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everywhere, you have 60 pounds of gear. you have been there for in his case, two patrols. two deployments. so about two years in afghanistan. plus the time prepping and uploading, and always stressed. because there are troops who go to places like afghanistan or whenever and they spent most of the time on the base doing paperwork. this guy was pushed out in a forward operating post. every day, putting on his gear and you walk around and you're ready, like a coiled spring. is someone going to shoot at me or i'm going to shoot at them? i don't know who this person is. i don't exactly know what's going to happen next. you have to be always ready to respond to that. it's hard. it's hard to watch that in ways. >> even what you're describing here, i feel heavy just listening to that. i cannot even begin to imagine what they go through. but let me just say, give me that hand. i'm so glad to have you here.
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disbelief. what do you mean you have an american? yes, we want him. so they paid some ransom to the locals who grabbed him. we did find the ransom. we went to one of the houses. we were risking ourselves, we're not going to fly right up to a dangerous house and be out front knocking on the door. but we were basically doing that at this point trying to get an american back. >> that raises the question should we be willing the way he deserted, seeking out the taliban, everybody knew the circumstances, the white house didn't want to hear from the guys on the ground what had actually happened. they were frustrated as could be because as you pointed out all operations stopped. so the question is, is that the right thing to do? was this handled properly? >> i think in the beginning it was simply because we knew he deserted but there's a chance he didn't. we got to get our guys back. >> a chance he has ptsd. >> something happened or he was on the operating post and maybe he got tricked by some locals. we confirmed later he in fact walked off skbl walked off, sent his stuff home. and the locals on radio saying
actually happened. they were frustrated as could be because as you pointed out all operations stopped. so the question is, is that the right thing to do? was this handled properly? >> i think in the beginning it was simply because we knew he deserted but there's a chance he didn't. we got to get our guys back. >> a chance he has ptsd. >> something happened or he was on the operating post and maybe he got tricked by some locals. we confirmed later he in fact walked off, sent his stuff home. and the locals on radio saying this guy's looking for the taliban. >> right. >> so he sought them out. what should the -- what should we do in the future? because, i mean, you're active in the search here, colonel waltz. what is the right thing to do if this happens and you know somebody chooses to leave? >> sean, if i could just jump in. you know, we go through survival and resistance training. both rob and i and anyone in the special forces community we know if we're captured that our