james kitfield, why did you write this book? you know i have been covering these wars as a national security correspondent for going on 20 years. and, i covered them from a strategic perspective, talking to generals and senior leaders about what the plans were and where the plans were working. i was always just incredibly impressed by the young men and women who i came in contact with in many cases for months at a time. at the tip of the spear, i wanted some way to tell their stories. as sort of a coda to my coverage of these two bars -- wars, the longest in america's history. i got to do that when they offered an exclusive interview with the most recent medal of honor recipient, a navy seal. and, in doing that interview, it was -- i was just struck by how profound his experience was, his story was really homeric, and a sweep, the decisions they had to make along the way where at each step of the way they could have done the easy thing, and still been an honorable thing. instead, they did the hard thing, and lived up to the cree

host: james kitfield? guest: absolutely, lieutenant michael murphy is in my book.each of these stories there is a decision, as i mentioned where they cut -- they could have done the easy and safe thing and they did the hard thing and the right thing. and michael murphy case, he was a seal team leader in and overwatch position and they get exposed by two gutter -- goat herders who wander into their position, i think it is a five-man team, and they are in many -- enemy territory and here they are with two goat herders, one of which is a young teenager, and they had to make a decision, what do we do with them. the easy thing would've been to kill them, because the mission required -- they could have justified killing the goat herders. but michael murphy puts it to a vote and he makes a very eloquent argument that we cannot kill these innocent goat herders even though it is probably going to put our lives in a forfeit if we let them go. and that is what happens. they let them go and quickly the taliban showed up, so the goat herders told the taliban fighters where the

coming up thursday morning, james kitfield discusses his new book "in the company of heroes" about medalf honor recipients who served in iraq and afghanistan. lee joe shane of military times examines issues facing the veterans affairs administration. watch "washington journal" live at 7:30 eastern on c-span or on c-span now our new mobile app. join the conversation with your facebook comments, texts and tweets. >> thursday morning, president biden speaks at arlington national cemetery in a veteran days ceremony to honor those who served our nation. watch full coverage on c-span now our new video app or on c-span. on thursday the nasa spacex dragon crew arrived at the international space station. cooking is expected at 7:10 eastern. our live coverage starts at 7:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. online at c-span.org. or watch full coverage on c-span now our new video app. >> president biden gives a speech at the port of baltimore on the recently passed infrastructure bill. he jut lines how the bill will impact manufacturing including the global