you will use every opportunity to tell their stories, whether i do it through music or in the book i'm going to tell their story. >> keni thomas, walk us through the day. >> there is documentaries on that, we be her for hours but i can tell you -- >> your experience. >> my experience. we came in on a nation and every thought it was going to be a normal thing. daylight raids are a little risky. we didn't know is we would lose 18 guys and 70 were wounded. the 130 who went in. do the math, a ton of us got wounded. i'm telling you those numbers would've been significantly higher had not been for the level of the planning and training. but mostly the leadership at every level. and i mean from david who is one private who saved everybody all the way up to the general his leadership at every level status. we know that by the time the morning rolls around, we were there to help the pot in, waited for the pilot to get his body out of the wreckage. we didn't have the equipment. and in the morning, pakistanis came, malaysians came, cooks put on body armor. a single one of those guys volunteered. in the morning we put the wood guys on the

that is the only reason i'm still here so you will ever use every opportunity canted tell their story. i'm going to tell their story. >> keni thomaswalk us through that day. >> i can tell you my experience was we came in on a mission and everybody thought it was going to be a normal thing. it was a little bit risky. what we didn't know was that we would lose 18 guys, seven wounded. there were 130 of us that went in. tone of us got winded and a ton of us got hit and it would have been significantly higher had it not been for the level of planning and training but mostly the leadership at every level and i mean from the one private who saved everybody all the way to general garrison, was leadership at every level that saved us and we know that in by the time the morning rolls around and you know the story we were there to help the pilot, waiting for for the pilots we could get his body out of the wreckage. in the morning pakistanis came the demolitions came, the tenth mountain came, the cooks put on body armor and every single one of those guys, they all came in and volunteered and in the morning we put the one to guys on the trucks

>> host: well, now on your screen on booktv is keni thomas, and he has written this book, "get it on: what it means to lead the way." keni thomas, tell usabout your experience, your connection with blackhawk down. >> i was part of the 75th ranger rebelment -- regiment, and we were part of the guys that went in on that raid -- >> '94? >> '93. close though. everything changed when the first helicopter got shot down, and just like that, the course of our lives changed. so what i get from that is anybody that's going to make it out of something others didn't, you're going to spend the rest of your life thank those on your right and left that day, so you'll use every opportunity you can to tell their storying or whether it do it through music or a book, i'm going to tell the story. >> walk us through that day. >> dude, there's been documentaries on that, we'd be here for hours, but i can tell you -- >> your experience. >> my experience, everybody thought it was going to a -- to be a normal thing. what we didn't know is we would lose 18 guys. of the 130 of us that went in, a ton of us got wounded and hit. those numbers would have been signifi