Good evening. Good evening. My name is Eileen Houser, the Program Librarian here at the cornell library. Id like to welcome you all this evening to hear Major General community punaro to discuss his book. May i ask that you silence any of your cell phones or anything that might interrupt the presentation. Thank you. Tonight well have the introduction, the author talk and then afterwards a question and answer session there will be a mic in the center aisle, if could i ask you to approach the mic so everyone can hear the questions. That would work well. After the program, the become store will be selling the book and hell be signing books for those who are interested. Also invite you to have some wine and cheese afterward. This program will be taped by cspan and airing at a later date, possibly the next few weeks. Ill now turn the program over to longtime friend and former colleague of Major General punaro. Mr. Ben hatta. Thank you, eileen. Good evening, everybody. You can turn your cell phones back on while im talking. Im not the honored guest but its an honor for me to be your emcee for the evening. A role the author has seen me play a number of times from our days together at Science Applications International corporation. Believe it another nor that is the secretary naomi my emcee career to do the ors at a bam program. The has time was was billy caps kasper. That was kind an honor. She is should be a piece of cake. There was a hall of fame to service to country, arnold would be be in it. Ill introduce our guest author and then hes going to speak interminably without taking a breath. Seriously if you know are nod that is not far from the truth. He will talk for 25 minute and then id ask them questions in an interview format and then well open it up to your questions and ill call on you when i see your hands go up or if now come to microphone that eileen was talking about. Once we have run out of things to say arnold will sign his book for those who would like that on war and politics and we invite you to help yourself to the wine and cheese in the back of the room. Want to take a brief moment to welcome our friends from cspan, who are filming tonights event for alert broadcast on the book channel. At a young legislative assistant on capitol highly two years after cspan ban sell vicing the u. S. House of representatives i was a early and avid watcher. Of course theyve expanded way beyond covering the house and a medial staple for minimums of americans and we welcome them here tonight. Arnold punaro fought as a marine corps infantry commander in vietnam where he received the business star metal with combat and purple heart and later served as the director of the Marine Corps Reserve during 9 11. Commanding general of the marine corps mobilization command and commanding general with the rank of Major General. Arnold work for future senator sam nunn of georgia as his director of National Security affairs, then as his staff director of the Senate Armed Services committee. Later as an executive Vice President at saic the was responsible for Corporate Business Development and was Deputy President of the federal business segment. Arnold has chaired or serve on numerous commissions on National Security, the guard, and reserve, and department of defense reforms. Recently he completed a twoyear stint as the chair over the National Defense industrial association. He chairs the reserve forced policy board, and serves on the defense business board, which focuses on bringing world class Business Practices to the pentagon. When he is not writing a book, arnold is the ceo of the punaro begun, specializing in federal market and budget analysis, about strands, communications and crisis management. Tonight were here to learn from Arnold Punaro who presenteds stories from his personal and public life from soaker accounts of his days in combat in the vietnam war to colorful anecdotes withjohn mccain, pushes bush one and two, and secretaries colin powell, robert gates and ash carter. Welcome my good friend, Arnold Punaro. [applause] thank you, and good evening. I first want to thank obviously the library and Eileen Houser and our good friends at bay books for host thing this event. Thank you for my colleague for being the master of ceremony. Did a lot to get our navy and will be better. I want to thank dave tilton who did the book cover, so the book cover was done by dave and his firm and supports my business in digital things. So thank you for coming out to launch about my book on war and politics. The prime primary reason is to honor thes those i served with in vietnam. The incredible courage and sacrificeses they made in a war that few supported and even fewer thanked. In vietnam, as draftees, they served with honor and did everything their country asked of them and more. I also wanted to describe a realistic picture of live of an unfan tray rivalman and combat. Slogging through fire zones for weeks and months at other time. He can seeing an elusive and lee that enemy that didnt wear uniforms. A war without a front line. We were constantly cold, wet, hungry and tired. Our respy would never arrive on time and that ration or food, ammo and water. We never had any heat that heat up the awful c reactions and never had any dry, and everything day was the same. Up at the crack of dawn, trump for miles to the nighttime positions with 85pounds of gear on our back. You clear areas in route, set up a m ambushes. That it this life of a rifleman in combat. One of those rifle men wars corporal program roy lee hammed hammond and it want to read a pass wanting from any book. Half a magazine for the incoming fire. A looked downhill and i saw a body between two bushes, our team rushed in short dash and dropped to set up in defensive position on the plank. Bullets swift through the brush and cracked into trees. Showering barks in the woods. The Fire Team Leader collapsed next to me. Its stuck, lieutenant, darn, i measured the distance to the motionless medic. Fire on top of that ridge line. My radio lieutenant handed me the hand set. Cover me, i yelled and burst from behind the tree. Our machine guns began hammering away on the plank. Bullets were dicing around dock mimicking the smaller impact of the rain drops. When i reached in, hacking and coughing with mud. I turned him over us the chest was torn open. Air bubbles deep into the red mass, he tried to Say Something but i couldnt make it out. A bullet smacked into the creek spraying us with cold war, that was an akround, that was a sniper. I placed the rubber pad and healed that with my left and half lifting him between his shoulders. As soon as the bandage was tied off, i started pulling him out of the line of fire. At that moment i felt like a bulldozer dropping me. I will be doing a lot of paperwork, when i realized that i could still move, my days to scramble for cover, my back felt if someone had weld at it with a sledge hammer. My brain seemed to be functioning with perfect clarity. My radio man called up from the hill. The Company Commander, the enemies to the north. I shouted out, new coordinated, coordinates smeared with my blood. Fire everything weve got and get the gunships. Grab, do c too. Still blood was pouring out dieing the clear water scarlet. It was cold. I had to find cover but i didnt feel like moving. Why not just close my eyes and rest and boots pounded my way. Through the rattling crack of incoming fire, someone was thundering down the slope. The pandering grew louder. Tumbling over me in the stream bed. Someone had come after me, incredibly brave, incredibly risky. I grabbed his jacket and yelled, lets go, lets go. No answer. My hand came back covered with blood, unfamiliar pail long face fell back. I didnt know him. I cant move, i yield but he didnt respond. Just lay there on top of me jerking as the bullets hammered his flat jacket. We have to get out of here, i said. I grabbed his harness and pulled him off as the bullets peppered the water around us. Doc, i was worried might be dying, i realized this now but maybe i could save this marine. Seemed to take hours to crawl grabbing the heavy body he had been hit and wasnt breathing. The lips were cold, this marine was gone, the double check slapped. Why come after me . Core discipline didnt demand it, he wasnt even in my platoon. Lieutenant are you okay, he crouched right next to me, he was reloading with shaking hands, his barrel steam, we are pinned down and we have a bunch of wounded and the Company Commander wants a sit rep. Steady rattle of small arms, working the top of the ridge louder than i had ever heard it. We stumbled on a at least a regular mean. I had to call more fire power. Youre hit, sir, bleeding bad. I fumbled at the first aid kit and when i looked back at the marines body again, gray blew eyes were open and seemed to be following me. You know this marine, thats hammons third platoon. He only had a couple of weeks to go, you call in a chopper and get yourself taking care of. I looked around the dead and wounded. , seemed to be speaking in a language i forgotten. Why had the kid done it . Sacrificed himself for a stranger when his own return home had been so near but then a wounded man began screaming, 155 artillery detonated along the press shaking rain from the trees, smoke drifted like bitter instance but there was something else, something important. Then i remember in a rush breaking over me, move to contact our Regimental Commander said move out, i forced myself out but my legs felt up, the dead marine was still looking at me wideeyed as if he was waiting for an answer. My radio man slapped the hand set in my palm like an whorl nurse presenting a scafle. No corporal, i said, help me get third platoon and follow and trace, we are going to take this hill so we can get everyone out. No marine gets left mind. So we dug in and consolidated our position from a wall of steel, after i radioed our situation to our commander, i ordered the squad leaders to maintain tactical perimeter, return fire and ready for seriously wound. I didnt tell them i had been hit. Unfortunately there was no where for the helicopters to land in the broken heavily wooded terrain. They would have to drop a nile robinson or jungle spleen, you bundle a marine into it and hoisted through the canopy but as the First Casualty rose through branches, a chattering boom sounded overhead sledded aluminum rained down. It must have been a rocket propelled grenade. The lines snapped. The chopper strain today remain airborne but staggered down impacting with the earth shaking thug. It was clear we couldnt get wounded from this revene. It would be a daylong battle of both enemy fire and terrain, dodging bullets and climbing a mud slide covered with vine and other obstacles. But then we hadnt been carrying our wounded and dead, meanwhile i was losing blood, my trowzers were so below and my right thigh it had gun in my lower back but never leave a fellow marine behind had been drilled into us. One squad was on point. The two remaining squads were deployed left and right back about 25 meters protecting our flanks. I was in the middle with the rest and wound an dead trying to plain taken communications an calling air strikes and artillery to keep the north vietnamese heads down to keep from firing from us. Danger close over the radio would alert the artillery men to be extra careful. Sometimes they wouldnt fire Danger Close Mission and since they would all be dead if they didnt, i didnt bother with the warning. It took the better part of the day to carry the dead and wounded along in the final punishing while fighting to the top. By then i almost forgot i was wounded. My company commanded had now heard it in order to be out. The man persuaded, tried to persuade me to leave but i wasnt going to go not before all of my marines were safe. When we got it was burning. Bombs had left a smoking waistland, jungle, ripped up earth and enemy corpses. It smelled like the devils pit barbecue. The north vietnamese. Either killed or retreating knelting back into the jungle. At that point the choppers were able to come in our wounded went to emergency get the seriously wowbded as seriously possible even after fire. At last the permanent routine radio shortin of action. My dead rescuer layed and i was barely breathing, in serious pain but still clearheaded. Until this faithful day, he and i have never met. I didnt know what it caused hammons, 21 of texas to come to my rescue. He had been in the country since february 25th, 1969 and within weeks of going home. As i layed there behind him i wished he had not come after me. In a few days, marines in dress blues would be knocking on his familys front door. They wouldnt know what he had done for me, they wouldnt even be told how he died. But the thick blasted jungle fell away, in the last fading golden life i looked out the Rolling Hills of the battle star struck hunt ri and layed a protective arm over roys body. Two marines, we had never spoken to each other, never shaken hands even at the end but we were bound in spirit forever. [applause] his sacrifice left a mark on me. Its why identify dedicate that had the corporal hammons do not give their life in vain. I continued then i continued my career in Public Service working for a brand new senator from georgia hope we can better the life of our war fighters. I had the great honor to work with senators on a bipartisan basis. Some of the legendary figures of the senate. General james mattis who the president elect announced today that hes going nominate to be secretary of defense. These individuals like myself Work Together to solve some of the most challenging problems of the 70s, 08s 80s and 90s. We vent to the volunteer force in 1973 but it struggled in the decade of the 70s and had to be saved and senator nunn and warner provided benefits package to keep the volunteer force going. We worked on the Strategic ArmedLimitation Treaty with the soviet union, the panama canal treaty, had to deal with the devastating bombing to have Marine Barracks in 1982. Worked on the legendary changes to chain of command with the Goldwater Nichols that strengthen military and put in crystallized through commander in chief to secretary of defense. Iran controversy. Desert storm and many more. As i look at all the issues we have dealt with and were very challenging and difficult times, none of those issues could have been solved by any one person or any one party. It took both sides working together, finding compromise, earning votes and working cooperatively with the pentagon for the better results for the men and women in uniform and their families. So i did that for 24 years and after senator nunn decided not to run for reelection in the senate, i decided to continue serving our war fighters but this time in a different capacity. A defense business executive, provides the cuttingedge technology for our war fighters, we never won our troops. They never want that to be the case. They continue to serve in the Marine Corps Reserve and had the privilege to serve in the first gulf war. From all the lessons i learned throughout my career, i would say experts in various ways. The world is more complex and dangerous. Very unpredictable and we truly need some of the most enlightened leadership in working together that weve ever had but these problems are not insurmountable. When it comes to National Security, politics stopped at the waters edge. My last chapter is a chapter i call lessons learn and i draw in my experience in combat and military, the Business World and then just common sense the things ive learned with my great family and my wife january and my four kids and my seven grand kids. And there are thicks that really kind of follow those of you who have served in the military, served with the military, you cant lead from behind. You have to always tackle the toughest things up front. If youre leading through the front you have to guaranty the mission. You have a unit, you have people of individual different skills and they come from different backgrounds but if youre in a military unit, if you cant Work Together and you cant lead people and bring them together, that outfit is not going to be successful just like our country is not going to be successful. Dont do that. You have to be willing to take a bullet. If youre a politician and not willing to do the right thing and maybe lose an election and go back home, then youre not going to be a good leader, by the way our Founding Fathers never intended for our political washington to be there forever and ever and ever. Identify come around and a lot of the restrictions that president elect trump is talking about in terms of the revolving door and ethical standards that we need to bring to our government and you have to follow your moral come compass. We didnt have any Global Positioning system. We had a compass and map, by the way, in the United States marine corps, we are going back to basics, we are teaching lieutenants how to use map and compass because we know the kind of fights are going to be are close and personal and make sure that our marines are ready to go. And you never leave anyone behind and thats just not in the battlefield of the military and people that cant take care of themselves. The next vote is always the most important vote. You may big in a fire fight, big chop match and have somebody opposing you on this particular vote and, guess what, that same individual two weeks from now maybe your biggest ally on another issue. And the final lesson learn is you have to take the long view. None