Think about that. Every time i went outside to fight the enemy i had no support system at the time or so i thought when i was fighting those demons at night, and its incredible what they can do. I completely underestimated it. I have friends that took their lives while in service, and i couldnt understand. Like they have everything going for them, and here i am in the same boat and thinking about the same outcome. So, that was tough. And honestly i dont think i would have made it if it would have made it if it werent for the support system that ive received. If you read anything about this, remember the name travis mill. I always say i want to make him a superstar petit has been doing that for a s long time. He is an amputee and in april of 2012, nnovember he walks into my room with four prosthetics and is the support of my life in 15 minutes to get he was able to rewire me in a way that i didnt think was possible. Listening to me and giving me some advice and also giving me a reality check and i think that is what i needed. Everybodys different. Everybody has a trigger. For me it was the reality check i wasnt a failure because i had four People Killed on my watch. I still have a purpose in admission and i couldnt get that through my own head until he came in and pulle told me ovh your eyes, youve got to be humble and see what is around you. There are some guys that hav haa lot worse injuries than you but i know that its personal. You have the responsibility for the rest of your life to honor your brothers had come home and honor their families. Here go going to go to questions. Now you are helping serve veterans and honor those that you described. Tell us about what youre doing now and why this is important to you. I made three positions in my life. First one joining the army, the best decision i made as a young man. Ive wanted to serve my country and go out and avenge. I came out with a completely different perspective. I went in with hate and anger and took that away early on because i realized. And i talked with was. That is the greatest and most important thing you can do when all hell breaks loose. Even if yo if youre a nonbelie, you believe and trust in god, that is a fact. Ive met some atheists and when things go wrong they are over here praying. They dont know who they are praying to that whoever you are, male, female, i dont care, please help. And then you look at each other in the eyes and the tinny, that experience i wish id been in the military longer, but it is what it is. Im grateful for the opportunity to even have served a day in our military. The second one is a company. What a blessing. I never realized tonight that they just made airplanes. I was infantry. I didnt like jumping out of airplanes even though they made me do so. I was always scared and here i am now working for the number one Aerospace Company in the world. When i came here to see the culture, leadership and people it reminded me of the military and it is unbelievable how a company of 140,000 employees can be so close and have a great impact and when they told me they wanted to amplify my mission to go out and serve our veteran community, they were going to give me the funding, the people, the resources to go out and make a difference with our team to change Service Members, family members lives it was unbelievable. The ceo Just Announced last week or two weeks ago on mad money we are giving 50 million in grants to support our veteran communities, staff activities, environment, arts, specific duties. Over the course of the next three years we are going to give 25 million for just our veterans. But whats important though is the fact that its not about just giving money. Anybody can do that. Bill gates can go out and get money every day and still be a billionaire. Its about actually having come and clean your entities and go out there and make a difference. We are committing 1. 75 billion hours for just our veteran Service Organizations over t