An accommodation of living together for the sake of their child and shortly afterwards, put a pistol in his mouth and committed suicide. So, with all that sadness to contend with, how on earth did so many in paris managed to exist and commence themselves to put this behind them and that life after all offers so much promise in the future to be a beautiful life. This is how. Can we have the do bit louder . I could listen to that all day, but i think on that note i would like to finish and at this time to answer questions. Thank you for listening. [applause] idea that [inaudible] down here. I just wanted to ask how in the world did sweet friend space ever get around . How were they able . It is fairly miraculous. There are different version, but probably there was an author who is writing an introduction. She was not known before the war. Shed written many other novels. In looking at this work, which the doctors thought initially was just the diary. This other author translated it and took it to a publisher and recognized as a fivepart symphony. There are just so many tragic aspects because a parent is writing to publishers saying i recognize that this point that if i have anything postwar, it will be posthumous. It is looking after it appeared or you can say things to wealthy individuals. If no ones going to ask a question im going to say one more thing because i cant talk about all the women in the book and id love to and i feel so privileged to have given voice to them. I was asked in one of my talks at five noticed shame on the part of some of my interviewees. The interview begin with the word complicated as this are never going to understand what it was like. But actually, the one woman who i got to know rather well who is so the opposite of shameful because she told me her story and then said i couldnt use her name and not because shes ashamed of what she did but because she didnt feel she didnt laugh. Ive probably had about four or five interviews with her. In the course of getting to know her, she was moved out of the family house into sheltered housing. During the removal process, she had a box with her red cross uniform and in the daughter helping her move. It turned out that she had been a red cross nurse who god and all she was able to do was label of food. She thought she hadnt been able to make a difference to all the people inside and she had just blocked it out of her memory. Secondly, we found letters from canadian and american downed pilots because that is one of the things that so many of these women did come escorting them from one safe house to another without being formally registered in a resistance group. And so i actually saw the proof, the evidence that she is save the lives of some of these pilots because they put it back to her in the 50s to take her for her actions. The third thing i found when she moved with pamphlets from an organization which was the name surrogate chassis with Resistance Organization and she was one of those on bicycles and had to deliver these leaflets into leicester box spirit once she saw them, she remembered how terribly dangerous supplies. If you put it into the wrong letterbox and somebody saw you, you would be arrested. Three separate actions and yet she would let me use her name in my book. Yes they shame on the part of some people and not everybody even agrees to see me at all, but i just prefer to focus ordinary women in extraordinary times who undertook her relic acts. [applause] i know many of you are anxious to a choir someone spoke which has been released for publication and luckily for you we will be selling them upstairs at a discount as we always do and someone will be signing them. If you go upstairs, if youre so inclined. Thank you for coming. [applause] we want to thank everyone for being here. [inaudible] i wanted thank you for heading out in the storm and what not. I know one of which too much of your guys time to beat the storm back but if you have questions on readout of the book and give insight on where these stories came from. Stories that didnt make it inside here. I guess i will open up with that definitely. You look like you have one. You do. I mail my dont do snuff, man. Ill open it up. Obsolete as the backend of the story. 2009 within Helmand Province, afghanistan and it was like the height of the whole war. Passed out 35 guys tacit going to run Helmand Province and marcia to eliminate as many bad guys with an eight hour time period before the marines went in. They were the first ones there, but there were guys before then. That was my unit. Everyday we averaged 120 operations and a 90 day time frame and thats were accumulated most of my kills and whatnot. We averaged a few thousand kilos per 35 guys through the total time in afghanistan, insane combat. Thats how this whole thing came together. I wanted to tell my story and a book format. It happened after i got out. After i got out its not ptsd, not a disorder, just one of those things used to live in a certain lifestyle for so long, but it fixed appointments and everything comes to a halt. I picked up contracting, worked with contracting that got shot off. Was about to lose my house, my car. At the end of the day i started writing a diary. They said put everything on pen and paper after a failed suicide attempts. 22 veterans kill themselves each day on average and i was about to become one of those statistics. So i read this journal and the journal turned into a boat. The book was a self published book. It was titled after my sniper team and the guys i deployed with. Other cool stuff we did in the guys i lost credit card tattoos and bracelet from really Close Friends that i lost. I would read it today that was sent for Corporal Benjamin hoff. He saved my life and not get into that story if you guys want to hear that. 2009 i dont have to read this. 2009 during the operation were going to track a highvalue target snipers, one of her skill sets as tracking people. Was it not good at it, but i was okay at it i guess. Four days into the operation we hadnt slept. We may be averaged 15 minutes of sleep per night. Total fortified throughout the entire duration or so. The forest debris landed on our unit six men element. We found out or the guy was in the process of doing that we met up with marines are having a hard time one day. They set up the patrol base and got attacked every morning by the taliban. We should gunfire, rpgs, stuff like that. They used our rules of engagement were little bit different. We didnt have to get shot out all the time if he did get shot at, we would overshoot that. I hooked up with my sniper unit with element to 5 thing. Me and my father and two of the marine snipers waited all night. Nothing was happening. Everyone glorifies this whole sniper he is sitting out in the middle of nowhere and i probably went for a pack of cigarettes in 30 minutes trying to stay awake and i counted so many sheep. It was a really, really boring time. I could see movement out in the village in the marine corps were coming through clear out this village. I see this guy pop around the corner about 35 meters coming through, almost half a mile away. The big firefight have been. About 135 degrees. The bottom of my boots started to melt. Im really comfortable. Helmets off. We start to get ambushed. We hopped off, met up with my 75th Ranger Regiment who came in to complete this whole tracking at the individual who were going after. We left the marines there but we had to finish doing our thing. We started off around three at clark, 4 00 in the morning. If you guys ever watch the movie aladdin tremendous fan in and stuff like that, thats what it looks like. Forgot about 100 pounds of gear on, walking for hours. No water. The sun started to rise. The elements but not the six of us from 35 guys. 35 guys at cap should the target weve been tracking Via Technology is what ill say it a mother means. We found ourselves in town and the fourfoot hole. We had gotten word of the chechen and the soviets and stuff like that. The server to get 300 plus skills throughout his entire career. Really, really good sniper. As soon as the sun rose, bullets start to snap overhead and started to pick up and stuff like that. I tell my guys to hide inside so we all get him down in there. This goes on for three hours. Complete with the enemy chechnya and neighboring drop a few machine gunners on the rooftop. Around a third hour recall than for air support and the rules of engagement Strategy Change and we were not allowed to cause any more than the points or 1 Collateral Damage by dropping a bomb. So i called to drop a 500pound bombs to eliminate the 600 plus guys surrounded by six guys. They denied that and kept calling. Everyones calms are going down. They kept denying it, so we made the decision to drop arms on us. Kill us, kill everyone else around us so we can get out in the solar deal will be over with. They denied that. It came down to my team later, he had a grenade in a post up the grenade. They make the decision to hug each other and blow ourselves up. But this by making and the taliban foot steps and whatever they say. Right before he did that come to look over my Left Shoulder and see a good friend of mine comes running in. Hes been under gunfire for a thousand years or so, running under gunfire to save us. He starts laying down massive firepower. Hes a machine gunner. That allowed us to pound back to him and the whole day. The wind blew the opposite direction so that didnt bark in our favor. I engage a few more targets 10 feet away up to 100 yards away. Five minutes after that im leading the element and theres this roomy enough to our rear and the taliban had undergone entrenchment systems and a flake that an ipad doesnt the ground 25 feet away from us and straight to ambushed us. We sat there for three hours plus getting shot at. This chest high regime. We all did. We started to fight and fight them back. I kept hearing this loud pop noise. I thought my ear was going out. My eardrum had been arrested or Something Like that. Not the case. I was bullets snapping over my shoulder. I hear this really funny sound. It sounded like the ruler smacking a pillow and immediately following that i heard my best friend screaming for his mom. Hes returning fire and i heard thats not then look over and i see his arterial spray get hit in a spread about 20 feet, 30 feet in front of him and the blood started to fill the chest high regime. So i go down as these crying and stuff like that. I tried to put on a tourniquet. The medics were on their way and i turned over to look over to my left side and my platoon leader is fair. I tell them hate, sir, we need to get to the safe haven. About 300 yards away or so. He had to go through the chest high water. A polemic close, and i feel this water splash of warm water and then he had got shot right in a separate chest. He goes down. My spotter goes over to him and puts his finger inside the bullet hole to stop the bleeding. Everybody thinks the special operations guys are some big man in but not, but i freaked out at that moment. Everything blacked out and everything was super slow motion. I can see stuff differently and this is going on. Someone sees me out so he smacked me on my helmet. Youve got to return fire. He says youve got to kill this guy. The sniper we have been facing had just taken out the machinegun team. Everything i can do i will do when im 23 at this point. Didnt work out. Issue well after theyve been submerged under water in the mud and stuff like that stuffed inside the barrel. So every time we went underneath the water, we are like we have to go under. Hold your breath indias pill weight at this point in time, losing so much blood. We take them under, poland back up. Do cpr on him, try to weaken up and we did that for 300 meters and it lasted for about 10 minutes. 45 minutes of sleep total for five days. Im carried his backpack and a few other things with additional weight now. I picked up the rear. Is that i want this whole thing to be over with. I do want my mom to wake up tomorrow morning and turn on cnn and see that scroll across the bottom of the screen. I contemplated standing up and taking one to the head was sticking my hand up for Something Like that to add solar deal. Snapped out of that. I was like i got to be tough with the situation. I wasnt bred to be that way. I did really intensive training course. Stare with 85 guys and graduated with seven. I knew i had what it took i guess, that no one is going to have things like that happen around them in the normal afterwards. Snapped out of that, picked up the rear and the only thing i kept telling myself that someone is going to come around this remain and take us all out. A few grenade firefights happening in a different sect or, different ravine. A few cases are handtohand combat were used as well. Things are really bad. We had at this. 800 plus guys surrounding 35 now. We met up with the rest of the guys at the safe haven. Me and my spotter for the first ones to go over there again and run about 100 yards 100 feet to the safe haven. I remember getting now soaked in blood, soaked in water. Everything is weighing me down at this point and i had this machine guns going off in bullets overhead. My spotter with that. Im looking at him like what are you doing . It down. He said no, those are our guys. I looked up and see this fiery mind putting down fire for his spirit and like wow, that is a sight to see in thing to hear. The ground was shaking at this point. One of the greatest things ive ever heard. Never forget it. But aside to save his bed and look at my spotter and told him when we could appear, i dont care how much and that you have, but every bad guy is going to die and that is exactly what we did. I went on that mission with 210 rounds after the whole ordeal i left with six. We called in from the back to get entremed copout. Another sniper got shot in his foot and we had the pl who was also hit. We called back to the marine camp in the marines said we cant even go into that area with anything less than a brigade. I said we are here with 35 guys. When it all. The most assistant they could offer at that point in time with you guys have to run about a mile through the terrain and meet sla said he cant get any worse than this, but it does. That is just murphys law. We take our position and by this time everyone is pretty much low on ammo. We decided to pick up and move out. We go single file line and we are going to run to this marine convoy awaiting us. I take the lead and i said i cant take anymore of this getting shot at. It is taking its toll. If its going to happen today, its going to happen. I started sprinting the fastest ive ever done in my life. I did that mile and a minute. But it wasnt. Another guy would path appeared in the little firefight coming on. Finally get to this marine convoy looking around and theres not even enough trucks out here. Theres like three charts for 35 guys and they only fit like a period so we have guys cramming their bodies then. We captured the target we were going after, guys on the ground. I laid on the lab of lions, my spotter and i have the marine gunner who is to be 350 pounds it felt like. Hes standing on my chest. I look at the driver and im like you got to have a cigarette. Smoked right now. He passes me one and this is for the day got that. Let the cigarette, start smoking it and i flip it out the hatch, not thinking from the cigarette all stand gets inside my body armor. And do a mystical and everyone is out. Water, water. We have no water. That is the date of really bad. So we dated back to the compound under heavy fire for a wee met up with them. It was like today never even happened. It was like we are going back home and we all need to take a shower, especially the snipers. We havent taken a shower in five days in the skin is starting to peel off when you scratch and stuff and i smell like ammonia. It was the weirdest now ive ever smelled. It the muscle was eating itself. I went to close my eyes to fly out six guys, the coolest thing i ever thought could have been. Six guys on this page should note designed to fit 40 people in a point of looking at us. The pilots and crew chiefs are who are these guys . They must be dealt. We could be dealt or Seal Team Six or something. I was pretty cool. I closed my eyes to go to sleep and heard this big nap again. The bullet passes by that year. I was looking at me like do with whats going on . I was so used to getting shot at. That firefight lasted 12 plus hours nonstop continuous bullets snapping. That sounds stuck with in those dreams stuck with me all the way to this day. I dream about that same mission up what if i wouldve done this, if i wouldve told our element to move a foot this way. If i wouldve pushed the pl and talked over here, its a recurring thing that happens once a year, but that mission was a lifechanging experience for me and everyone who was there. We all got out after that. I spotter decided to pay and went on an additional six deployments after that. There is not a guy on that nation. We all keep in contact with his mom and he died seven days after that in this whole thing was he wanted to continue fighting until he got home to see his mom and thats exactly what he did. That is just the mentality we have. His mom gave me this bracelet and had a journal and stuff like that, but it was a hard transition getting out. So that is a story wanted to share with you guys. Two guys have any questions . [inaudible] sr 25. After 2007, where it can pushed in vehicle and making later at the time had these i think ipads. What were those square little a midday. You know what im talking about. Ipad mini. We had one of those and we started getting hit with ak47 fire and i guess he freaked out or did some did an internal speakers started playing Michael Jackson dirty diana. I was like you only see this stuff in movies where you wish you had a soundtrack with the firefight. Firefights have the most boring thing ever. But having dirty diana play in the background was really fun. So im getting an a. I grew up listening to Michael Jackson. I used to always want to beat him. My mom never wanted me to go. [laughter] i wanted to dance like Michael Jackson and stuff like that. And jamming out in the cockpit of the stryker, shooting rounds off. Unlike someone pass me a cigarette. Im not a big smoker. It sounds like it. I talked to jim stroud. John wayne was really big. My dad loved john wayne. I got one setup of the the stryker cover returning fire. Did a little Michael Jackson had thrust. When i became the snipers that i decided to name the rifle was dirty diana. If you listen to this song, the lyrics fit what i thought about the rifle. She was