please welcome mike ritland. [applause] >> good morning. first i would like to thank the savanna that festival for having me here. i think what they are doing is a marvelous thing and it gives a lot of access to venues like this to be able to talk about what they do and what they are passionate about. so first and foremost i would like to thank them for bringing me here and everybody that is sitting out here for taking interest in what it is that i do in the book i wrote into the message i like to convey in terms of the importance of military working dogs and of the things they are capable of without your support.

this wouldn't happen to think you for supporting me in the book. as it relates to the working dogs i grew up in northern iowa and there isn't a lot to do. there's farming and hunting. so it was kind of a i wouldn't say a destiny as picking one of the things there are to do so i got involved with bird dogs. we had a black lab growing up that i talked about in the book and kind of the gateway into the dog world. but at a very early age i recognized and appreciated the traits that all of them possessed in terms of their ability to use their nose into

their steadfastness in terms of what they were willing to go through from an environmental standpoint bursting through brush and thorns and they were just motivated to do the type of work that we were asking them to do. they would use the wind to their advantage and would find things that for me was very surprising and it was kind of a foreshadowing in terms of what i do now and where it led me ultimately, and that fascination for them to use their nose is frankly why they are so valuable from the military standpoint. i didn't realize at that age to me it was just cool to see a dog in the dead of winter because he

would've buried his nose told him just to the snow and find a ketchup packets that had been buried six weeks before. it was neat to see something like that and obviously the applications that i got involved with later on. i spent a number of years with friends and the dogs would go out and we would do dog or bird hunting of some sort and i just always marveled at their ability to do what they did. once i graduated from high school, i joined the navy and a 17 right out of high school as soon as i graduate i went to boot camp. six months after boot camp after my initial training i went in to the basic underwater demolition training. i completed that and after that i worked through more specialized training until you

get to an actual seal team, and i was there for a number of years. while i was there and prior to that i got involved in hunting dogs etc. which i talk about in the book of hope, and again i found myself marveling at the physical characteristics that they possess but now there was an added element in that there was a natural attrition that they possess towards other animals and i found myself impressed by their tenacity and will to succeed and to win and take down animals two or three or four times their size. it was at that point that i got into the animal husbandry aspect of the dogs where i paid really close to nutrition and conditioning from a veterinary

aspect i learned a lot after they would get injured etc. and i just learned just about every aspect of raising dogs from an animal husbandry standpoint the same way a dairy farmer would. and i started to get into the genetic theory of bloodlines and how they affect the different aspects of a breeding program and why it's important to pay attention getting into the weeds as far as breathing is concerned. after that i got more and more involved in every aspect of managing and i have a number of dogs in which i bred and raised and trained for working purposes and in iraq deployment there was a marine detachment of headache

single explosive purposed attention dog and what he did was he essentially alerted on a complex there was a small doorway not much bigger than one person could get through at a time. the dog was going back and forth with changing behavior you could tell he was onto the targe on tt odor and it maybe if we write inside the doorway he sat down and stared which is the indication that there is an explosive odor present. upon close inspection of the doorway there was a clump of grenades attached to a booby trap right inside the doorway. for me without question that was my life such moment in terms of really realizing the potential of these dogs and the role that they were able to play in augmenting mankind overseas in the battlefield and from that

day forward i was starved for knowledge in terms of working dogs as it relates to military and police type of work. i found it very fitting and powerful. it's one of the things i mention in the book is from the earliest reported times of the battle, there is one constant in terms of what we still use even today. we have billions if not trillions of dollars invested in smart bombs and drones and laserguided everything and any omissions and explosives. from the earliest recorded times when man battled each other there is a constant and that is the use of canines even as far back as egypt is concerned they used dogs to augment themselves in battle.

and to me it really speaks to just a truism of man's best friend not only are they great pets and companions but they are also dogs that could save our lives and we literally depend on them to help keep us safe in a number of capacities. when i was finished with my time i moved onto an instructor role in to the nice thing about that is it gave me a little bit of a break from an operational standpoint i was able to get into the weeds of job training as it relates to military work. i trained with a number of different clubs and groups and units and organizations etc. that gave me a well-rounded perspective of what dogs did and how they did it, all the

different multitudes of ways that they were incorporated into the military service and there's truly the sky is the limit in talladega. i realized very quickly and the only thing that limited us as human beings but we could do was if we looked at it from a training perspective and put our minds to it there is almost nothing we could do with these dogs. it was eye-opening to me the level of capability and capacity. as i transitioned to get ready to get out of the navy is when the regular seal team started implementing their own k9 program. it's frustrating from a military standpoint and has a special operator that all the programs were used before in the special

warfare communities back in that he there was a number of units that used them. they got to where and they knew how to train the dogs and get them where they need to be and like a lot of programs that are expensive and from a building standpoint they are hard to maintain and when the budget cuts come, programs like that are one of the first things to go because they are labor-intensive and expensive. there wasn't a single operations unit that still used canines from the end of vietnam until post-9/11. with few exceptions where military police and handlers with augment the different units for certain capacities, there

was no self-sufficient entities in terms of canine programs. canine programs are no different than a police unit, special operations group, military branch and that it's not a light switch type of application. you can't turn it off and 20 years later say let's get them back going, flip the light switch on and now you are a unit that operates in the same capacity that you did before you turned it off. no different than a special operations unit. you can't expand the operations after the military conflict is over and then ten years later something happened and put them back on. it doesn't happen that way. after 9/11 it has become very apparent that with all of the work that we were doing in afghanistan and then later on in iraq the military working dogs were something that were of enormous value. first they started using military police dogs trying to incorporate them in that capacity that they were limited in terms of the ability of the

dogs because they are not special operations and so there can be a conflict in terms of dynamic nature that you can operate. when each unit to figur securedt they needed their own program each one devised their own program and because each group, whether it is rangers were green berets or special warfare or any of the other counterterrorism units out there is a different mission where each group really needs its own program. it's all run in-house. it isn't a part of the program. they are all self-sufficient from the ground up with each prospective unit. it's something that from the big picture standpoint i think it's hard for a lot of people to understand why there is such a

difference puts kind of the nature and the beast and that the level they operate freely dictate each group has its own program. it was a stumbling process at first for a number of groups because unlike any other tool coming in to use the word tool not in a disrespectful manner but in the fact that they are a remarkable and incredibly valuable tool that we use to help augment us and stay safe overseas and in that it is just like anything else you have to learn how to use it properly. dogs unlike any other thing used to get weused to get a weapon s, night vision vehicles, whatever platform you want to apply are pretty cut and dry. it's usually a piece of mechanical equipment from having used other similar pieces of it and.

when you get to the dog is this a completely different animal than a pun intended. but it is being able to truly understand what the dog is communicating with and from his body language is something that takes years to develop. it takes an enormous amount of experience from both the volume standpoint and the disparity between different blogs because they are all individuals the same way you and i are. they have different characteristics and traits into past life experiences that forge and dictate how they respond to certain scenarios and until you have experienced these different environments it is difficult to understand what he is feeling and thinking and how he is going to respond. the only way that you can manage and dictate how they respond is to first understand where he's coming from and then also use

our body language to communicate back what is expected of them and that transfers to pet dogs, any type of working dog in that animals are almost overwhelmingly nonverbal communicators and so it is our job to be able to communicate back to them what it is that we expect of them. you have to reinforce the behavior to get it to occur again and it's really that simple, but to teach somebody that it's not a weekend course or three-day seminar. it's years of experience. and so there were a lot of lessons learned the hard way, dogs not doing what they needed to be doing, going overseas with them and then not performing up to par what we needed them to do it was a very steep learning curve and a lot of the handlers and trainers and other operators for that matter were drinking

from the firehose in terms of what they were learning. once the bugs began to get worked out, there was a very fluid operational capacity that dogs now played. most of the operators had been overseas and operated before and knew what to expect. the dogs had been operating for several years and everything was getting hammered out and started to transition very smoothly and now it got to the point where every unit has multiple dogs and they are doing a fantastic job with them, be it parachuted or any number of high-level different missions in the environments that we operate with them and the guys that operate within its remarkable and it speaks to the versatility

of dogs in general in terms of what you can get them to do. moving forward, i was at a crossroads personally. at the end of 2,008 i could either stay in the navy and become one of the handlers early on and become a part of the program or i could separate from the navy and start my own company and try to have a larger impact in terms of training, supplying the different scenarios and training courses for the military and it was a tough decision for me personally. it's one that from a selfish standpoint if i'm looking at it just selfishly i wanted to stay and be a handler. it was a very tough decision for me to make instead of getting that one-on-one time and doing

the dance with them and they did try to make a bigger impact to get out and form a company and provide a multitude of services and ultimately and obviously that is what i ended up doing. it was important and dear to my heart to make as big a difference as i could. no different than when i joined the navy to the reason i went into the team is because i wanted to make the largest impact i could. i have always kind of taken that train of thought with everything i've done as that is going to make the biggest impact and thus far it has worked out pretty well. but it was still a difficult decision for me to say i'm going to forgo what i want to do personally and i'm going to to transmit a larger impact and do thtodo that greater good for the entire community. i started my own company. we did a lot for a host of different clients and in a

number of different capacities. some of them are going into drug dog programs for the border patrol and some of them were going into the land security for airports to and some of them are going to the department of defense for military work and i realized very quickly that again this is something the level of impact they can and act in the role they play is much bigger than me or anyone person and that's why there are a multitude of people like me that do the exact same thing. there's a number of vendors and companies that provide similar services. a few years and we secured the training contract for a special operations unit. myself and one other employee went out and we were trainers for a period of time and for me

i would say that was kind of the best of everything for me in that i have put several years into the company and now i was back to where i owned the company that was providing the trainers and dogs and training for the same group by group a thing and it's something i will always be very proud of and just tickled to death to have been part of because they put everything together for me. once i decided to write the book i was essentially approached by my publisher to write it and one of the reasons was the amount of information or misinformation or lack of information that has been out there as it relates to military dogs especially in special operations groups there is a ton of misinformation out there and there's also a lot of just american citizens that have no ideas that the dogs are used

at a minimum in the capacity that they are. it can't be overstated how important they are. there are literally tens of thousands of american troops who are here today because of dogs like these. and it just -- for me it's important that it was and still is important and everybody realizes that so for me it was a tough decision to write the book because of the amount of exposure that it gives. the guys like me are not typically ones that want to be in the spotlight and want people to know who they are or what they do or what they have done. so again i was kind of at a crossroads and not do i stay keeping the low-profile just providing the work or does it make sense to put a highlight on these blogs and make the entire public understand just how vital and important they are and how

lifesaving they are and again it would have been easier to just keep doing what i was doing and that none of you would be sitting here and no one would know who i am. but again, when i look back at post-vietnam programs getting turned off or here in the next year or two when things are rounded down to the point where from a penny pinch her standpoint it doesn't make sense to keep these expensive k9 program, i hope, and michael is that there is enough interest and passion behind the general public to keep these programs going because they are so vital. once i decided to write about it is largely been a great experience for me in terms of the feedback that i've gotten and the questions i get asked and got e-mails and messages i get from people that say i have absolutely no idea that the dogs

were used to the way they are and people are just behind. they are excited about it and they support it. from the time i started with dogs and providing all these dogs from day number one, it was always on the front side essentially and i put a lot into providing job training services etc.. one of the things i realized very quickly was that on the back and, there wasn't much of a support structure and there was essentially none as it relates to special operations working dogs. once they are done whether it be from combat injuries, combat stress-related mental issues or just old age just like the guys like m me gets get to a certaind can't do the job they are doing at the level we need to anymore it is time to write out of the e

pastor and go do something else and dogs are the same way. what i realized is that there are not any support structures for those dogs and it honestly happened by accident and that there was a unit that approached me and said we have to dogs both of them have been wounded and are almost nine years. it's time for them to retire. we don't have the capacity to do what we need to do with them. a lot of people when they hear that are angered by that and let me clarify that one thing you have to realize about any operational unit is that their job is first and foremost is to be operationally ready at the highest level possible. while nobody wants to know that there'there is not a place for e dogs to go, which there is, but i think a lot of people assume i don't have the units take care and the reason why is because if it detracts from being operationally ready because we are taking the care of the dogs

and we can't get the resources necessary to train and equip the existing dogs than that is one of those necessary evils and a conflict of interest etc. where you have to make the right decision for those that are going down range all the time and put the resources into the actual operators. where i came in they said we need a place for them to go and i wasn't really set up to accommodate that but given the circumstances there is nowhere for them to go we need somebody to take them. that was almost four years ago now and we've been doing it ever since. we have an actual foundation that organized into ten nonprofit that rehabilitates or if that isn't possible to act as a sanctuary essentially for them to live out their years in an environment where they are not asked to do anything.

they can be a dog. our place is in texas and it's a great facility in terms of it is on 20 acres and it's surrounded by tens of thousands of acres of pastures and wooded areas where we let them just unwind and get to be dogs whether it is being chasing cows were running through the lord's having a blast playing ball, going for rides etc.. ideally we'd like to rehabilitate them if necessary and home then. sometimes that works out and sometimes it doesn't. one of the questions i get asked frequently is due dogs get ptsd and the answer in short is yes. it's different in that dogs are simple association animals. they don't have the ability to reason the way people do. and so more so than ptsd it is essentially a negative association with different types of experiences that they've had

overseas via to gunfire or helicopters, fire crackers, you name it. there are certain things they've been exposed to and have had enough negative experiences that they associate that with that you see issues and problems when they are exposed to those types of things. sometimes it can be something as simple as being in a crate or loading up into a vehicle or trailer. there's a host of things you can see the dogs both have issues with the nice thing about a dog is that generally speaking, you can't unwind the process in two simple ways. number 100 don't ask the dog to do anything. you don't put pressure on him to be obedient. you don't send him to do any of the complicated maneuvers or training scenarios he has done in the past and you just do the things we know as all the people what they like which is throwing balls into taking them for

walks, letting them run around without any obedience tasks being given to them. that's first and foremost. once you let them unwind a little bit, then we find out what it is the negative association is and then we very slowly bridged that gap and say okay we will use gunfire for an example. gunfire is a defaults to the aggression where he is fighting anybody that he can when he hears gunfire which is not an uncommon thing. so now we are going to desensitize into it where there will be gunfire 2,000 yards away while we are playing ball and then it thousand, then 500. and once you get enough repetitions of positive associations with these things that previously they had negative associations with, you can't unwind and essentially untrained those negative reinforcers with a dog. so we found while some of them may not be of the temperament

and the capacity to be home with an average family, they are now no longer a danger to everybody around them and themselves, and from a mental stability standpoint they are much more relaxed and calm and confident dogs. so for me it is something i hold very dear to my heart because as a special of -- special operations guy trading but that after vietnam versus now begin the polar opposite, i feel it is every bit as important to do the same thing for these dogs because they are no less of an operator than any of us special operations or any military member for that matter as they play just as big a role as anybody does.

one of the things that's also important i think for everybody to understand is the level of respect and care that is given to these dogs if they are wounded and when they are retired if they are killed and an action it mirrors the human counterpart. when they are lost or injured, they are lifelike it if need be and stabilized wherever they need to be and then they come back here for more advanced rehabilitation type therapy. they are the exact same way. a lot of people unfortunately have the idea that if a dog is injured or wounded they are disposable we will put and down and move on to the next one. i assure you with 100% guarantee it's nowhere near that. some of the dogs i've retired have been shocked and

essentially blown up in explosions and they were sent out from a stabilized, wi-fi why flighted, rehabilitated for months to be able to retire them. so for me it's important that everybody understands, you know, not only do they play that enormous role, but the level of respect and care that is given to them is no different than their human counterparts. on a more grave note, the same thing with if they are lost. the special operations command generally have memorials set up where they will have humane names on one side and k9 names on the other side. and it's like this. it's not in balance at all. we are a team and they are considered operators just like the rest of us and so again it's important for me to relay that to you.

i would like to finish before i open up for questions you know, again, going back to the importance of these dogs i can't speak from personal experience that i am standing here because one of these dogs saved my life. what i can tell you is i have dozens of friends if not in the hundreds it's impossible to quantify because if a dog comes onto an explosive device and finds that it's there, how do you determine how many, that's impossible. but there are a ton of people from a fellow american citizens and our service members who volunteered to get their hands dirty that are standing here today because these dogs have been trained and equipped and managed effectively into these canine programs and its

something that i hope as a nation we not only never forget, but also that we move forward and be steadfast in our allocation of funds and resources across the spectrum. as things wind down overseas to a certain extent, things are focused on a little heavier back here and there would be an enormous success and victory for any unit that can find a place to use dogs for their safety to implement the program and use them because they are phenomenal at what they do. i can't thank you enough for being here. before i get into the q-and-a, one thing i want to bring up is as far as any questions that you want to ask, historically

speaking i found people are afraid to ask the questions in terms of how do you justify sending dogs that there is absolutely nothing off limits. to me if you have a tough question or you think it's tough fire it away because my job and my goal is to relay information so you don't have to ask -- you can ask me whatever question you want. it can be as simple as what kind of food do you feed or sleep in terms of theoretical discussion as you want to get. but i encourage anybody to take that and run with it because i -- that's what i'm here for and i'm happy to answer to whatever degree i can from an operational standpoint there are things i can't and won't answer, but if it is something i can answer,

i'm happy to do it. so moving forward, are there any questions? >> yes. >> [inaudible] >> that's a question -- for those that couldn't hear is what breed or three do you prefer. the answer is i prefer the breed of dog that passes my selection test. having said that, the dutch shepherd and a german shepherd are the only three in my experience that have passed my selection test. i don't have a preference for any of those three. use the military and police work now there are more and more dutch shepherd's being used and again it's not a preference, it's the fact that for a number of reasons, which i want to believe her or get into, there is a higher prevalence for those dogs testing the unit selection

criteria. >> are you involved with training service dogs? the question was am i involved in the training of service dogs for veterans with ptsd. right now the answer is no. there are a number of groups i've been introduced to and have spoken with in the last 18 months or so that do that and i would love to get to the point where we have an involvement in some capacity. i will see the type of dog that is going to be a good personal protection or military dog etc. is usually not in the same category as a dog that is good for a fellow soldier with ptsd. there are two different missions in terms of how the dogs perform

with their temperament and character trait but obviously it's a very important thing and we are taking it one step at a time doing the providing and retiring. it's not to beat a dead horse but it's a whole different animal. anybody else? >> do the enemies target the dogs and how do they view that whole issue? >> they do. here's the short answer to what our enemies do. they target everything we have. they don't use any discretion in prioritizing necessarily. if we have something whether it is a truck, weapons truck, convoy, group of soldiers patrolling they are going to target. is there anything that we have is a target. yes.

>> i came in a little late so i apologize if you addressed this. i have a friend that is very active in all of these now. he feels that the training of the dogs has not kept up with the technology in the military, and i wonder do you agree with that and has it changed dramatically from vietnam to malpractice >> the short answer is yes and no. the interesting thing about dog training is that it's just like any other aspect. it depends on which unit is conducting the training. some are incredibly productive in the use of the commissioning and employing all four quadrants in the reinforcement quadrant and using the body language and reinforcement training. some units are still very

old-school and much more compulsive than their training methods. so in some respects, yes absolutely there are some that are doing it t the same way they were in vietnam and some are doing it on a much higher level and capacity to. >> i would like to thank you for your service and the dogs that you train. [applause] with depending wind down in the far east, what are the implications for us maintaining some programs and not have what happened in vietnam and what implications does that have for your company because obviously if they switch off, what do you do? and finally how many do you process in the retirement?

>> to speak to the first part of the question of the conflicts internationally winding down and how it impacts us is very simply alternately it shouldn't come as no different than bringing the troops home from anywhere we shouldn't say let's cut the military and half for the reasons i depicted earlier it is imperative that we keep a level of maintenance at the capacity that we are working now. it can be tricky because there is a bare minimum of infrastructure trainers and facilities and training area equipment etc. but has to be maintained whether it is 30 dogs or one dog. i'm hopeful that given the success record of these dogs

they won't turn the light switch off and i see a falling back to the bare minimum to maintain the capability, but instead of having 30 dogs, you have four or five which is how i see is panning out. ..

and unequivocally at the end of the study, the use of k9 knowledge was above any piece of man-made equipment and the interesting thing about a dog's nose is a use of dogs period, it is not just their nose that is valuable. their ability to apprehend people and be as mobile as they are and the possession of the ming general lacked as an enormous deterrent for a lot of police forces and military units. they are getting a lot of bang for your buck with a dog's nose. >> you have already mentioned the nose part, the main selection criteria. what a the other main selection criteria you use to choose the dogs to train and how do you go

about doing that? how do you decide which one is better equipped than another one? >> basically we have a end product that is our ideal and we work backwards from that. to give you the four or five most basic different kind of sections, i guess, that i look for, i look for confidence first and foremost. i want to see a dog that walked around like he owns the place no matter where he is, interact with me very confident we. he is social, is paying attention to me, not defaulting to aggression towards me just because i am a stranger in close to him but a happy medium. the don't want him to be aggressive. don't want to be shy or aloof with me either. so he has to be confident and he has had an enormous level of play drive, just a natural drive to chase and capture things when they're waved in front of his

face, throwing the ball and has to have an enormous amount of hunt drive, if i tease him by ball, throw the ball in the thick brush and let him go he will spend minutes using his nose, not his eyes but his nose to find the ball, he can't see it, he will sit there and you can watch, like nose on legs snaking back-and-forth and he will do that ended distractions if there is hot and water nearby or other dogs who have marked in the area, if there's traffic or somebody -- gunfire going of which are all things we may simulate to test dedication of the hunt drive for that dog and i want to make sure under all those circumstances he is still going to hunt which mimics a combat environment. if i take a dog who is distracted by food or a female or gunfire while asking him to search, when i send the dog over to and austere environment where he will be used to save people's

lives and he is surging and there's a hot dog, oh, there's a hot dog, that dog is not of enormous value to us. the sociability in environmental nerve go hand-in-hand. i need a dog that can go anywhere. open stairwells, elevators, escalators, people with wheelchair's, played down the equipment is a good test, the dog will spider monkey his way around, all over playground equipment, usually a good indicator that dog is environmentally pretty sound, taking him into dark rooms, slippery floors i want to see a dog that will do all that. last but not least, i am looking for a dog the one i get in a bright student put pressure on him, mostly mental standpoint and a little from a physical standpoint, i want to see a dog that when i communicate to him with my body and not only am i here, i am not scared of you but intent on doing you holland and make sure you understand that. when i put all of that into a

dog i want the dog that is going to say you want to roll, let's roll. there are very few dogs that act fat way, from experience. most dogs don't have that genetic trait and it stands to reason, it is counterintuitive that a lack of self preservation exists in most animals, cumin beings included. it is an anomaly treat even when breeding for it, it is rand v. elusive but some things that is crucial for the type of work we do. what makes the selection process so difficult is finding a dog that has everyone of those qualities in very high caliber. kind of like the analogy i use a lot is lebron james or michael jordan of dogs, they have to be at their very best level in every aspect of what we are asking them to do. it is difficult. >> what are your options?

>> the question is in terms of inbreeding and line breeding, without getting too into the weeds in genetic theory essentially with breeding programs of any animal we are funneling genetics. there is a desired outcome we are trying to accomplish with the breeding program and you have to double up on these qualities. the thing you have to be careful with is when you double up on good qualities you also double up on the bad ones. this isn't a good idea for people, it has to be absolute textbook consummate examples of what you are trying to accomplish and even then you have to be very careful with it. with again, thank you. that is all the time we have. i is an hour on the book

of code name by johnny walker. >> first of all, thank you, everybody for coming out. we will wing it here and keep it

easy. we will take it are it goes. a lot of people have been asking where and why did this book come about and why did you write this book and i have to say the book actually started in a way i have been working on this book for almost four years now. while i was working on americ"an snip sniper" who i wrote with chris kyle and we were hanging out one night and looking at pictures and one came up of some guys who were about to go out on a seal mission and one was taller than the other in the room and was wearing a slightly different uniform and i said who is that big guy. and chris was texting and looks at me and says well that is the

original iraqi i ever trusted with a gun. and i thought that was pretty interesting. tell me about that. he told me it was a translator they called johnny walker and chris told me about the missions. i write fiction and the stories that chris was telling me sounded so remarkable and thrilling than what i came up with almost stopped writing. we put johnny into the book and he changed his name and background because we were worried at the time and thought he was still in iraq. our book came out, "american sniper" came out and chris was doing a book signing, i think,

in california. johny went out and showed up. and chris told the story later on and he said i called him up there and i thought he was dead. and called him up and made him stand up in front of the room and told everyone the truth that johnny walker -- chris kyle is known as a many who saved a lot of seal and iraqi lives and chris told that crowd and told everybody he could that johnny walker saved more seals and more americans and iraqis than chris every could. it is remarkable story. i am not sure if it was the next day but soon after chris got ahold of our editor who has been a big help for us and said peter, you are doing this book, boy because this man is important. and that is where we started. so johnny, tell us a little bit,

you were born in iraq, tell us about that. >> first, i want to thank you for your support and i apologize for my broken english, b. i want to thank matt. that guy, i met him in 2003 and this is the first time i saw him all of this year. >> matt is an army veteran. [ applause ] he put a lot on the line for us. tell us about yourself. >> i was born in 1964. i grew up like a normal child and played basketball and high jump and all of my dreams was i

want to live in america one day. and unfortunately marriage and having kids but my dream was to disappear and go to america and i didn't have any chance. in my heart i said this is wrong. i deserve this chance and i am the best one for this job. i found work with military police. >> wait a second! the problem with johnny is he is a little too humble. here is what happened. he was trying to get scribget je a while. the americans were very honored because they liberated the country and johnny tried to get a job, didn't get a job, and we

go into more details but he had enough money to buy a pack of cigarettes or his kid's lunch or a taxi to go back. he decided the mechanic with the taxi and the kids are have the lunch and i can buy 2-3 cigarettes. he is walking home and it isn't the greatest area. he comes upon mt and discussions with iraqi ladies. tell us about that. >> we are walking -- by accident i talked on this side and three females walk on the right side and i heard them talking bad things about the american forces. this is what i need to have enough money to supply my kids and i am going to end up

fighting with the police without anything because part of the condition was i have to protect our women no matter what. so anyway, i am thinking this is what i should do. and i came up with plan. i had to go to the military police and ask him can you let me fix this issue? and they give me this chance, maybe i will write to make the females avoid issues with the military police and everyone is going to be happy >> so basically you were a marriage counselor? >> at the time basically. the females come up and i know them and the background of them and i said what are you doing and when they looked at me they

looked like we are so sorry. we didn't mean to do anything. i told them you have one option. you have to go to your house or you can have something bad with me. so the sergeant when he saw what i did with the female, he asked me if i can work with them and i told him i would love it. why not. and at that time, one of the boyfriends for the girls, one of the girls, he came to me and started talking. >> johnny just asked if we could use a bad word. >> anyway, he came to me and started giving me a hard time and talking bad word about me and my family and it was like i am done with you. and i watch him and i beat him,

his face was bloody and i don't know, whatever. ribs broken. and the police told me stop, just leave him, you work with us for now. >> just a sidenote on that story. sergeant bird was out of contact with johnny for several months after that and just recently because of the book got in touch with johnny again. and that has beening of the grit sidenotes and a lot of the men and women that served with him in iraq have been getting in touch with him. johnny went to work with the mp as an interrupter and made such a great name for himself that when the seals came to the area

a few months later on they heard of the toughest interrupter in iraq and they asked for johnny walker. and sergeant bird was not sure about giving up, but he did. and you started working with the seals and johnny did you know what seals were at first? >> no. the first time i when hear about seals i said what does that mean? i could not find it anywhere and my english wasn't good. i have no clue what i am dealing with. and it was like what i am doing and what i'm going to do. i love america but those people are scary in different clothes and such. i remember the first mission i worked for them the guy who i

walked with was like stop, look and go. and i don't know if we can make enterance to the house so they leave the door and i have no review and nothing so i was like we are under attack and i start to run away and the guy ran up to me, caught me and said we ju just opened the door >> you didn't tell them that on the first mission, johnny, showed up and they told him he wasn't allowed to bring his weapons. but orderinarily in ir-- ordin y ordinaryly in iraq -- everyone has a weapon. what did you bring? >> a knife. >> and how big was it?

>> this big. >> i heard the story from this guy it was more like this big. johnny started going with the seals and there was one incident that cemented your relationship with the seals. you want to talk about the one where the man was wounded. >> one of missions, i am kind of new in this environment and i don't know what is going on, but it looked like this was the way to support by family and find the bad guys. we went to one of the targets and we wanted to take that house and that type of mission toward the election next day. we went inside and this guy from that house started shooting at us. and at that time i have no weapon and i show a guy who was injured on his arm.

i was like what should i do and the only thing i do was i want to chase them. i go after them. and i don't know if i am going to lose my life but it is worth it. so i go out and there is a chief i i cannot mention his name, but he said i fought that guy and they started trusting me and considered me as a brother and part of the circle. >> the significance there was there a lot of people that were interrupters and they were kept back behind the lines when there was any combat. johnny is being a little modest in that story. according to the seals there, johnny ran forward and there was a gunfire going on and johnny grabbed them, brought them back and they were quite impressed at

that point and from that point on johnny was actually a brother of the seals. i think it can be difficult to people who are not seals to understand what an honor that is. you can hang out with seals. you can be, even from other special forces and operations guy, and not be considered a brother. and johnny they trusted him with their backs. what does that feel like, johnny? i mean, with these americans who you had known, how did you feel towards them? >> i don't know. i feel like they are my family and they do a good job to my country and i will do anything to help make the mission succeed. but it is a huge honor for me to get from this from officers and

everyone coming to me and supporting me. it was a huge thing to me. >> now, johnny started in one area but the seals are missions across the countries and you travelled a lot. where did you go? >> we went to most of the iraqi cities and towns and at the end i ended up in baghdad. >> and baghdad was like going to miami at the time. they loved you? >> that time it was like a huge fire fly between the extremist and several of them trying to blow up at that time and they

c cannot do anything by themselves so they needed the seals to protect them and we started targeting the bad guys. ...

i want to ask my kids who is going to be sunni and who's going to be shia. so i told my wife -- and who is going to be sunni and who is going to be shia. she said i'm shia so they'll raise their their hand and they said i'm shia. [laughter] >> interesting thing is that not only before the american war but before the sunni awakening you lived in mosul and welfare were sunni and shia and it happens to be an area where there is more sunni. there wasn't religious animosity there weren't people shooting at each other because they were sunni and shia. unfortunately what was the situation?

>> it looks like the continental divide by sunni sheik -- cities and shia cities and kurdish bases. >> basically now there is a lot of violence and issues. johnny's wife was in baghdad, i'm sorry. excuse me. johnny's wife was in mosul and you are in baghdad. can you tell us what happened? you didn't actually know what happened. tell us about that story. >> so after they killed my brother and started targeting may we told everyone i had run away to syria or jordan so no one could find my family. anyway they found my wife and they sent my wife a letter