down with social media writer clay shirky at 12:00 p.m. 4 one eastern. like tv on facebook and post your questions for the author and watch booktv to hear questions answered during this three our program. facebook.com/booktv. >> up next, dakota meyer talked about a battle in afghanistan and his efforts to rescue u.s. and afghan soldiers rescued by taliban force is. for his actions mr. meyer became the first living marine to win a medal of honor since the vietnam war. this is about 45 minutes. [inaudible conversations] >> i would like to welcome everybody. this is my more official welcome.

we are honored to have you here today. i am chairman of the in the league club author's group. and to have all of you here today. we have a couple tables from our american legion post here. so everybody knows who you are. and the american legion post. .. >> so whether it was books or dvds or cds or even ipods, batteries, some of the things that they'd let us know that they needed, and we collected a

few boxes and sent them to the troops. each year it's gotten bigger and bigger and bigger, and i think last year we sent over 300 boxes to the troops, and we collected a lot of money which, of course, if you come to the event and you haven't brought a set of batteries, you don't need to feel bad because we have, like, $25 bags, $50 bags, $100 bags, $40,000 bags if you want to bring that. and we'll fill them full of things that they need. so that's on november 8th starting at 6:00, and you'll see here who our speakers are, and they are equally spectacular. so i hope you'll come and bring whatever you can. bring that big check that we're talking about. one last thing that i'll say, and that is if you have a cell phone, this would be an appropriate time to turn that off so there are no interruptions, and we will have cards -- i don't know if we have

them yet at the tables, but we'll have cards in the event that you have questions. and we'd appreciate it if you'd fill out those cards, and they'll be collected and handed to me so that we can then just get 'em up to sergeant meyer. all right. i'd like to introduce to you a really important partner for this event. this is the first time we've partnered with leading authorities, and we couldn't be more thrilled. so i'm going to introduce to you mike baron who's going to tell you a little about leading authorities. mike. >> thank you, denny, appreciate it. good afternoon. i'm mike baron, senior vice president with leading authorities here in chicago. first, i would just like to thank the union league club for partnering with us on this event. as denny said, it's the first event we're working together on, and i hope it's going to be the first of many. we're really excited, and i just

want to tell you a little bit about us, and then we'll introduce dakota, for sure. we're a speaker's bureau and event design firm here in chicago. if any of you have meetings, events where you're looking to program that, that's what we do, and we've been partnering with different organizations throughout the city to showcase some of the speaking talent out there right now. i have a couple colleagues with me, matt jones is at the front table, so if you have any needs, come see us afterwards. we'd love to talk to you. so today i have the pleasure of introducing sergeant dakota meyer, marine corps veteran and resip -- recipient of the medal of honor. when the marines went missing after being ambushed, meyer defied his orders in order to save his comrades. for his actions that day,

president barack obama awarded meyer the medal of honor in 2011. he was also honor with the a parade. since then meyer has raised more than a million dollars to help send to children of wounded marines to college. and finally, as you've all seen, he is the author of "into the fire: a firsthand account of the most extraordinary battle in the afghan war." leading authors is very proud to exclusively represent dakota meyer, and now i want to show you a video to hear more about dakota and his story. thank you. ♪ >> it's kind of frustrating, because, you know, everyone wants to get an interview about the worst day of your life. >> it was a straightforward mission that then-21-year-old sergeant dakota meyer had been assigned that day. his team began their patrol of the village on foot. as they approached, the lights

in the village blinked off. more than 50 insurgents fired from positions on mountains surrounding the valley and from within the village. back at the vehicles, meyer heard the fire. the volume increased, and the radio traffic grew increasingly desperate. wounded but steadfast in his decision, sergeant meyer entered the kill zone four times swapping out guns and trucks and rescuing his trapped and wounded comrades with each run. >> dakota's the kind of guy who gets the job done. in so doing, he has earned our nation's highest military decoration, the medal of honor, and we are extraordinarily proud of sergeant dakota meyer. >> medal of honor recipients are often called the bravest of the brave. as the first living united states marine to receive the honor in 41 years, sergeant meyer is only the third living recipient since the vietnam war. >> i'll accept the award on behalf of the guys that died, on behalf of the guys who have

passed before, on behalf of the marines and the men and women who are still there fighting every day. >> today sergeant meyer has dedicated his time to raising awareness and money to benefit the children of fallen marines. he has also issued the challenge to america to match his efforts of raising an additional $1 million for this cause. he also wrote "into the fire: a firsthand account of the most extraordinary battle in the afghan war." leading authorities would like to thank our co-host, the union league club of chicago, for its generous support of today's program. humble, courageous and determined. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome sergeant dakota meyer. [applause] >> thank you. thank you so much. [applause] thank you. [applause]

thank you so much. i got a question, do you think that i could, like, when i go out and use a reference, do you think i could show that video where the president says that dakota meyer is the kind of guy that gets the job done, it'll get me a job? the. [laughter] i want to thank the union league club for letting me share my story, leading authorities to for helping me get the crowds here and share my story as well, and i want to thank all of you for showing up and giving me the support. i really appreciate it. so i'd like to start off with the question of why am i here today, why am i standing in front of you and getting ready to give you all a speech? as a 24-year-old high school educated sergeant in the marine corps, this is not a group of people or where i would expect myself to be standing right now. you know, but i want to thank you all again for the opportunity to let me do this.

so by now everyone in here has heard of me. whether you know of me as a small town guy who does construction or you know me as sergeant dakota meyer, you've more than likely heard of me by now. it all started off, i was a typical high school student. 17 years old, and i was walking through my lunchroom, and, you know, i knew everything back then. [laughter] and i was walking through, and a marine recruiter was sitting in the back corner, and he had his dress blues on. this guy looked like he could have been the president of the united states. and i went up to him and started asking him a lot of smart aleck questions, what's in the for? i can hit a deer at 100 yards, not impressing him at all. so he took it for a minute and said, you know, so what are you going to do when you get out of high school? and i looked back at him, puffed my chest out, and i said, well, i'm going to play football somewhere. he said, yeah, that's exactly what i would do, too, because there's no way you'd ever make

it as a marine. [laughter] so quickly i realized -- and i guess that's what they're supposed to do. quickly, i realized i'd set myself up. i went back to my classroom, and i came back. and for those of you that don't know me, i don't take a challenge very easily, and i definitely don't take no very easily, and if you were one of my commanders, you'd know that for a fact. so i started thinking about it, and the recruiter had challenged me. i was a bargainer. i came back to him, i left my room and said, you know what? if you'll pack your stuff up right now, i'll sign the papers, expecting i would get out of it. he said, all right, let's go. so i didn't tell my father. we went up to elizabethtown, signed the papers, we came back, and the only thing standing in my way now is my father's signature. so we're sitting in my living room, actually, at my kitchen table, and my dad walks in, and i'm sitting there, and he goes, what have you done now? [laughter]

i said, dad, i'm going to marine corps, i've decided. he said, you were going to play football yesterday. i said, i'm ready to go. he said, have you really thought about that? i said, yeah, the hour drive up there, the hour drive back, i'm ready to go. so now i enlist inside the marine corps on june 18, 2006, which is a day i will never forget. i shipped off to paris island, and this is where i would spend my 18th birthday. happy birthday, right? but it's not really as bad as the next three because my 19th birthday i was in sniper school hell week, my 20th birthday i was in hell week of sniper school mountain training in bridgeport, california. so i had a lot of good birthdays. but following paris island, i shipped off to camp geiger, north carolina, where i completed infantry training, and after that i went off to hawaii where i would be stationed for the next four years. and this is where i also attended sniper school. so after attending sniper school, i quickly shipped off to iraq, and in iraq i didn't get

to complete my tour because i was bitten on my right hand by a vicious enemy spider, and i suffered nerve damage. the enemy will stop at nothing, they even train their spiders to bite us. [laughter] so i returned back home for two years of additional training and working up and trying to get my hand back. and this is where i became a sniper team leader in charge of five other marines. and we were out in no halve i have viper -- mojave viber. my gunnery sergeant said we need five volunteers to go to afghanistan. i said, what's the mission? he said, we don't know yet, we just need volunteers. i raised my hand and said, all right, i'm ready to go. so i ended up being assigned as a small them of advisers, and this is different because it's not like normal missions of going over with conventional forces and being around americans and this that -- this

and that. we would live with two marines -- three marines, one navy corpsman and 80 afghans on a base. you want to talk about complete culture shock. i can tell you right now, i got one. we did everything with these afghans from eating to drinking to building volleyball courts to mission planning to hearing about their stories of their lives. and it really helped us become a solid unit, and we learned to depend on one another and rely on one another, and i want to talk about the afghans later on because of what the current events are. but i have to tell you one of the best lessons i think this taught me was, is not to look at the world and not to judge people by their religion, their skin color, their financial status or anything like that, but to accept them for who they are. because, you know, i have to tell you, i'm guilty of having what i like to call the small town complex. coming from a small town, i've got it. but it's where you think your world's only this big and that's

how it is because that's how you're taught. i'm 24, and i know that's not the case anymore. we always do that. we as humans are so fast to judge one another without getting to know one another for what they are, so i definitely think it's something we could all take, take to and listen to. so anyways, we were stationed in northeastern afghanistan in a place called asmar, it's in the kunar province right on the pakistan border. and this was where i would be stationed with lieutenant johnson, gunnery sergeant kennifig and doc layton. doc layton was a navy corpsman, but thought might as well -- they might as well be called a marine, so i'm going to call him a marine from here on out. [applause] so part of my opportunity was getting to meet these guys and getting to develop the team. when the adviser teams are put together, the brass just picks different skill sets, ranks,

throw 'em in a team to go over and advise. they don't ever ask about personalities or anything like that. it's definitely not an episode of love connection, they just put you in there and expect you to get along. when i met these guys, they were totally different than me. i was the only infantrymen in the group, and we're a breed of our own, to say the least. so i didn't really care about them at the time, i was just so excited at the thought of going to afghanistan and get anything a fight, so it didn't really matter to me. but what i learned more and more every single day is that these guys are the most important people in my life. each of us shared a responsibility to take care of one another and to support one another and to protect one another. it didn't take long before all the personality differences just melted away. and they were, without a doubt, my brothers. and there was never any doubt in my mind that they were willing to sacrifice their life at a moment's notice just as i was for them. and in the end, they proved it. my whole team sacrificed their

lives not just for me, but for all of us in this room. so some of you know the details that unfolded that day on september 8, 2009, so we were running a mission in a village in the valley. this is the only mission, only mission planning they took me out and replaced me with a gunnery sergeant named johnson. now, gunny j was a big guy. he looked like a typical marine. and a fitness guru. he loved crossfit, and he always led the workouts of the day, and i ce tell you right now, i always hated it. so gunny j was going to take my spot. so my assignment was to sit back and secure a position with all the vehicles while my team entered the valley which i was uncomfortable with, but being e4 in the united states marine corps you really don't have much of an option but to follow orders. so the mission was to enter the village and secure the town meeting because the village

elders had come to us and said they were going to renounce themselves from the taliban. and this is how i believe we win the war, for what it's worth. i believe by lowering the supporters of the tal lap and by that and by stopping their freedom of movement, we win the war and stop terrorism. so that's what we were trying to do on this mission, but almost immediately upon entering the village my team was under attack. it was an ambush, and it was big. it didn't take me long to realize that it wasn't a normal ambush. i've been in quite a few fire fights by this time, but it's like at the first of any firefight it's kind of like the dust comes in, you try to figure out any situation the dust comes in, you figure it out, and you just start doing your job after about 10 or 15 minutes. but not in this fight. it was like one thing after another started to fail us. and everything started to fall like a house of cards. everything that we relied on in every other firefight to support

us wasn't happening. it was like our mission was falling quickly like a house of cards. and the enemy was seeing it, and they were taking full advantage of it. after some period of time, myself and my driver, rodriguez chavez, were sitting in the vehicle, and we figured out we had to do something. we couldn't just sit back and watch anymore. so we requested to go in four times. and each time we were told no. and we finally looked at each other and said, you know what? we've got to go in because that's what brothers do for one another. and we knew as soon as we were going on our own program that if the situation wasn't as bad as we thought it was, we were going to have to answer for it. but i can tell you this, i would rather be here answering the consequences for my team being alive today and it not being as bad as it was than to be standing here today knowing i didn't do anything because i was worried about myself and my team be dead. but as we were going in, i hear

lieutenant johnson over the radio start calling in a support artillery mission, and he starts calling it in, and with the format he calls to do, he calls it spot on. it's perfect. and the response he got back was his grid location was too close to the village. he said, if you don't give me these rounds right now, we're gonna die. and the response back was, well, try your best. a few minutes later i hear gunnery sergeant come over the radio, and he said he had to call in a medical evacuation. he was trying to give a grid, and he kept getting cut off because of all the confusion and the radio traffic going over the radio. with a frustrated voice he said get off the radio, i'm trying to give a grid for medevac. so he started giving his grid coordinates, and i'm starting to write on the humvee because if i can write the grid down, i tell myself i can locate his position

on the map, go straight to him and find where my missing team is. with my sharpie in my hand, he got his first three grids out, and he stopped. and that was the last time i ever heard from my teammates. after six more hours of evacuating out afghan soldiers and wounded marines and searching for the missing guys, a helicopter spied their lifeless bodies in a trench. and when i got to them, i immediately knew that they were all gone, but it's like, you know, i didn't want to face it. surely it can't be all of them. this can't be true. so i checked each one of them for a pulse to only confirm what i already knew. and they all fell together doing their jobs as they had sworn to do the day that they enlisted in the military as every man and woman does when they enlist. they paid the ultimate sacrifice. and the details of that day are difficult for me to communicate to, but i'm sure you get the scene now. so now my actions of that day have been recognized as outstanding and courageous, but

for me, to be honest, it's only the exact opposite. because we live by the words "you never leave a fallen marine behind," or you get them out alive, or you die trying. and if you didn't die trying, well, it's simple: you didn't try hard enough. and i was just doing what my brothers or any other marine would have done for me. and now i've been honored by our country and the president of the united states, and i stand before you as a medal of honor resip credibility. resip credibility. so of after hearing how i viewed the medal of honor and the situation how i feel about it, i'm sure you can now see why i have struggles with the medal of honor. i've been called an american hero, but if this is what it feels like to be a hero, you can have it. i'm not a hero, they are. so i decided from that day i would accept the medal of honor on behalf of all the marines, on behalf of all the men and women serving and on behalf of all the men and women who have sacrificed so much for our countries and all the families

who have done so much as well. because i am just one of thousands of pa leans who would have done the -- marines who would have done the exact same thing in that situation. and all the credit goes to my family and the marine's oath to never leave a fallen man behind. i always refer to it as the opportunity i was given. because like i said earlier, i truly believe that any man or woman who stands up and raises their right hand to go sacrifice and put their life on hold for our country would have done the exact same thing being in the situation i was. i was just given the opportunity to perform my duties. so from the time of the conflict, it was over two years before the medal of honor was awarded. and during that time not a single day passed that i wasn't caught with the thoughts of frustration, guilt, anger, you know, the what if questions. we've all been through it. i lived with the pain of trying to figure out what could i have done different, why had i somehow survived? why was i given the opportunity to live?

why them and not me? and the truth is that every day i still ask those exact same questions. and i decided that i can take this opportunity to grow, and i could take this opportunity to educate, and i could take this opportunity to lead. and i want to share the opportunity with groups just like you of the reality of september 8, 2009, because it has forever changed my existence in life. so now this part of my life, going around and meeting america, that's what i call it; meeting america. i mean, just imagine being 24 years old on a construction site one day to having the president call you on your cell phone, after you tried to miss it numerous times, to tell you that you'd be receiving the medal of honor and being a national figure overnight. let me say something, don't envy me. so now everyone in america is watching every single move that i make and remembering that i'm 24 years old is way out of the

question. [laughter] talk about pressure and stress. that goes back to but it's bigger than me. so you know what? i've got to tell you, i'm tired of looking at notes, i'm just going to tell you how i really feel. so i look at everything. the president called me, it all started off, president called me on my cell phone, and i got told, you know what, dakota? you're getting ready to receive the medal of honor, we need to start planning for it. and if planning for a wedding is like planning for this ceremony, i'm out on getting married. [laughter] so we started planning for this, and i told him, i said, you know what? i don't want the medal. i don't feel like i deserve the medal, so i started bargaining with him. let's break it down to a navy cross, we'll call it even, and i can go back and fight. because john -- [inaudible] messed it up for me to go back and fight. he said that's not going to happen. so the president called me on my construction site one day, and i was talking to him, and i said, you know what, sir?

will you, please, not give me the medal of honor? because i am nothing but a failure. please, do not do this to me. and he said you know what, dakota? it's bigger than you. it's bigger than me, so i start thinking about that and i get really frustrated, because i'm like, bigger than me, is in the best answer you can give me? you're about to mess my whole life up. so thinking about it, you know, i went through the frustrations of drinking every day, drinking an average of a bottle of crown a day, you know, the frustration, the quilt, and i started thinking about it, and i looked down at my wrist, and i wear the bracelets with all four names of my guys on 'em. and i looked down, and i said, you know what? why am i feeling this way? why am i so frustrated? why am i not taking advantage of my life? and when i started thinking of it that way, i said, you know, i'm not feeling sorry for those guys because they're in a better place on whatever you think about. i'm just feeling sorry for myself, and i need to go on and

go ahead and start making my life better and live life to the fullest. and with that i've came up with my own theory. [laughter] so you can imagine what this is going to be. [laughter] so i came out of the marine corps, and i wanted to make it so much different. i'm out of the marine corps, and we get out, we're trus frustrated with, you know, how the marine corps is and how you're trained and stuff. but i look at it as the marine corps as a whole has probably the best set-up that i've ever seen. and you can apply it to everything in life. because no offense to the other branches of the service, but you know how the marines are. they hold themselves to high standard. no one can disagree with me on that. we nitpick at each other over the smallest things, over a haircut. but we do this because in the marine corps we have made, we have made a culture to where we will accept nothing less than being the best. we've dictated a culture to where we want to hold each other

accountable to where we will succeed. now, are we really better, are we really the few, the proud? who knows, i mean, it's just an ego thing, you know? it doesn't matter. but we've made a culture to where we will accept nothing less than being the best. so inside that we have two things, opportunities and accountabilities. now, everyone in here will agree many with me on every day we're presented with situations that aren't always favorable, and we don't have control of 'em, right? so with those situations you can either look at 'em as situations, but i started looking at 'em as opportunities. and maybe you look at me and you say, dakota, not everything in life is an opportunity. well, i use the worst case scenario of a family member getting sick or a family member dying. no, is that an opportunity? no, it's not, but it is an opportunity because it slows your life down, and it makes you start evaluating on how you live your life and everything like that. and after you start doing that

and you start using this opportunity to evaluate your life, it's at that point that you need to hold yourself accountable to make sure that you change your life and fix the things that you've overlooked every single day and to make it better. do you agree? so, and with that i also want to tell you something else that i've learned. i've learned about people and going around and meeting so many different people, i'm from a small town in kentucky. i travel 25-28 days a month, and i go around speaking to numerous types of people. and some of 'em are good, some of 'em are bad, some of 'em are crazy. but i like to say is, and it's like with these afghans now. my of afghans were the closest people to me as any marine was in my entire life. these afghan soldiers, i still keep in touch with them every week at least. and i want to let you know and assure you that these afghans have sacrificed so much and

helped us out over there because with the current day situations going on, they always fail to give these guys credit. they're making 'em look bad over there right now. but i want to let you know that these guys stood up, and they helped me every single day to become what i am. and it's not fair for us as americans because i didn't go over there and fight for republicans, i didn't go over there and fight for democrats. i didn't go over there and fight for any type of color, christians, muslims, i didn't fight for any of them. you want to foe what i fought -- know what i fought for? i fought for americans. and we all need to understand that and realize that and pull back together and insure that we all know that we live in the greatest country on the face of the earth. i've accepted that i have an opportunity to go out and speak and share these stories with people just like you who will listen to me. and i've used this platform to go out and make a difference. and maybe you look at me now and you say, well, dakota, why can you say this?

what do you know? you're 24. well, yesterday i gave out my first 12 scholarships from the marine corps scholarship foundation. it's been the greatest thing that i've done. i called up margaret davis last year before receiving the medal because i decided i was going to accept the medal and that i wanted to go out and make a difference. and i called her up, and i said, you know what? what can i do to make a difference? i want to educate kids, and i want to help them, and i want to still do what i can for marines. she said, well, let's start a scholarship fund. i said, okay. she said, well, what -- on top of that, you know, on the scholarship fund, how much money do you think you can raise? i said, i don't know, it sounds good a million dollars, i don't know what that is though. she said, all right, we'll give you about a year to raise a million dollars and have your challenge to america. so not knowing how i would do it, just knowing i would do whatever it took, i raised $1.2 million within four months, and i gave out my first 12

scholarships yesterday, and it's been the greatest thing i could do. [applause] and with that i've teamed up with toyota to go out and try to get veterans jobs. and with that we're going out, and we're speaking, and i'm trying to help guys get jobs and this and that, and i'm standing up for veterans, and i'm standing up and trying to make a difference. and then we also wrote the book. and i hope when you read the book you go home, and you read everything i talk about and how i figured this stuff out and it makes a difference. and i want to say i'm going on, and i'm speaking, and i'm doing it for the men and women who sacrifice so much for our lives. because every day that you don't do that inside this room, you don't go out and do the best that you can, you're doing nothing less than disgracing all those men and women who have paid so much for us. and i want to let you know something, i'm not okay with that. are you? thank you so much, i really appreciate it. [applause]

thank you. [applause] >> so i'd like to open up for questions at the end. if you have any. oh, come on now. if you don't start asking me questions, i'm going to start asking you them. [laughter] yes, sir. >> [inaudible] >> how do i see the rest of my life? that's a great question. you know, i tell everyone -- i have a construction company, i'm working with that, i'm -- i'm working with toyota, i'm on the road quite a bit, but how do i see the rest of my life? you know, that's a challenge that i have is i'm 24 years old, okay?

and everybody agrees that we live our life to try to top everything we do. we always like to use everything as steppingstones, right? but what am i supposed to do at 24 years old i received the medal of honor, and i've done so many things, what am i going to do with the rest of my life to top it? i'm going to find something else, i promise you that. it's going to make a difference and go out and speak and say things and be true to myself and be true to americans and, hopefully, inspire the whole nation to stand up and start a culture just like the marine corps does to accept nothing less than being the best and hold each other accountable every day. so the rest of my life is to go out and make a difference, whatever that might be. [applause] yes, ma'am. >> [inaudible] >> i don't -- to be honest with you, i have no idea. [laughter] i'm going to find out.

i get asked that question all the time, and i've never asked. i don't know. i budget there. [laughter] i got a question right here someone wrote down. dakota, what are the things we can do to help servicemen and their families? um, help their servicemen and their families. i want to tell you, this is a topic that a lot of people get mad at me about, but guess what? i'm going to speak on it because i'm so passionate about it. you know, a lot of guys come back, and they deal with the stress of the war, of what's going on, and they deal with, you know, the events that occurred over there. what i believe you can do to help them out the most, people like that, is hold them accountable every day this their actions. because just because that -- i get so frustrated when i see a guy not go out, especially a member who has served and done so much for our country, i get so frustrated when they don't go out and take every opportunity

every single day and they use something to hold them back, or they let something like i guess ptsd hold them back. because let me tell you something, these guys have seen what it takes to be able to live in this great country and be free. they've seen it. and for them to sit there and disregard that and disregard what they've seen happen and to let themselves not go out and make a difference and not go and and be the best they can every single day, it bothers me a lot. but i think what can we do to help everyone out? in -- is don't forget why you're sitting here and why you live in a free country. i'd say that's probably what's going to help out the most is, is do that. thank a veteran. don't ever forget. because we take our freedom, every single day take advantage of it, and we forget why we're here. just as we're standing here right now, i can promise you there's someone getting shot at,

there's someone who is scared to death for their life, and there's some family member who is sitting here who is wondering what's going on. so it's not just about the men and women serving, it's about their families, because they serve too. so we just never can forget them, and i think that's what's going to be the biggest difference, in my opinion. yes, sir. >> [inaudible] >> oh, good. >> [inaudible] >> yes, sir. >> [inaudible] >> you know, in the marine corps we're taught obedience to orders, but i want to tell you something else we're taught is honor, courage and commitment. and we're taught accountability. and just because there's obedience to orders, the bond with me and my brothers was stronger than what i'd learned obedience to orders. because they held me accountable. and when i say they held me accountable, they held me

accountable to never leave a fallen man behind or to get them out alive or die trying. and that's what it was. i knew, i knew that whenever i left that position after they had told me no, i few that -- i said it the whole way like, oh, man, i'm going to have to answer for this. [laughter] but you know what? it's the right thing to do. you know, just because there's obedience to orders doesn't mean it's always the right thing to do. so that's more of what i like to live by, is doing what's right and doing what i can. that way i can go home at night and look myself in the mirror. yes, sir. >> [inaudible] and i imagine there are thousands of guys that might -- [inaudible] >> no. >> [inaudible]

>> no, it was, you know, it was a combination of all of 'em. you know, growing up with my father, my father always, never would let me quit, and he always taught me to do what's right. you know, my father never was in any kind of cliques, anything like that, you know, because he just does what's right. he does what he feels is the best for him, and that's what he put in me. and then with the marine corps training on top of it, and the same thing in the marine corps. my father taught me all the way up to the marine corps, and then they just point it into you even more. how did i not die that day? i don't know. but i didn't, and there's a reason. and every day that we have to live on is a bonus day. if you go to sleep tonight and

you wake up in the morning, that's a bonus day. and we as humans are getting to a point to where we feel like we're entitled, we're entitled stuff, we're entitled to tomorrow. well, guess what? we're not entitled to anything, and that's the thing we've got the remember. every day's a bonus day. why worry about the unknown? we all worry so much about tomorrow when why don't we just get through today? so, but there was a lot of luck too. it was so many combinations, but thank you. yes, ma'am. >> [inaudible] >> do whatever they want. you know, it's their own decision because i don't ever want them to look back at me and say, well, you know, you made me do this. i don't want the guilt on my hands if something bad happens to them that, hey, i pushed you into it.

i'll give them all the facts that they need to know and let them make their own decisions, and that's all we can do, you know? we can never make up anybody's mind for 'em. but, no be, i'd definitely of recommend it. if you don't go to college, i'd recommend going to the military, so -- and, of course, i'm going to say the marines because i'm biased. [applause] thank you. yes, ma'am. >> [inaudible] >> no, i don't. i don't -- she said i don't, i'm not wearing my medal today, do i ever wear it? no, i don't. the only time i wear my medal is when i'm in uniform because i'm required to wear my medals, and i don't wear it because that's not what i'm about. i am, i'm foremost a marine, and i'm an american, and that's why i wear american flag cuff links. i don't wear the medal because, you know, i don't have enough of 'em. because i want to let you know that any man or woman serving or all these marines in the back in uniform, they should be wearing the medal, and it's just as much theirs as it is mine.

because i truly believe -- ask 'em, how many -- if you've ever been in a situation to receive a medal of honor raise your hand, none of 'em. that's why they don't have a medal of honor around their neck. sir. >> the film you had showed army lessons learned -- [inaudible] ncos and the academies and any of the war -- [inaudible] you've actually -- enlisted man replaced with sergeant and replaced with -- >> yep. >> made a decision that was still overruled the chain of command. >> with yeah, i have. i've spoke at the naval academy. but i don't want go out and speak a lot because a lot of people don't want to hear what i have to say, you know what i mean? we get into rules of engagement, and like i said last night, i truly believe that if you let an officer or anybody give you an excuse where the rules of

engagement stop me from doing something, this or that, but -- pardon my language, but that's complete bullshit. it's just incompetent leadership not being able to make a decision, is what it is. yes, sir. >> yeah, hi. [inaudible] >> sir. >> [inaudible] at 17 years old -- [inaudible] >> oh, it was a great vacation. [laughter] no, it was a wake-up call, you know? it was -- i didn't really, i can't really look back on it because i didn't get to experience it, you know, from the outside. i was just doing what i was told and marching around. i actually went back to the base about three weeks -- about a month be ago, and i was, like, i didn't even know this was here. and i was like, it seemed like coming from this place to this place was so much longer, and they were like, it was, because we take you all the way around the other side. and i'm like, oh, wow. [laughter] so, but thank you all so much for having me here today, i

appreciate the questions. >> is there a nonfiction author or book you'd like to see featured on booktv? send us an e-mail at booktv@cspan.org or tweet us at twitter.com/booktv. >> here's a look at some of the upcoming book fairs and festivalsing happening around the country.

>> and please let us know about book fairs and festivals in your area, and we'll be happy to add them to our list. e-mail us at booktv@cspan.org. >> so my job in writing this book was to actually give people a readable story of the constitution and not just that, i went through clause by clause, and i broke it out so that students of the institution whether they're at cbcc or whether they're in california or maine or hawaii or washington, d.c. or across the country would know what it meant to read the constitution and what the founding generation said this constitution meant. and i also was motivated to

write the book because of the charge in the constitution itself. the founding generation left this constitution to their posterity, and that's often a word we don't use, but that's to us. and we have a sacred trust to know what that constitution means, to understand it, to read it, to digest it, and so, again, by doing this i hoped the american people would do that. if they were students of the constitution. now, often times you hear different ideas about the constitution. well, some will say the constitution's an elastic document, you can read into it, it's stretchable. it has words, and you can read these words, but we have to go beyond that because that's what this supreme court judge or this constitutional scholar says it means. and then you have those that say

the constitution is a limiting document. the constitution is what it says, you can't go beyond that. and so we should interpret the constitution literally. and there's this big debate, and people get confused by this stuff. which one is it? is it a loosely-interpreted document, is it an elastic document, or is it a limiting document? and so i actually thought to cut through all of that. i really didn't care what modern scholars have said about the constitution, to be honest with you. i really didn't care what the supreme court has said about the constitution. i cared what the founding fathers said about the constitution. so my journey gab there. and, in fact, when i originally conceptualized this book and pitched it to begin with -- and those who don't know the publishing process, you can pitch an idea, and then you're told yes or no, and if you're told yes, you go from there -- so when i pitched the idea, i was going to focus almost primarily on the opponents of the constitution. and i'll talk about some of

these terms in a minute. the publisher came back and said, no, no, that wouldn't be good because it might turn out to look like an anti-constitution book. so i said, okay. well, you know, how could we work with this? so we brainstormed a little bit, and we decided we would write a book on the constitution based on what the founding generation said about the constitution both for the constitution and against the constitution. now, i had read a lot of material about this, but as i started digging through the mountains of research that's out there on this subject, i realized i'd only scratched the surface. and much of what i knew was going to be changed or at least in some ways what i thought i knew about it was only going to be more involved. because as i got into the material, i said, my gosh, this is deeper than i thought. what i'd often thought about the constitution is there, but there's so much more to it. it's much more complex than even what i said about the

constitution in my first book. and, of course, when you're looking at this document, and i say it's a founding fathers' guide to the constitution because that's what it is, and it's not just the founding fathers that you're familiar with, and i'll talk about them in a become, but it's all the founding generation. this is a generational book for the american generation. it's not just one, two, three people or four people and what they said. i went and looked at what everyone said about that i could put my hands on. and public documents because, again, this thing had to be sold to people, and i'll talk about that in a second. so the founding fathers are important because they wrote it. and so i thought what source would be better than going to the people who wrote the document itself and who actually had to present this thing to 13 sometimes hostile ratifying conventions and tell people, this is what it means. and they had to go to the press and say, well, this is what you might be saying the constitution will do x, y and z, but no, no,

be reassured, this is actually what it means. that is the founding fathers' constitution. that is the constitution as i say in the book over and over again as ratified. and that process is very important. again, that whole ratification process. the constitution meant nothing until the states decided to ratify it. of -- so that's the overall subject of the book. and i'm going to read you a quote in a few minutes from one, from a founding father of north carolina, and i'll refer back to that quote quite a bit. but often times you'll get the statement, well, you know, the founding fathers were just a combative group of people. they didn't agree on anything. what founders are you talking about? we all know some of the big names, or maybe you know some of the big names, but you've probably heard of alexander hamilton, you've probably heard of james madison and john jay. they're the authors of the federalist papers. the 85 essays in defense of the constitution. and so most people that read the

constitution and think that they understand the constitution will look at the document itself and then maybe look at the federalist papers and say, well, that's it. but it's deeper than that. in fact, it goes much deeper than that. i would argue in the book, and i say this, that the federalist papers are not as important as you think. they were written in new york, and they didn't have much of an impact in new york itself. because the state of new york only ratified the constitution by three votes. three votes. so these 85 essays that people say are the definitive source on the constitution didn't have much impact at the time. but there are others, and there are other members of that founding generation who perhaps are even more important than people like james madison. of course, james madison is often called the father of the constitution, but i'd say that's a misnomer, and the historical scholarship on that subject has kind of come around to that over time. he did present the virginia plan or at least wrote it and then, of course, it was presented by

the virginia delegation at the philadelphia convention. but the constitution that we have is not his. it was gone over and over in in the the philadelphia convention and modified over and over again by a number of important people. so some of these people you've probably never heard of before like john dickenson of delaware. you're probably saying, well, who the heck is john dickenson? he was actually called the penniman of the revolution. he was one of the most important men of the founding generation, bar none. and when he went to the philadelphia convention, he looked at this constitution that james madison had written, and he said, no, no, we're not having that. that's not going to work in these united states. or you have someone like roger sherman of connecticut, a man that thomas jefferson once said never said a -- i'm paraphrasing here -- never said a stupid thing in his life. this was also his constitution because, again, he was a conservative moderating influence. when he got to the philadelphia

convention and he saw james madison's work he again said, nope, we're not having that in these united states. it's not going to work. the people of connecticut will never agree to this thing. or john rutledge of south carolina, another very important founding father. john rutledge, of course, would later serve on the supreme court. he basically helped win the american war for independence in south carolina from the saddle of governor. so a very important individual. and he said, no, this constitution that you've written, mr. madison, is not going to work in south carolina. we need to modify this thing. so tata's what happens in philadelphia -- that's what happens in philadelphia. one story calls it the miracle in the philadelphia because no one was even sure if this thing was going to get out of philadelphia to begin with. there were so many ideas floating around in philadelphia that it appeared that the constitution was going to die before the middle of the summer of 1787. and the story that you often hear about that constitution is

simple. it's the large states against the small states. the people i just listed -- dickenson, sherman and rutledge -- all came from small states. madison, of course, was from a very large state. but that's not the real issue. the real issue was what type of government were we going to have? was it going to be a national government or a federal government? and so today we have this term we have a federal government. well, and the founding generation they didn't call it that. they didn't call it that coming out of philadelphia. the people like dickenson and sherman and rutledge said we don't want a national government, we want a federal government with. james madison wanted a national government. there's a difference. the federal government was a general government meaning that it only had general purposes in mind and that, basically, everything else was left to the states themselves. and that's what the majority of the founding generation argued for. not a national government which, basically, put all power in the

central authority. they weren't going to have that. so when you start talking about general versus federal and national versus general, i mean, these are important terms and, inspector, they haven't gone away. you still hear the term the united states is a nation today, so that term is still thrown around. but the founding generation would say it's a general government for general purposes. i'll talk about that in a preamble in a few minutes. so when the constitution came out of philadelphia in september of 1787, to one was even sure -- no one was even sure if the thing would get ratified. they had written it, they had talked about it, they had sweated over it, they had poured their hearts out in some cases, but no one was even sure that it would make it out of nine states which is all they require today ratify the document. so then it had to be sold, and that sales job is actually what i talk about more in the book than anything else. i do wring up the philadelphia convention -- bring up the philadelphia convention because

sometimes you can't understand the constitution and the language without understanding what they said it meant in philadelphia. but oftentimes you can't understand the constitution and what they said it meant without understanding what they said in the state ratifying conventions all throughout the united states. in fact, james madison agreed. this is what he said. he said: the constitution only was brought to life and only found its meaning because of the state conventions which gave it all the validity and authority it possesses. so in other words, what we presented in philadelphia means nothing, what the state ratifying conventions said it meant means everything. and we don't often hear about these things. in fact, perhaps the most famous supreme court justice ever, john marshall, who was a member of that founding generation never one time referenced the state ratifying conventions in any of his decisions, and they really

are never referenced. but those state ratifying conventions is where everything was discussed, everything was hammered out, and these states -- many of them wavering support -- were sold a bill of goods, in essence, on the basis of what the constitution meant at the time. and that's why i said i was going to write a book paced on the opponents of the constitution and what they said it meant, but again, i bring in both opponents and proponents. let me talk about those two terms, proponents and opponents of the document. you often hear of the two groups, federal its and anti-federalists. those terms are wrong. in fact, el bridge gary of massachusetts said it guest, they were rats and anti-rats. which is pretty funny. he was very colorful. so you have these federalists when in reality what you're talking about there many times are nationalists. they believe in a strong central authority, they thought more

power should be in the central government or the general government, and then you had the federal is who were often called the anti-federalists. they believe in a federal government where there's a general government and the states had much of the authority. so this is the debate, how much authority is that central government going to have and how much are the state governments going to have? and that's what we get out of this entire process, and you hear it over and over again. and, again, that's the main point of the book, to go through these different opinions. but what i found shocked me. i expected to write a book and say, well, yeah, there were a lot of different opinions, and so you kind of have to bring this out yourself in which one, which one was right. but what i found was this: over and over again the opponents of the constitution who said the government was going to do x, y and and if you passed this thing were told by the proponents, those who supported it, that, no, you're wrong. they were actually arguing on the same positions in the same way. so the general consensus was there. there is a founding fathers'

interpretation. and, essentially, what you have, again, is a general government for general concerns. that's it. and i'll talk about how that worked in a few minutes and why they thought that was important when we get to, for example, the discussion of the bill of rights. but it was not going to be a national government, and it was not going to abolish the states which some people feared. so as i dug through these declarations, public declarations and speeches and pamphlets and all these things, there's a multitude of volumes on this stuff, again, this general consensus began to appear. and i put as much of that as i can in the book because i wanted people to see that. and the other thing that i've often heard about this book over time is that i use a lot of quotations, and sometimes that can make it a little dry. but i didn't want it to be brion mcclanahan's guide to the constitution, it wanted it to be the founding fathers' guide to

the constitution, so i put as much of them in it as i could because they're better at saying what they meant than i am. and it's not hard to understand. so the quotes were or important to me. i wanted to put as many as i could in there. and, in fact, there's actually two appendices in the back of the book that are nothing but quotes from the founding generation, stuff that i thought was great, but i couldn't put it in the book somewhere because i didn't have space. i actually think those two sections of the book are in some ways the most fun. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> here's a look at some books being published this week. ..