ARCHIVE - MB Talks To Kris Paronto About His Experience In Benghazi

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Michael Berry Show.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Welcome to another exciting edition of the Archive podcast. This
is where because someone asked us about an interview recently,
or because it's one of our favorites, we pull one
of our discussions on air from the past out of

(00:24):
the vault and share it again.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
And the reason for.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
That is we're growing in listeners rather dramatically by the day,
and that means that at a minimum, our regular listeners
are being supplemented by an army of people who haven't
heard what we've done in the past. And secondly, a
lot of things we did in the past even our
regular listeners missed because I understand you've got a lot

(00:48):
going on and you can't hear all day of every show.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
So this one is.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Some of you will remember the Benghazi bacle, and since
we've been talking about our service members being killed, I
thought this one needed to be brought back out. And
a listener had asked me a question about the interview,
and it made us think, let's play this again so

(01:19):
people remember what all has happened to those men and
women who so broke bravely sign up to serve our country.
Chris Paranto is known as Tanto, so former US Army ranger,
a private security contractor, and he gained quite a bit

(01:41):
of national attention for his role in the twenty twelve
Benghazi attack in Libya. He was one of the US
diplomatic compound contractors private security for horses folks in Benghazi

(02:03):
on September eleventh, twenty twelve, during the terror attack that
killed four Americans, including the Ambassador Christopher Stevens. I find
it troubling that some people seem to think Christopher Stevens's
death was in some way more important than the other
three Americans, and I don't. Paranto's experiences during that attack

(02:28):
were detailed in a book called Thirteen Hours, The Inside
Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi, which he co
authored with several other members of the security team. That
book would be adapted into what may be the Reason
You've heard that title, which was the film in twenty
sixteen Thirteen Hours The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, And if

(02:55):
you're wondering, Paranto's character in that movie was portrayed by
the act Pablo Schreider. I had the honor of talking
to Tonto for an hour, and I will tell you
when I say I had.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
The owner it was an honor.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
So in memory of those lives lost, in memory of
our service members who serve our nations so valiantly, so selflessly,
we replay this in hopes that you enjoy it.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
What happened in.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Benghazi on September eleventh, twenty twelve. Well, I know I
don't trust the US government's account, so we are fortunate
to have with us a gentleman named Chris Paranto, known
apparently by his nickname of Tonto. It's a former ranger,
second Battalion, seventy fifth Regiment, security and military consultant and

(03:53):
if you read the account thirteen hours, a real American
badass and hero Tan too.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Thanks for being our guest, Bud.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
Hey, Michael, thanks. I think some of my children make
you difference, say I was a badass something like that, brother,
But thanks for the introduction.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
They might say you're a bad dad because you took
away all their fun stuff.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
As I take away all their fun I grounded him
from the from the PlayStation. Yeah that's all right. Well,
thanks for having me on the show man.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
I appreciate it, and I want to tell our listeners
in Albany and Upstate New York listening on wg y
that Chris Paranto will be a guest of the Republican
Party of Albany County on September second at Treviso's in
the Italian American Community Center on Washington Avenue Extension in Albany.
And tickets are available at ALBANYGP dot org ALBANYGP dot org.

(04:51):
And then he will be here just north of Houston
on September twenty fourth. And I've got those details somewhere,
but I'll get those to you before we're through talking.
We're gonna have him on for little bit here, so
tell me if you would a little bit about take
a minute or two sure before September eleventh. Who are
you and why were you there?

Speaker 3 (05:10):
Well, we're working with the Global Response Staff, that is
the UH. It's a security element of the Central Intelligence
Agency and and our bread and butter job is basically
provide protection to case officers, assets, those sort of things,
a very low profile, not like the earpieces. You know,
you're not showing weapons systems. You're trying to meld and

(05:31):
blend in with the community, which which is UH. It
becomes a very very common thing to do for us,
and it's actually quite fun. I enjoyed it. You really
get to know the community, You get to know the
ins and outs, the atmospherics of the cities you're in
and and really that was what we're doing now. As
far as there's some classified stuff, Michael, and because of

(05:53):
my non disclosure, I can't talk about it too much.
I think more of that's going to be coming out
with with Trake Auti of course, which is committee and
he can talk about that. But the biggest thing us
we're doing there was with collecting intelligence to to captur
and kill terrorists that were in the vicinity there and
also in Egypt. And you remember at that time that's
when the Syrian uh, we were we were backing and

(06:17):
I say we, the US was backing moderate Syrian rebels
to the overthrow the government and that that kind of backfired.
So so we were uh, but you know, we were there.
Generally just it's it's to it's to uh, it's down
a care of them operations. And that's that's the gistic
that right there.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Tonto tell us what was happening prior to September eleventh,
in the days leading up to that, because one of
the things that Trey Gowdy's trying to get to in
the emails is the belief that Christopher Stevens and others,
perhaps you and other security consultants were suggesting that there
was a real threat and that the compound should have

(06:58):
been vacated.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
Oh yeah, BEng Gazi was an extremely dangerous place. And
you know your listeners, they can take this with any
with any with any validity from me. I spent ten
years overseas before BEng Gazi. I worked in Kandahar, I
worked in Baghdad. I worked in the Solder City area,
you know. I worked in Mossoul, Uh Combo, all these places,

(07:24):
and then got eraded right up there. The only difference
with Bengazi is that we didn't have the military assets
like we did in the other countries to facilitate a
good response to something happened. So the State Department folks
Alec Henderson, Scott Wickland, Dave who when the gentlemen were
the State Department security officers, along with Eric Northstrom. They

(07:45):
had been requesting additional security, additional weapons systems in Benghazi
for approximately six months prior, and we were partaken in
that because we were the ones that were advising them
that they needed up their security or if they were.
I remember putting a point blank to Scott Wipplin when
I asked him, me, is this all you have here
at this facility? Because you guys are really undermanded. I

(08:07):
said to him, if you don't get more people here,
you're gonna die. And I said, just jeff like.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
That, to let me interrupt you, Tonto, it would I'm
gonna play Devil's advocate. I'm guessing that the people that
you're making these requests to are getting requests from every
location for more firepower. Everybody wants more of what they
want more of, and maybe their job is just to
manage that.

Speaker 3 (08:31):
You know, that would seem that would seem like a
good answer, But also, you know, Michael, there's the thing
is those places that would be requesting more if they
would because again I worked in Yemen as well, and
I worked with the State Department protecting Ambassador Khalil's Adam
Bassler James Jeffries. Before the CIA, they did have the

(08:51):
essential weapons systems, they did have a marine security force there,
they did have security contracting companies there, blackwater ages the
Gazi had.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
Under that what were you requesting? What were what what
was the request for specifically.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
More personnel, more security officers, a third party contracting firm
in agents, and then also weapon systems, machine guns not
just low rifles, and and just more personnel from the
State Department, not us CEE. I we were fine. We
had our facility, we had our guys. We we knew
how to protect our keep and we proved it that night.

(09:27):
But the State Department was requesting more and that was
through through their officers there, Scott Wick, Glenn Allen Anderson
and Dave Hoopman. So personnel and weapon systems, which is
really what that's what a security officer is going to request.
And and I don't believe in any case that the
other facilities would have been requested him. It would have
been in need of of those sort of increases in

(09:51):
security more than big gods. And that's just from my
experience working working in other areas, Middle Eastern countries, in
countries in North Africa. I am State Department too.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
I got Tonto.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
I got about a minut and a half. In this segment,
we'll talk some more on the subject. But when you
look back, and its hindsight's always twenty twenty, did they
have whoever that was and we'll talk about who it
was that attacked the compound, whether it was Libyans or not.
Did they have more firepower than you assumed they had
at that moment.

Speaker 3 (10:23):
Yes, And you know what, that goes back to intel failures,
which which of course you know, we played part in
that as well. When they brought the mortars to bear,
that was when we knew they That's what we weren't
ready for. And I don't think the military or the
State Department or the eight he was ready for because
we had requested air support that night when we were

(10:44):
getting attacked to offset anything that we didn't know they had,
and we didn't get it. So the mortars really shocked us.
And the dead the dead hit the mortars right on target.
That shocked us, and that killed Tyrone and Glenn, you know,
right off the bat. So yes, sir, that's I say, yes, Tony,
and we reincain responsibility for that as well, along with

(11:07):
the other entities that were involved.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
Tonto, I'm going to hold you right there. He's going
to be in Albany. It's going to be an interesting evening.
I encourage our upstate New York listeners. Republican Party of
Albany County will have him as their guest on September second.
Tickets forty five bucks for general admission, one hundred dollars
for pre event special where you could spend some time
with him, and he'll be here on September twenty fourth.

(11:30):
I'll have those details here in Houston, that is, or
just north of it. Coming up, we'll talk about what
exactly happened for twenty five minutes when he was told
to stand down. In the book thirteen Hours, he said,
I regret not disobeying orders.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
That's a strong statement. We'll ask him why. Coming up next,
Michael Berry Show. This is the Michael Berry Show.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
Chris Paranto, nicknamed Tonto former Rangers, second Battalion, seventy fifth Regiment,
the years of experience in situations like this. He was
there on September eleventh, twenty twelve. Tanto, if we could,
let's get to the day it happened.

Speaker 3 (12:12):
Start us off, Well, it's a normal day and for
us anyway, basically nobody was attacking us, so it was
very quiet throughout the day. We had normal operations. And
then getting through that evening you I'll skip ahead and
when I do speak, I go in a little bit
more detail, but for lack of time. We got a

(12:36):
call that there was a that we needed to muster
in the team room from our leadership there or our
staff CEEI staff leadership around nine thirty one, if I
remember correctly. I remember looking at my watch and walked
out the front door and you could see the attack
going on. It was. It was pretty incredible. I don't
think you've really lived. You see tracers and bullets and

(12:58):
explosions shooting in the distance. You know, we're only three
quarters a mile away, and you can see those pretty
clear clear, especially at nighttime. It looks like a firework show.
And we had word that the comfort was under attack,
and and we mustered all our gear, myself, Tyrone Woods
and Jack Silva and the rest of the guys, and
we're ready to go with in five minutes, and we

(13:18):
were told to wait to buy our buyer leadership. They
are our chief of base and our staff team leader.
And you know, keep in mind, during this timeframe, we're
getting calls from the State Department from Alex Scotton Dave,
who we'd become very good friends with, that they needed
our assistances because they were under attack. And it was
obvious because we could see and hear it. And it's

(13:39):
pretty tough to sit there and wait and watch and
hear your friends being under attack and being under some
serious life threatening situations and you're just kind of sitting
on your thumbs when you're waiting to go over there
and assist. And that's what your job is, and that's
what you get paid for, and that's what you're trained
to do. So we waited, and then we waited ten
more minutes. So it's fifteen minutes now, and that's when
that's when the actual words stand down. We're told to

(14:02):
aspire chief a base. I remember Kick got out of
his vehicle. John tick Tigan got out of his vehicle
and said we need to go now. We're living the initiative,
and Bob ran up to him and and vehemently says,
you guys need to stand down. And yeah, again, we're
we're waiting, waiting, waiting, wait another ten minutes.

Speaker 2 (14:20):
To let me interrupt you because in thirteen hours, right,
there's a reference to Bob from the CIA.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
Is that who gave the order?

Speaker 3 (14:28):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (14:28):
Who is Bob? Or do you think we'll ever know
who Bob is?

Speaker 3 (14:32):
Well, now Bob is the chief of base he's the
chief of base there at the CIA. He's a staff
He was a staff officer that has since been retired,
got a retirement, he was awarded the Star for bravery,
which I don't really know why, and he was also
he was also given a contracting job there at the farm.

(14:53):
So he's doing quite well for himself.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
But do you think that that order came from him
or do you think that came from above him and
he was just a message?

Speaker 3 (15:04):
No. I think I think he had some saying that,
probably relaying information of how serious the attack was. So
I think he had some involvement with it. But it
did come from hire to Yeah, it came from the
chief of station, which is in TRIPLEI, who since would
have come from our line of chance command from the
cich in Xman. Can I say that that particular standdown
came from the State Department or do D Department of Defense,

(15:27):
which would be the military. No, I don't know about that.
But within our own twenty five minute time frame from
the CIA all the way to the top, yes, it
would have. It would have filtered gone down.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
Why do you believe you were given the order to
stand down?

Speaker 3 (15:41):
You know? I think someone would have to do with
with them not realizing how serious the situation was because
you have civilians in charge during a military operation. I
also think that some of it might have been that
they didn't want to show their hand that the CIA
was actually there in the country that was part of it.

(16:02):
So and then essentially it's just bad judgment to come
down to it. And that's that's that is me being optimistic.
That's the best case scenario. I don't want to jump
out on them and say, hey, we wanted they wanted
them being the people up in DC wanted all of
us to die. That's for Trey Gallio. That's for him
to decide and figure out. Can I rule that out? No,

(16:25):
I can't. I can't say for sure now that didn't happen.
And that hurts when you sworn and protect the United
States and the United States in't and their government and
you don't know, maybe they just left you there to die.
Because when it came right down to it, when it
finally ended thirteen hours later, we had to comment deer
all in aircraft to get out of it, and Gothic
we had to comment deer live in aircraft to actually

(16:46):
get out of there with our dead and are wounded.
So yeah, but that's that's that's at.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
The end of the story, Tanto, as I understand it.
Twenty five minutes go by and then you and your
guys ignore the stand down order.

Speaker 3 (17:01):
Yes we do, we uh, And it was I remember
it clear's day. I remember Ty looking at me and
I'm looking at him. And again Ty passed away that
night and tyrone Wood just this and he gave me
a thumbs up, and I gave him a thumbs up.
And we all had to run our vehicles and we
rolled out the gate, and I remember saying, you know, Hoteling,

(17:23):
our team leader, getting the get in the FS and
car her. We're going. We're not waiting any longer. And uh,
what people miss out of this, what the media doesn't
capture they you know, a lot of the media has
captured now that yes, it did take him twenty five
minutes to leave. There was a delay. They don't realize
that we did lose the initiative and we had to
fight our way on foot to get to the compound,

(17:44):
which cost us another twenty five minutes because that they
had actually solidified and blocked all the roads that we
could have droped down. So we had to disembark our
vehicles and actually start jumping backyard walls and fighting our
way into the compound. And so by the time we
actually got on compound it was completely on fire. It
has been about almost an hour, and we had to

(18:07):
throw a lot of forty millimeters gage just to get
the fighting positions out of the way so we could
actually get into the compound and start to clear it.
And that compound was eight acres large. It's two football
field sites large. So it was it wasn't an easy path.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
And so as I understand it, Tonto, you discovered Sewn
Smith's body, but you notice the ambassador was missing.

Speaker 3 (18:31):
We spent an hour and a half trying to find
and get into the burning building where they were Jack,
Sylvan and Dave who been found Seawn Smith's body. He
had already died of smoke in elation. I do remember
seeing Jack trying to resuscitate him. I think that was
more for the psyche of Dave in the State Department guys.
But you could tell he was dead by the time

(18:52):
we got there. You can whatever movies you see, don't
believe him. When somebody's dead, you can tell they're dead.
And the ambassador, though we actually stayed on the compound
for about an hour and a half fought off the
counter attack to try to find him in that burning building,
and it was it was like a pizza oven. It
was incredibly hot, smoke was intense diesel fumes, and it

(19:13):
was more of just running in as far as you could,
feeling around and running back out, tagging hands and running
back in again, and the other person taking your security
position to lay fire down to people trying to to
antshow Shari and al Qaida were trying to actually overtake
the compound once week I took it from them an
hour before.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
Let me ask you, who do you think you were fighting?

Speaker 3 (19:34):
Antra Shari and al Qaida in the Magharev. Those are
the two. Those were the two entities. And that's pretty
pretty solid. That's that's that's verified that ant al Sharia
was there, al kaited in the Magarev. And also seventeenth
February Martyr Brigade, who was the contracting company that the
State Department had a contracted the local force to protect

(19:56):
the conflate, they were also part of that as well.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
And how did you how could you tell that? Were
they wearing identifying.

Speaker 3 (20:03):
Uh, after after the fact, they took responsibility for it.
That was what it was. Via via social media, and
then through our contacts within the agency. Some of us
still maintained friendly relationships with a lot of the counter
terrorism people in the agency and they would tell us
through assets that we still have in certain countries who

(20:25):
attacked us. So it was a lot of its behind
closed doors. But eventually, you know, it came out on
social media, and it came out as verified through even
our media sources because it was leaked. Somebody leaked it
within the agency, and it came out on CNN or
Fox shirt. I think all of them actually be honest
with you. And then and then seventeenth February, Martyrigade the

(20:46):
company that was supposed to be protecting the consulate. The
next day they came out and sword their allegiance dance
for Ausharia. So, uh, it was. It was a bad
scene throughout. So yeah, that.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
Hold with me, Hold just a moment.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
Chris Paranto, nicknamed Tonto, he'll be in Albany at the
Republican Party of Albany County on September second. He'll be
here north of Houston at the Montgomery County Republican Women's Organization.
You can find them online. On September twenty fourth at
River Plantation Country Club. More with him coming up information

(21:21):
from his show.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
Chris Panto is our guest.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
He was there September eleventh, twenty twelve in Benghazi, former ranger,
years of experience doing this. So you watched what was
unmistakably an attack on the compound in Benghazi. You were
given the standdown order twice let me not put words

(21:45):
three times. N twenty five minutes in you violated orders
and said we're going in anyway, and you did.

Speaker 1 (21:54):
One of your buddies who.

Speaker 2 (21:55):
Went in with you was Tyrone Woods, who of course
was was killed in all of this.

Speaker 1 (22:03):
Uh. And was Chris Darty part of your group too?

Speaker 3 (22:06):
Uh yeah, Glenn Doughty. Glenn. Glenn was actually the team
from Tripoli. Our grs guys are from Triple that came
in and Glenn, you know, thank God for Glenn because
he's the one that that assisted getting one of the
planes to us for us to get out of there. Okay,
And uh yeah, Glenn's in hero too. He's an all
I worked them in Triple. The incredible, incredibly brave individual

(22:27):
along with Tyrone incredibly brave people.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
So you're making trips in and out over the course
of how much time to keep fighting off these guys.

Speaker 3 (22:38):
Well we we We did it till around midnight, right.

Speaker 2 (22:44):
Five o'clock, five o'clock DC time, because that's going to
be important.

Speaker 3 (22:49):
Yeah, And once we did that midnight, we realized that,
you know what, we're probably not going to be able
to find the ambassador. We've been searching for our and
a half. You know, we had been through some counter attacks.
We happened we shot a couple of their RPG gunners.
They're rock colgun egg gunners, and we're like, what do
we do. We need to either get back to our

(23:11):
place to defend it or going to stay here and
keep looking, which and we at that time we didn't
know if he'd been kidnapped. We had no idea if
he was even in in the in that burning building.
And that still hauts me, and I think it haunts
ill the rest of the guys too, and me definitely
that you never leave a fallen comrade to fall in
the hands of the enemy. And we made the decision

(23:32):
to leave, and essentially he was found in the very
back corner of a safe room. It bothers me because
we left it. We left his body there. He was dead,
of course, but we left his uh. But it was
a decision. It was a tough decision, and and you know,
looking back on that was the right decision because we
ended up fighting three more counter attacks off at our annex,

(23:53):
at our our facility, and pretty vicious attacks, and that's
where we lost Ty and Glenn. The last one where
they hit us with mortars, and that's when Mark Outgeist
was seriously injured, and you know he luckily they were
able to reattach his arm, but basically his arm would
have been blown off and he almost led out up
on that roof that night too.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
Now, reports I got reports, I got tanto where that
y'all killed about forty of their guys and you saved
about six Department, State Department employees and evacuated about another
thirty Americans that night.

Speaker 3 (24:26):
Yes, that's correct, State Department n CIA employees. So that's correct.
And yeah, we we ended up unofficially and again we
get those counts, and we're very lucky that we still
have some friends within the own department at the agency
that can't give us those numbers. And those numbers come
from the locals on the ground, and that the benefit

(24:47):
of doing what we do is we do maintain friendships
with people that are in these countries, locals that are
in these countries, and I feel I have a heartfeld.
My heart goes out to him because they're caught in
the middle all the and there are some good people there.
Not all the Islamis Islams out Muslims or terris Islamas are,
but not all the Muslims aren't. Some of them actually

(25:08):
want to help, and you know, now we've left them,
and who knows that they're even alive to this day.
But just so people know, I just want to make
sure that our numbers come from some pretty solid sources,
not from the US governments, from people that are actually
on the ground living there. Some are even locals that
actually live in the country. Still.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
So y'all fall back at this point, and you talked
about commandeering the assets that you use to get out
of there.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
Describe that if you would.

Speaker 3 (25:36):
Yeah, the Triple A team which consisted of Glenn Doherty
and there was also three other GRS operators. They're still working,
so I can't give you their names. And then too
Delta Force operators and then also an interpreter. They came
from Tripoli. They actually paid approximately twenty thousand dollars to

(25:57):
rent a charter jet. The charge jets just like chartering
a jet here. It's like it looked like a little Emberrier, uh,
you know jet that you'd see United or Delta fly.
And they flew from TRIPLEI to Benghazi. When we left
to go to the airfield that was sitting there waiting
for us. They had no idea that the crew had

(26:18):
no idea what they were getting into, because I remember
driving up to the airfield and they were all in
there in their outfits and the shock in their eyes
when they saw us trying to load our bloody friends
on there, Mark and Dave that had been severely injured,
it was it was almost comedic, to be honest with you.
But we got them on there, got the non shooters,

(26:38):
all the State Department guys, all the staffers that weren't shooters,
weren't gun totors, got them on that plane. It wasn't
big enough to fit us on there, all of us shooters,
so we ended up waiting it left got her injured
to TRIPLEY. They were saved by some doctors there and
TRIPLEI and some and a special forces team that was
in TRIPLEI. Uh, they are injured. And then we waited

(27:01):
till about ten o'clock and we had to actually speak
to the Libyan Air Force to get a Liby and
see one thirty to fly us out of there around
ten thirty the next morning with the with the bodies,
which we we did make. We did finally get in
Bachelor Steven's body back and we had Sean pal.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
I got a minute left in this segment, Tonto, how
did you get his body back?

Speaker 3 (27:22):
A local local, the locals there, some our local friends
found his body at the at the hospital that Antosharia
had controlled. Managed to talk to them into giving his
body to him and they drove him back to us.
So he was found in the hospital that Antosharia has
controlled and control. And I be honest with you, I

(27:43):
don't know how he got to that hospital. I know
that Anchhal Sharia had his body and they managed to
give him back to us so we could fly him
back to TRIPLEY and get him home.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
Had his body been mutilated?

Speaker 3 (27:54):
No. I looked at it, and I looked at it
from a foot away. I examined his entire body. He
looks fine. I also sam in the bag to make
sure there was any IDs on it, and me being
a ranger from the Blackhawk down days, I wanted to
make sure he wasn't mutilated. And also working at Blackwater
during those days that our guys were mutilated there, I
wanted to ensure that. So, no, it wasn't.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
There were reports, I've got twenty seconds, there were reports
that his body was defiled in a sexual way.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
That is absolutely not true.

Speaker 3 (28:22):
That's not from what I saw now I did. I
didn't pull his pants down and look at his look
at his private all. I looked at from his space
and the rest of his body. But I'll tell you
the truth. I didn't look down and it didn't pull
his pants down. All right.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
Time to hold with us, Hold with us. He'll be
an Albany on September second. He'll be in Montgomery County
Great Organization, the Montgomery County Republican Women's Organization. I've spoken
before them. On September twenty fourth, he'll be with us.
Coming up next, This is the Michael Berry Show.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
Chris Perranto k R.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
S Peranto spelled pa R in t O nicknamed Tonto.
He'll be in Albany on September second. He'll be in
Montgomery County, north of Houston on September twenty fourth. You
can get all the details at Michael berry dot com.
So Tanto, y'all get on this do y'all get on

(29:20):
this h plane to get out of Benghazi and then
what happens?

Speaker 3 (29:28):
Well about that, you know that time? It was right
on ten thirty. That's that's it. We get there, we
were we're flying home, and yeah, fret tired. I'm pretty
worre out from the night. But you're you're kind of
digesting things in your mind. You're flying. You know, we
didn't have body bags for all the guys, so you know,

(29:48):
we had sheets over Glenn and Tye and and Sean,
and you know, you're just you're just sitting with them
in there, and you're you're kind of thinking yourself, you know, what,
what the heck does happened? But in my mind, i'm,
you know, more or less, it's it's, uh, where where
was our support? What happened? What happened with that? Why

(30:09):
are we why are we sitting on a plane? Why
did we come? And deer have to come to their
own aircraft. Get out there, and you think the negative things,
but then you come back to the positive things. You
look around and you see your buddies that are still
with you, and you just you get a feeling of uh,
it's it's a very very strong good feeling to know
that you got brothers that are willing to die for you,
and it's it's, uh, you know, I I try to

(30:31):
find the positives out of that, and it's it's it's
still It kind of brings a tear to my contest.
It kind of chokes me up right now just talking
about it, because you went through hell with your brothers.
You were left behind, you lost a couple of your brothers,
but you're still there with You still have friends that
are still alive and and that that sacrifice themselves for you,

(30:52):
and uh, you just don't get that anywhere else. I
miss it immensely. I I really missed the job immensely.
I would go over back again in a heartbeat and
do it all over again.

Speaker 2 (31:03):
What does the American public not know about what happened
that night? That is most important for us to know?

Speaker 3 (31:09):
I think the biggest thing the politics are going to
play themselves out right, they're gonna, they're gonna do what
they need to do. The partisan politics I don't want
to get involved in. All that which American people don't
know is the heroism and the courage that went on
that night that has been lost, and that that upsets
me a bit because my friends sacrificed their lives. My
teammates sacrifice themselves to defend the American soil, to do

(31:33):
the right thing, and they gave themselves, they gave up themselves.
Some gave them one hundred percent and gave them all.
And uh, that's lost. And that's when I speak, that's
what I go into. I want be able to remember
the heroism, the courage that went on that night. And
and we have been involved with the movie immenseally that
Michael Bate coming out coming out with and I think
that's gonna really bring it to the American police, to

(31:55):
the people that this isn't all politics. These guys actually
sacrificed a lot, when through a lot to save others.
And and that's why I want people to remember and
know the most about is that there are still guys
out there that are willing to give their lives up
to protect others and uh, and I think that's been
missed a lot the last two years because of all

(32:17):
the politics that have been drawn out with this.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
I'm stumped, what what lingering question do you have that
is not secured classified information that you can't share, but
is a question that you have and you just want
it answered.

Speaker 3 (32:39):
Well, I would have a question of within the United
States government, who knew what was going on that night
and why weren't the right decisions made and decisions being support?
You know what? Who who who did not allow support
to come up or who made that decision? And when
we're where were certain fishes? Look, I would there two

(33:02):
points where were certain fishes located while this was going
on that night? You know? Where was the administration? What
was the State Department doing? And what was our people
autop Ci, Patres and Morrell doing when all this was
going on? What what were they doing throughout? I would
like to know that. Uh, the email controversy that's out there,

(33:24):
I think that's pretty much puts black and white. If
people can't see that, there's there's some shenanigans going on
with that. I don't know what else I can do
to help help the help Consuay their minds the attack.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
Once the attack began, and you guys responded, what more
could have been done?

Speaker 3 (33:45):
Well, you know, I do still believe and I said
this to Dallison tell subcommittee, Mike Rodgers' committee, and they
didn't do us any favors at all either that if
we would have been turned loose, if they would have
let us do our job up and get out of
there and at least get eyes on of what was
going on or somehow get involved in the firefight. And

(34:08):
initially within the first five minutes we were ready and
master seeing the Shawn Smith will still be alive. So
making the right decisions would have been would have been
key by our leadership, which would have been letting the
subject matter experts with their which are us, get involved
with what was going on in a combat situation. My
other thing would be, wow, support, Where was the support?

(34:28):
Why didn't you allow the support the military guys that
were in the area that we knew in Sigonella and
I'll be on our base in Jibouti, Africa, you know
within hour, if even that two hours away, why didn't
you let them get involved? And if General Ham did
get his guys moving and they were turned around, and

(34:51):
I don't know for sure. I don't know for sure,
but if he did and they were turned around, why
did why were they turned around? That's my two big
questions right there. It's a military operation with the military,
and those that are involved in those imparamilitary operations handle it,
and the government officials that are want to be involved

(35:11):
get out of the way. And they muddy up everything.
And that's what they did that night, and now I
foresee as being a cover up, not just from one side,
but from both people on the political spectrum. But again,
I don't know how much I want to get into that,
because then I'm muddy the water up with getting in
the heroic acts that night that happened, and I want

(35:32):
people to see that and then they can draw their
own conclusion of what they think happened and what should
have been done and what wasn't done, and what might
have been done correctly, what might not have been done directly,
Just be well informed.

Speaker 2 (35:47):
Thank you for your service to our country, sir, and
thank you for your willingness to talk about it. I
know our folks in upstate New York will look forward
to seeing you on September second, and here in Montgomery
County on September twenty fourth, where you'll have more time
and no commercial interruption, where you can talk about it
at great link.

Speaker 3 (36:03):
Thank you, Tanto, Thanks Michael, I have a great day.
Thanks for having me on you sir.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
You can go to Michael Berry dot com to get
the details, buy your tickets, bring your college students, bring
your teenagers, bring your friends, and learn more about a
very important date in American history from someone who was
actually there. It's amazing how casually he can talk about
things that for the rest of us, if we ever

(36:30):
saw that, we'd never be the same. And it gives
you a sense of how many things this man has
been through without ever discussing it, how many things he
has seen and been through in the service of this country.
It truly is humbling. If you liked Michael Berry Show
in podcast, please tell one friend, and if you're so inclined,

(36:54):
write a nice review of our podcast. Comments, suggestions, questions,
and interest in being a corporate sponsor and partner can
be communicated directly to the show at our email address,
Michael at Michael Berryshow dot com, or simply by clicking
on our website Michael Berryshow dot com The Michael Berry

(37:17):
Show and Podcast is produced by Ramon Roeblis, The King
of Ding. Executive producer is Chad Knakanishi. Jim Mudd is
the creative director. Voices Jingles, Tomfoolery and Shenanigans are provided

(37:38):
by Chance McLean.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
Director of Research.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
Is Sandy Peterson. Emily Bull is our assistant listener and superfan.
Contributions are appreciated and often incorporated into our production. Where possible,
we give credit, where not, we take all the credit
for ourselves. God bless the memory of Rush Limbaugh. Long

(38:02):
live Elvis, be a simple man like Leonard Skinnard told you,
and God bless America. Finally, if you know a veteran
suffering from PTSD, call Camp Hope at eight seven seven
seven one seven PTSD and a combat veteran will answer

(38:23):
the phone to provide free counseling.