>> 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

telling her she would be the next target and that they would kill her. the next day she moved to baghdad. >> wait a second. there's a lot more to that story though. first of all johnny's wife is an incredible woman and we go into more detail in the book. she was threatened quite a lot and thought she was going to die several moments. finally the episode when she got the bullet she decided she just had to go to baghdad because that was where johnny was. to this point johnny's relatives have been protecting his wife and she decided she had to go. she packed the kids up and they went in a van that was kind of the equivalent of a minibus service here and let's say it was four hours and we are kind

of rounding things out. about two hours into the trip they were stopped by some terrorists and they took them out of the boston they checked them and they were basically threatening to kill them. fortunately the terrorists were not looking for johnny's family thank god. they were looking for some other person that they had been assigned to kill. they stayed there for several hours and johnny's wife had their four kids. they were pretty much thinking they were going to die until the terrorists apparently called whoever had assigned them to kill these people, to kill the person and thank god the person that said no ... people go. that's not the target. they drove to baghdad. johnny didn't know the story until we were working on the bok johnny's wife was telling me the

story. she and i are sitting in the kitchen and johnny is over there listening and he starts going, interesting. what? his eyes become the size of the space. it was pretty scary. >> yes. speak for me my kids and my wife is all michael life. i ended up with all of these bad things and bad people. when they talked with my wife about these kind of details i freaked out. >> fortunately she is fine and the kids are fine but unfortunately we kind of skipped over a story there where your brother was assassinated. maybe we should tell that story

on how your brother came to die. >> so my brother wanted him a chance to work to support his family. anyway i talked to the iraqi army. one day they came to him and they faced him and shot him, three guys are four guys. and knott. >> that was because they couldn't get you. you have to know the story about you and dealing with the story. i think that's your story. why don't you tell that.

>> so one of the days i went to the base. the seals top may always don't trust anyone outside of the team i always thought about -- you don't. [inaudible] so anyway i would drove my car and saw them behind me with two guys one with a long beard and a passenger was about 20 years old. i'm thinking what's going on? at that time may be mad know in 2004 there is no assassination or killing. anyway i make it enough in my mind that this is what i'm going to do. soon they will come close to me

and i can ambush the guys and maybe it will give me time to confuse them if they have any plan to kill me. one of the guys shot and at that time i always kept my head covered between the two windows. i stopped the car and they took my ak. i did that because they would have chased a man killed my family. >> then what happened? you killed them in the crowd start to gather and then what happened? >> people started asking me what was going on.

all of them basically said good job, awesome. >> johnny was able to escape from that by claiming that the people he killed were actually the people that were working with the americans. he went back and made sure that his family was okay. johnny told me that story. that was one of the first stories that johnny told me and when he told me that we have talked before and we really mad. i went out to san diego and johnny, you know we had lunch and we had started work on a book. i said let's just hang out and chill. what do you like to do and he said i like to take a walk down by the water. so we went out to a boardwalk on vero beach only walked out there and johnny just started talking.

i have to say chris was a good friend and if chris asked me to do something i would absolutely do it. even if chris hadn't been involved and even in if peter hubbard hadn't asked me after walking out on that boardwalk and talking to johnny and trying to get a feel for him i knew i had to write this book. so i thought what we do since this is related to books that we would do a little bit of a reading. johnny's going to read the entire book. [laughter] no, i will take my story what i just said. in writing the book i took my story and johnny's story and i think the color of the car has changed a couple of times. >> i will read from the book.

>> we will just go with it. my america is your america and your america is mine. it's a refuge in a dream, place of freedom and respite responsibility and wonder. to have arrived here after the journey i took after the bombs and gunfire and killings the beheadings and kidnappings and the dangers after everything that has happened in my life the idea that i am free now and the knowledge fills me with gravity. i'm thankful for every moment and every breath and i'm grateful to the seals who risk their lives for my family, grateful for the sacrifices of other servicemen and women, grateful to my neighbors and new friends who welcomes me to this land of large dreams and open skies. every day i live the dream, my dream. my dream began amid a nightmare merger is war in iraq that

destroyed not only the lives of many of my friends and relatives but of an entire country and culture. that destruction began long before the war i fought in, long before the conflict began. iraq was a broken country a place ruled more by fear them by law. a place where making a decent living was for many an impossible dream. the american war brought hope to the disenfranchised iraqis but soon that hope evaporated replaced by violence and bloodshed. the americans were an excuse but not the cause of that nightmare. the hatred and villainy engendered to what had been my country and its effects continue to this day. i am far from that now. today on a cool morning in san diego i walk out on the pier at imperial each infield the wind push against my body tearing at

my clothing and sandpaper in my face. it's a wonderful feeling. at 6:00 in the morning to each is nearly always deserted. it's as if i have the edge of the world completely to myself. i wait a little while. the fishermen, and cast their lines into the surf. someone once told me that dishing is a great act of faith. toothfish one must be incredibly patient but one must also believe. he waits in the water and the wind casting and standing to leaving that eventually his persistence will pay off. he dreams of landing a fish. he rehearses ford in his head. he hopes, he waits. that sort of dreaming is familiar to me. that is how i came to america and immigrant before he even knew i could travel a citizen in my hopes before they wish could even be spoken. america is a land of immigrants. every family here has its own unique story of travel with

hardship in many cases, of triumph and sadness. many of those stories are filled with tears. if you are marked with blood. my story has both. i have debated how much to say about the war in my role in it. i thought if not telling about these things but in the end i decided that people should know the real story. i think a lot of people will say that what happened was very savage. perhaps they will think i am a savage is well though in my mind i did what i had to do and i killed only two survived. some people including some of the bravest warriors america has produced the seals call me a hero. that's not a word that i use to describe myself. i'm only a man who did what i thought i needed to do when i felt i had to do it. i was a man doing a job.

when i was happy to have the support of my family in his time and place it was difficult to do so. for a while at least the job i thought meant i was changing the country, my country for the better. people ask how many missions i went on and how many times they face death. i don't know. i went on at least hundreds and more likely thousands of operations with just the seals. sometimes two or three in a single night. american military units rotated in and out of the country every few months taking a rest back in the states for months and even years. for me there were no rotations. the rest were only very short. and in a war zone. ieds and straight let's were as much a danger as actual combat or direct action, often more so. but it all seemed like a normal life than.

perhaps that's a measure of wars and sanity. if i have courage or fear for even savagery it's because i am human. these things are in all of us, war only brings them out. we are all capable of the worst possible crimes. we can all kill. we can all destroy. these are far easier to do than to build were to help someone live. i have found to my horror that it does not take much to be compromised. i didn't always think this way. maybe like most people, i hope most people think this way. i thought at one time the world is basically good. i believed and still believe that we can all live together in peace and by working together make our communities and the world but a better place. i feel i know that it's better

to make and build than to tear down and destroy. i thought all people around me believe that. little by little i saw that wasn't true. i thought it. i tried to change it. eventually i saw my only course was to escape but before i was able to call a miracle my home i had to denounce america. before i could taste freedom i had to taste death itself. it was late summer of 2004. i have been working for a number of different american organizations civilian and military for more than a year. the liberation of iraq have been the aureus moments a triumph that nearly all of us mostly shared. i got my first job as a translator everyone on my street celebrated me. way way to go johnny dey said. what a wonderful thing.

in barely a year all of that changed. things turned murderously bad. my job went from being a thing to be celebrated to a thing to be hidden. any association with americans was a death sentence. if navy s.e.a.l.s love to me helping them mujahideen terrorists hated me for the same thing. one morning on my way to the seal base of car pulled up a hind me a say of roche the traffic in western mosul. instinctively i knew what would happen. as i looked for an escape route the karcher close and that man in the passenger seat began firing. i was lucky. we both missed. i veered off the road and guns the engine and managed to hit the other car is a turned and jumped out with an ak-47 in my hands. how many rounds are fired, i have no idea. both men in the car died and

because of the crash or because of my bullets i will never know. it makes no difference. people ran to us. as the crowd gathered i could feel the hatred. what is that they demand it. what are you doing? there's only one way to escape. those people they worked with the americans i said. they had to die. the crowd began to cheer. a few pelts of the car with rocks. suddenly the car was in flames and i quickly made my getaway. it was one of the worst days of my life, the day that i denounced america but it's also the day my escape to the united states began. [applause] so we are just preforming here so we will just take questions from people. we can talk about to some extent

what's going on in iraq. we will not identify -- no active servicemen will be identified and we will try to keep some of the details --. >> i wonder if you are afraid now that they will come after you? >> just to repeat the question for the video are you afraid johnny now that people will come after you? >> maybe they can come after me but they can't come after my family. i have support from the people and -- i don't care anymore. >> was it difficult for you to come to the united states and make the transition? did you have to go through a bunch of hoops to be able to come here? >> a question about how difficult it was for you to come to the u.s. and its it's

actually a great question. >> one of my big issues is i had to go and say four or five hours to get payment for my apartment. i had a big argument with my supervisor. i said i don't want you to be kind to me and give me money. i want to work. let me work as a guard. i deserve what i did. this was sad about this system. >> yeah but how you got out of that system and how you got out of iraq you warehoused by the seals and when you had been serving in iraq, how you got to

the u.s.. >> one of my friends whose name is jack, we worked in 2007. good to see you brother. anyway in 2005 and six most of the team guys allowed me to join them. i wanted to do that. after my wife and my brother was killed and they put money on my head i was like do you know what? my family deserves a better chance in the seals did everything. i mean each one of them. >> if we go into that and a little more detail but we really have to praise and thank one seal in particular. the call him chief tack in the

book who was a tremendous supporter of johnny and made it happen. there were a lot of people involved. lawyers and a lot of officers so there is a lot of credit to be spread around. chief tack is a master chief and if you know anything about seals he is one tough sob. when finally everything, he had all the paperwork and he got johnny here we finally heard that johnny was on a mission. he started crying and if you can imagine this toughest males seal guy crying. not only does he admit that he is proud of that but it just goes to show how much the seals respected you. >> you mentioned at the beginning he weren't allowed to carry a weapon. what was the defining moment when you were about to carry a

weapon? >> just repeat the question you were not allowed to carry a weapon. at what point were you allowed? >> training the iraqi forces --. >> the americans have a long list of things, first of all that the seals are any american force can and can't do that as a sidebar to that it didn't allow interpreters not to carry weapons. at some point we are talking about seals but the seals specifically started chaining -- training iraqi forces and at that point even though he was working with seals he was working also with the iraqis and under their rules so he came under their rules and under their rules he was allowed to carry a weapon. i know it's convoluted.

i'm not the person that came up with those rules. that's the rules and johnny followed them in the seals follow them. they didn't like them sometimes but they were orders and that's what they did. >> a moment ago you spoke about the difficulty of arranging your departure from iraq to come to america. i am a former middle east foreign-policy analysts. i know there were many cases of people in afghanistan and iraq who helped american forces, some of whom put their lives at risk in ways similar to you. i don't know the exact number of these people but there is a reasonable number of them and you have a lot of soldiers who are trying to work for these people who put their lives on the line.

sometimes there were tremendous difficulties with the american bureaucracy to get these people out of afghanistan and to the safety of america and i'm wondering is there any type of national organization that took these individuals one by one by one by one as a larger group. there were a number of them and i don't know the exact number, people who really helped american forces and the help of united states to get them to safety. >> just to repeat or summarize and repeat the question. johnny was lucky and helped the seals to come to america -- helped by the seals to come to america but there are as it has been pointed out there are a lot of iraqis who helped americans. and in afghanistan and have had difficulty coming to america. that is actually one of the untold stories unfortunate

untold stories. congress passed a law who came to america under that law saying hey we recognize that people put their lives on the line for america should now be helped to safety and freedom if that is what they want. unfortunately the implementation of that law has been far less than two proselytize a little bit here, it has not been what you had hoped. unfortunately very few translators specifically or interpreters have come to america and the audience member was pointing out and asking if there is an organization that is helping people that are stuck in afghanistan and iraq? i don't know of one but i do know there are translators stuck

there. i think i'm not really sure what should be done. i know that we have an obligation to help the people that helped us. i think willfully we learned our lesson. i think they had a similar situation there. they did pass a law but it's been very difficult for these guys even in johnny's case. i know of two other cases. >> hold on, hold on. see this is a question for you actually. >> then johnny will take it. >> i'm not quite sure how to ask this in a nonleading way that as the author of a book that is so intimate to our subject how do

you not get your own politics, thinking, politics into it? >> you know that's a really good question. the question is since you are the co-author of this book and other books obviously how do you keep yourself from getting the book? i think you are trying to train yourself. my job is not to give my opinions or my voice. my job is to give johnny his voice according to the story. when i did american sniper which is about a seal sniper from texas, in some ways, in some ways i was a little bit easier because chris had a very texan boys and he talked a lot and he

talks a lot different than i do. as you can tell i can't do a texan accent. for chris it was spending a lot of time with his family. they spent a lot of time with us and just listening and trying to come to one thought in what he wanted to say. whether i agreed with it or not, i agreed with a lot but not necessarily everything. he's a dallas cowboys fan i mean give me a break. new york wax and baseball, forget about it. when it came to johnny, we had a couple of barriers to overcome. one was the language because as you can see johnny's english he doesn't understand half the italian stuff and the things that i will throw at him and the jokes which is probably to his credit.

but the other thing was trying to replicate his language from that section would have been impossible. what we try to do or i tried to do was come up with a language that would be mimicked to some extent. the arabic he used was very formal and try to get the cadences of that into the story and basically comes down to spending a lot of time with the guy and forming a bond. we spent so much time together and he pretty much hates me now. but you know the thing i will say about johnny is if you spend a lot of time with him you can't help but like him. he is johnny. hopefully we communicate that in the book. actually i do talk about that. there's a whole essay in the

back of the book about that. i'm sorry, i've got to go with sharon. >> john he tell us how he got the codename johnny walker? >> how did you get the codename johnny walker? >> i'm sorry? >> how did you get the codename johnny walker? >> johnny walker at the codename. >> forget about the codename. and not back. >> actually there's more to the story than that as usual. the other thing i should say is you get one from story from johnny and you have to ask 25 times the free get the details. you find the seals were with it and he's a very modest fellow. they originally called you walker i think and i think somebody saw you and said no he's not walker, he's johnny walker.

of course johnny didn't understand at that point, didn't really understand the joke and then you got it. >> i have it now. >> you got it now? >> i have it now. >> we have other questions? >> i realize a lot of your missions johnny are still classified but can you explain what the mix was? was it interrogation and partly community relations? >> well kind of missions did you go on? >> i did all the missions. i will do everything to make the mission successful to help in the questioning. >> almost all of the missions with the seals, he worked with a number of government agencies

and he worked also with the mps and also we talk about in the book some other army services. the rangers, the special forces but the bulk of the missions with the seals were where you would essentially go to make an arrest and use civilian language you were going to search out a certain individual who may or may not have in guilty and often but americans being americans ugoda apprehend people. i would say that was most of the seal missions. you are doing a mission where you were handing out soccer balls. >> you sometimes with a sniper mission my build was to -- my job was to build a bridge.

the iraqi family was in the house so i tried to make it respectful and kind. soon we have the target and a change might close and gathered money and went to the market to buy food for the family. we built a relationship with the family. >> there is one misconception. when we hear sniper missions we think the seals are going out to shoot someone. actually the sniper missions in iraq for the most part in the missions that johnny was on for missions where the americans were protecting things like the election so that to make sure that there was not going to be any violence on the street the seals would say go into a house the night before the election or two nights before the election.

then they would set up outposts and they would watch the street to make sure there were no bad guys. of course to do that you had to take over the house. unfortunately they couldn't advertise in the news. hey i'd like to take over your house sometime. johnny's job in those instances was to ensure the people that hey we are here and we are here for this mission. we are here to talk to the iraqis. we will take care of your needs and we know it's a pain in the knack. the seals and johnny would go beyond that. we talk about this in the book. they would go to dinner and they would go shopping. i know snipers we are thinking of the movies.

>> what are you doing today? >> i work with the seals. we teach the seals and we get involved with it. they make the job easy and they send the message. also we have -- they have one guy that speaks afghani or arabic. >> the seals have really stepped up and supported johnny. not only did they get them out of iraq but they helped him and his wife get jobs and is johnny

says. i think it's very important for our troops whether it's seals or wherever they are when they are in an urban situation or they present themselves in a certain way so they understand simple customs having tea with someone can mean a lot. it doesn't always work right but they understand the theory and it's very helpful. do we have other questions? >> what the 2009, due to ever consider going back? >> the question is johnny have you ever considered going back to iraq lacks. >> no, this is my country for good. my country and my kids country. [applause]

>> johnny loves america. i can call johnny 25 times a day and it's like johnny, how are you doing? but the truth is that johnny were to go to iraq no matter who -- or any other country. thing with johnny is he didn't go on missions that were just against al qaeda or shia. they went on missions against everybody. he doesn't just have one enemy. he has enemies all over the place. and friends as well. do we have other questions? i'm sorry. we want to thank everybody for coming. johnny's going to buy everybody a drink. just kidding about that.

>> you my fake name. >> i guess we should explain. johnny doesn't use the name he was given at birth because he still has relatives in different places. not necessarily iraq but other places where potentially they could be endangered and using his name would hurt them. >> i love johnny walker. >> and he loves it. so thank you everybody. [applause] [applause]

tried to create the best leaders that we can. you're asking me about the leadership traits. if i had to pick three traits that i still follow to this day, probably the most important one is leading by example. you can't expect things from your people if you aren't

willing to do those same things yourself. we see that a lot. howard was talking about earlier, about politics. regardless of what party you're from, there's not a whole lot of leading by example that is going on in washington. it's a sad thing. the other thing is not being afraid to take a stand and put yourself or your career on the line for your subordinates. i see guys, when you look at what navy leaders are separate by great leaders come you see people to wait a minute, that's not right and i don't care that i'm up for promotion next year, i'm going to stand up and do it right. i had a couple of those moments in my career i talk about in the book. so, i forget what number three is. [laughter]

oh, it's praise in public and criticize in private. that's a big problem i see all over the place in business. i run a media company today and have writers all over the world and it people, and i'm always praising guys in public. it's going to be a private conversation. there's no reason to embarrass them in front of everybody. exemplary leadership is probably the most important lesson i've learned and i practice. >> i've got one last question for you, open up for questions and answers. on asking him if you guys have questions if you could line up behind, there's a speaker over here and a microphone over here and over here. we will get to you here in a minute. one thing i see both of you excel, i wonder when you sleep. i look at your schedule. howard sending me e-mails from the middle of the night and you guys just flew in.

i've noticed, seems like you stay busy. is that part of the training that you gotten and is committed to? tell us about what your expectations are for yourself. >> i don't know if that's part of the dream. i think that's part that we go through. we've all producing if you want something done, give it to someone who's busy. that's who's going to get it done. i joke all the time, i do two or three presentations a week, travel all over and hav have a y guessing 150 patients a week. that's my life and i love it. it fulfills me. when i talked earlier about the survivor's guilt wondering why i was spared, i think now a lot of times the reason i was spared was not only to make a difference to my patients lies that reaching out to people and groups like this and through my book and basically i feel my life that every second god has given the extra i'm going to capitalize on and make the most

of it. if i'm a little tired, oh, well, i'll sleep when i'm dead. >> i think i've the same philosophy, other than i don't own a television set. that adds a lot of time today when you don't watch tv. howard and i have both lost friends. i recently lost my best friend in benghazi, libya, glen doherty. it's one of those things. we've seen so many great individuals make the ultimate sacrifice that there's just, my philosophy is i don't have time to feel sorry for myself, or, i've got to go on with my life in part for these guys that aren't around anymore. >> we're going to go ahead and start opening up for questions and answers. i want to put out a brief blog, also that brandon has just recently published the benghazi story from a behind the scenes credible witnesses come you guys just what number nine recently

on the national bestsellers list to check that out. and also for howard, whose new book, easy day for the devil? no easy day for the devil. if you haven't read "the red circle" and "seal team six," i highly recommend it. i thoroughly enjoyed them. getting ready for this but if we have, start over here and if you would ask -- >> the questions are scripted for you. just kidding. >> a question for both of you. the government has not look well upon people from seal team six and other organizations writing about their experiences. do you have to get any permission or were your writings with you before you published? >> mine is so dated, a movie had already been made about "black hawk down" which makes up the bulk of m my book and arrestingy childhood. but i did send it to a retired

general who was chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and he read it and advised me to take couple things out, which i did. brandon will take the things you don't want in your book our techniques, tactics and procedures can things that somebody could read and develop a defense against or whatever. but being mostly a human interest story, i only had to take a couple things out, and i did that. >> same situation, and there were parts in my career, transition period i just left out, which are sensitive. in the benghazi though, i would love to read you that, but all the books, especially with military guys coming out in the seo community and the other special operations community are all pretty heavily reviewed legally. i think just explain why some guys don't submit for a pentagon review is that it just takes too

long. i think that's a problem that none of the guys have an issue submitting a book for review. beta-1 sitting on some bureaucrat's desk or six months. it already takes, you turn to a manuscript to publisher, 12 months later you see come out in print. the legal review is pretty extensive. >> do you have any suggestions for assimilating the navy seals or other military personnel who are coming back who need some kind of assimilation assistance, either from the military or the government? >> absolutely. i'm glad you asked that. two things, first of all that needs to be extensive psychological evaluation done, not just come back home, here's your walking papers, see you later. if that's wanted, delay, let

this person separate from whatever branch is based on how severe the comment is. i'm convinced i could have saved four to five years of my life if i could've had a three-month downstage to get back to semi-normal just in my thought processes. and i got back to the team i was screwed up. the guys around me, i'm sure they could see it but i was not in a good place. the first thing we got to be as worried about their mental health. the next thing is figure out a way for these guys to make a living. i make a great living now but it's been through trial and error. they need to be made aware of the programs that are out there, the veterans at chez shall assistance program, all the stuff they can do, even something like having a job fair. a lot of fortune 500 companies pay me and brandon big bucks to come talk to them to motivate them. i know brandon story getting left in the middle of the ocean on an island. i grew up barefooted and mowing

grass for $3 a yard and now these origin 500 companies pay us big bucks to motivate them. you guys are gazillionaires. that ought to be motivation enough. the thing is the market is out there for these guys. there's just no way of making that introduction are doing that hand off. if we had some way to take care of the mental health and personal needs, and then have a way to let these guys go into -- brandon and i aren't just highly function and navy seals. we are like that day to day in our personal lives. all these guys that are coming out have the same qualities, and most companies would love that these type of guys. they just don't know where they are or how to get them. when i came up, what kind of business do you have? stomach. >> so imagine the applying as a schoolteacher? what kind of skills you have? i can shoot somebody from a thousand yards away. my point being, we are coming

back to niche skill set that even though it's a niche skill set, the mentality, the drive, the compadre -- camaraderie, ability to succeed is to there. we out of some way to get these guys into just to the right people. that could let them be part of their team. >> i would just add that it's not, the seals and special ops command become as much a liberal issues, we are probably less affected by the transition issues, which do exist in her own community. but the problem is across the board. it's every man and woman, all the men and women who are coming back from overseas that really need the help. they aren't getting it because it's a one week of half-day transition assistance program, and then you're out on your own. you are seeing a lot of these people that are just becoming homeless and its men and women,

and they just need a little bit of the helping hand. the va provides a tremendous amount of support if you can navigate the bureaucracy and figure out where to go and who to see, but i think something that could be done but with the government is providing you a veteran mentor is in addition to downtime. that's what glen doherty did for me. the guy that died in libya. it took me aside and said hey, here's what you apply for. make sure the kids get a shot at getting tuition assistance. but having that formalized and paid for, if the va can spend $6.7 million on off-site meeting to talk about fiscal responsibility, they can hire some mentors for these folks. >> in your book when you talk

about making charges -- changes to the sniper course, you guys have a just and they were implemented, were you surprised by how successful it was and specifically that the change in the graduation rate? what do you think that was attributed to? >> i just finished reading the book, the secret. has anyone read that in your? it was just funny, that's our mental management program that would use in the sniper and the seal community. we are always adapting and not afraid, be early adopters to try stuff out. it's not working, switch and try something else. i would attribute a couple of things to lowering our attrition rate. the field sniper course is one of the toughest military schools that you can go to. but one of the only schools as a

seal where you can go, they'll come back and not get your tried and because they not tough that is. when i took over as course manager we got about a 3% attrition rate, so 20, 30 guys show up, 30% are not at the end of the course. we said from teaching perspective, you will appreciate this, we started implement and n what we call positive teaching techniques and coaching rather than sit there and yell at some kid or guy for doing all the bad things. as learners you are just fresh. you have a fresh brain and these guys are giving them all these mistakes that are making but they didn't even what the heck it was but now they do and that's all they can think about. it's like telling a little kid that's going up to bat not to strike out. that's all he's consumed with. we started going okay, this guy is doing tempting wrongs. what are the three positive things i could tell them to do to correct it, and i want him to

do properly and that he can focus on. the other thing is having a positive mindset, which those guys get out of seal training anyway. believe me, in enough adversity you learn how to have a positive mindset in field training. but the mental rehearsal, and we started telling guys that they could score, 100% score is achievable. where before the narrative was, if you're shooting at 90, it's pretty good. that was like you're really at the top of your game. we said there's a reason you can't shoot 100%, not that first class b people that do we have o guys shoot 100 on this incredibly hard set. funny, one of the guys that pushed us and mentor to us is an olympic gold medalist that develop a mental management program, and i told, we were

assigned a couple students to each instructed to great some incentive for constructors cannot be these guys behind. i had adam livermore and ted bear as the students and their members are out in the car listening to the states and all the guys were making fun of him and it's like, positive mindset and visualization. these guys are getting made fun of for making out, listen to the states. they shot 100 envoy, they had a line of guys waiting to go borrow those damn cds. [laughter] anyway, i hope that answers the question. >> thank you for being here today. there's a film called act of valor that would shot and film with real navy seals. one of the interesting things is the filmmakers in the course of making this movie, a lot of the theories -- philosophy of teamwork, cross bunker valley and loyalty rub off on them.

they totally retooled their business around that do this really lame fast-moving film collection company. so for me it's like what's your vision or how can we connect with some of these navy seals better back in the tuner to learn some of those techniques and really our philosophies that are really valuable to that's what i'm interested in. how can we connect? >> that's tough and lush of a seal friend you can sit down and talk with. i think you basically are going to have to read certain books. you don't have to be a navy seal to have a superior mindset or to be able to achieve great things. i've read probably 100 motivational books in my life. i've read things that help for me and shady. but s. was talking logistics,

being part of the ice be fast-moving adapt on the fly, i don't know that can be talked about. that's something you to get up and start doing. maybe brandon has an idea. >> my day job, other than writing them i run a website. i just got approached a former judge, and he has a business whose whole purpose is to match guys in a special operation impunity in digicam and i just don't remember what the name -- literally we just swapped e-mails a couple days ago, but he's going to advertise on our website. he just -- watch the site. that's a service he is providing. >> if you buy our books, by a bunch for your friends, have them read, that helps, too. [laughter] >> thanks succumbing to be. my question about the different special operations, special forces units like delta force.

i've read there's a lot more working together between the different groups. how do the different units were ttogether and is there a lot of competition between the on 10 them? >> it used to be detrimental. when they formed jsoc and general gerson impetigo took over and said you guys are going to play nice with these guys, navy guys and army guys, which once we started training together you find out that everybody gets better because these guys might be better at a certain aspect and we are. we might be better at certain things that never once we all came together everybody improved. so the dangerous mentality of it's us against them, we are better than them, that mindset kind of went by the wayside. once you altogether, when i was in mogadishu i was with some of you guys, my best friend was a delta force snipers and i didn't think i was in a better than him in any form or fashion. it's a matter of getting

together and training together. we are talking of politics earlier, if we could get seal team six to go to washington, d.c., get all the democrats and republicans in one room, locked down, says he could, have snipers on the nsa you guys are playing nice together before you leave this building, you know? [applause] that's my kind of filibuster. you're not just for newark 1.5 did you and get paid exorbitant amounts of money. you have to get your butts in you, solve some problems were my guys are not letting you leave. that's the mentality you got to get through. i say that in jest, but it's the mentality of teamwork. as corny as that sounds, teamwork with those guys and when you cross train with them, everybody benefits. >> unfortunately, we only have time for one more question. we're going to go over here to the right, sorry. go ahead. >> you've answered part of my question about joint operations

task force. my son was accepted, and he also got an exception to officers candidate school. so when he went into that, he had to go. so he's worked with a lot of you guys from seal team six, and he is a joint operation task force now. we want to thank you for having his back, and for doing such a great job. i'm at a loss for words. i just think what you do over there is wonderful. i don't know how we could have done it without you. all your training at the joint operations task force and all the other places with the training bases. >> thank you for that, and thank you to some for his service.

i'd like to close this out with the question that nobody asked. i get asked one question all the time and have never not been as and nobody asked it. the question i get asked all the time is, how do you go from being a seal team six niger to being a chiropractor taking care of people? does anybody here know how i did that? it's the same job. you dispute people out of their misery in a different way. [laughter] [applause] >> booktv in primetime continues tonight and we focus on world war ii.

>> c-span to providing live coverage of the u.s. senate floor proceedings and key public policy events. every weekend booktv for 15 years the only television network devoted to nonfiction books and authors. c-span2 created by the cable tv industry and brought to you as a public service by your local cable or satellite provider. watch us in hd, like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. >> several live events to tell you about today. the economic club of washington will discuss defense spending here on c-span2 at 8:30 a.m. eastern. on c-span at 10:45 a.m., a pentagon briefing with defense secretary chuck hagel and his polish counterpart. washington institute for near east policy will examine human training efforts in syria at 12 p.m. eastern.

speakers include british former secretary and former u.s. ambassador to syria. >> social historian earl lewis, ma the president of the andrew mellon foundation is the author of seven books an 11 volume young oxford history of african-americans. his speech from vanderbilt university on philanthropy, humanity and higher education is a little more than an hour. >> thank you. one as histone, you always wonder whether not you want to really play with mythology. there's something i think very elegant about a story that always is wrapped in some degree of truth and then gets to be

told and retold in different ways, and in some ways it's the mythology that binds communities. it helps individuals to enter into a space that is not really their own space but they get to claim some purpose by understanding the myth. why that color, why that structure, why, whatever. i will only correct one part of the mythology. i didn't go to the bathroom. [laughter] but it was a case where i was taken by surprise. actually the better part of the story, i actually went to braz brazil. and my colleagues, we were looking for a new president and i missed the meeting. and literally i was in brazil and they came back from that meeting and went into what i thought was a committee meeting and it was a committee of the whole add-ons asked them to leave the room. then was invited back in and was told by my colleagues, they decided in my absence perhaps i

should consider any opportunity that they have it and considering two minutes before. so anyway, i'm delighted to be here at vanderbilt student, president of the andrew mellon foundation. to be in rooms i now go everywhere and it truly a beautiful thing, and, i had a mellon fellowship at one point last year, even before became the president of the foundation. i was giving a talk at the supreme court for black history month and for any age, and at the end of the talk i'm walking to the corridor and sort of looking, remind myself of where i am and realize i wished my mother was alive to be able to say, i'm in the court and actually got to talk, and it's about something else. it as i was walking out the door, several people walked up and it all started to reminisce. the mellon fellowship at some critical stage in the life made it possible for them to finish her dissertation, graduate coursework and to be faculty

members all over the united states. when you realize what philanthropy can do, which is to invest in able people through capable institutions and get out of the way. you realize that perhaps that's the greatest gift when you have choices to be made. today i want to talk about the communities and choices. i'm going to do so without charts and graphs, although you wonder numbers and what i have to say as i try to set the stage for why one should be speaking about investing in the humanities at this particular point in time. three quarters of a century ago, novelist, essayist and social observer virginia woolf post the seemingly impossible question. if we have three pennies to sure, what would you support? writing in the interwar period, she of course wondered if investment in education, especially the education of

women, promise relief from the follies of masculinity that combined with affairs of state and national pride to produce an unthinking cycle of warfare. she surmise men learned from curriculum, social lessons and mandatory military service. she expressed hope intended a belief that women, exposed learning and the profession, could fashion a world that offered an alternative to acts of aggression. war, she wrote, device and socially reproduced acts of masculinity. in an age partially by large-scale intercontinental military engagements that claimed millions of lives and ways of life, a preoccupation with alternatives would make perfect sense.

but might change on the global stage since the late 1930s. wars persist that the ap were confined. excluding single acts of terrorism that have floated on circumscribed boundaries and borders, they remain largely visual affairs these days but in the united states, leading colleges and you never see such as vanderbilt no longer worried about what it means to admit qualified young women. routinely and 55-60% of the freshman class. rather, i think this is an interesting point in history, there's talk of taking a from of actions to ensure that there are sufficient young men in the freshman class. arguing gender diversity is critical. what if we play with woolf's notion of the three pennies. understanding that as a form of

currency, equal a british sterling pound but let's say we had only 3 cents or three pennies, and those 3 cents actually transformed. moreover, the 3 cents would be the only new investment available to sustain and advance humanities in a generation. if that was our charge and those were our resources, how would we deploy them? what would we bet on? what will we invest in? what we we promote? today's talk about "three cents, three senses" is an attempt to thoughtfully and perhaps provocatively suggests an answer. if i spend any passionate if i'm modestly successful the talk will prompt agreement and disagreement and will further have a discussion that i know,

the lows, centrality in the future of the humanities in the academy and the broader society. first i want to thank the organizers of the area cowardice lecture for inviting me. i know -- harry howard lecture, friends and colleagues and i'm humbled to be standing in the shadows that they create, intellectuals, public intellectuals and scholars. also wanted to recognize the fellows of the warren center and the role it has played in actually creating a kind text for conversations and new discoveries here on the vanderbilt campus, and take pride in reflecting that the mellon foundation played a small role in helping to seed this activity. and then to my fellow -- thank you for the introduction and the mythmaking that went along with it. most of want to thank all of you

for creating a context and a venue for this conversation. so 3 cents. let's return to woolf's proposition and asked why collective should care about the state of humanities at all. in each age we faced with insurmountable challenges. one request choices to be made, resources to be allocated and areas to be ignored. this is more the case in the united states which is really seen an explosion in the number of registered philanthropy or philanthropic organizations as well as a concomitant re- thinking of what it means to be from tropic. according to the foundation center, there are 81,777 foundations and charitable organizations registered in the united states at this time. there are notable ones such as dates, ford, robert wood johnson and rockefeller, and they command billions of dollars in