Americans have the opportunity to elect someone who will make this country safe again

Mark Geist and John Tiegen’s speech at the 2016 GOP Convention

Geist: Thank you America for showing us the support and dedication that should have been offered by Hillary and her State Department to those who saved their butts.

Tiegen: September 11, 2012, at approximately 9:35 pm, we got a call that the consulate was under attack. We immediately grabbed our weapons and armed up. We were ready to go. But on three separate occasions, we were told to wait, and the Chief of base told us to STAND DOWN!

We heard State Department Security scream over the radio, “If you don’t get here now, we are all going to DIE!” They were under siege. Stand-down orders be dammed. We went.

Pulling up to the consulate, we saw fire and smoke pouring out of the Ambassador’s residence. I saw one of the State department security officers pulling Sean Smith’s lifeless body from the building. He was dead. We moved into the building looking for the Ambassador. The heat from the fire blasted our faces. The smoke obliterated our sight. We crawled on our bellies to stay under it.

Tanto and DB came through the back gate and made their way onto the consulate grounds. After several minutes, Tanto helped State gather sensitive material and prepared them to leave in their armored vehicle.

Suddenly, we started receiving small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades from the back gate. I made my way to the roof to get a better firing position. As I moved up to the edge of the building, I saw one of the terrorists come out from behind the wall into the driveway.

He fired an RPG, reloaded, and fired again.

On his third attempt, I hit him with a 10 round volley, killing him. But there were more where he came from. We had information that 100 terrorists were getting ready to mount another counter-assault. We didn’t know if the Ambassador was still at the Consulate, but we had reason to believe he was dead. We were responsible for 30 other people. We had to make a decision. We decided to head back to the Annex.

Geist: As the team arrived back at the annex, we took up fighting positions. We knew the terrorists were headed our way. We were ready for them! We saw movement on the east side of our compound. Something with sparks trailing it flew over the wall and landed between Tig and me.

It exploded. So, we unleashed hell. There were about twenty terrorists in the first wave. They went away with a whole lot less.

Tiegen: After that first attack, Oz grabbed his med kit and pulled out medical gauze. He stuffed it in his ears. I looked at him, smiled and asked, “Was it loud much?”

Geist: My ears felt like they had exploded. Tig was firing next to my left ear.

Soon we got word that the Support team from Tripoli led by Glen Doherty had landed at the Benghazi airport. You think security at our airports is bad…Try landing at an airport controlled by a local militia with a bunch of guns and a bag of money.

Thank goodness money talks!

Tiegen: Around 1:30 am, the Ambassador was still missing. We saw movement again on our eastern perimeter. We called Bob and asked if anyone was coming to secure the perimeter. He said “I don’t know.”

At that point, a vehicle came out of the darkness. A guy jumped out and drew his arm back like he was about to throw something. Oz saw this and put three rounds into him, dropping him like a sack of potatoes. Another guy took his place. Then another. And another.

Geist: It was like whack-a-mole. One would pop his head up shooting, and we’d knock him off. Someone would take his place, and we’d shoot him.

Tiegen: Then, we got a call saying the Ambassador was at the hospital in Benghazi.There was no way to determine if this was valid or if he was alive or dead. We thought it could have been a trick to get us to come out of our defensive positions and split up. So we decided to stay put.

Geist: Up on the roof, Rone told me that if if weren’t for Tig, he would have died back at the compound. We also talked about our kids and how many of us here in Benghazi had young children. Heck, Jack had just found out that his wife was pregnant.

We didn’t know if we would see them again.

Morning approached. It was that time when the black sky starts turning blue and you could hear the morning prayer over the loud speakers. We knew the next attack was coming. Over the radio, we heard Glen and the Tripoli team were on their way.

When Glen arrived, he joined us on the roof. I was sure glad to have another gun fighter. The attack started with a rocket propelled grenade and small arms fire from the north. Then a mortar hit the top of our outer wall.

The state Department Security guy yelled out he was hit. We opened fire. A second mortar hit the top of the roof to my right by about 15 feet. The explosion knocked me back.

As I got up, I noticed Rone in a fetal position at my feet. I went to grab my rifle with my left hand and noticed it was hanging at a right angle. A third mortar hit the roof. Glen fell face down. He was out of the fight.

I tried again to get my arm to work, it wouldn’t. The fourth mortar hit. It felt like I was stung by a thousand bees. I dove for cover and everything went quiet.

I pulled out a tourniquet from my med kit to put on my arm. But I got distracted and reached over to Rone and to check for a pulse. There wasn’t one.

I looked up and saw Tig climbing onto the roof. The dust and debris of war continued to fall around us.

Tiegen: As I came over the top of the wall, I saw that the State Department security officer was in bad shape.

His left arm was hanging at a right angle like Oz’s arm, and his left leg was almost severed about six inches above the ankle.

I put tourniquets on both the arm and the leg. I then moved over to the next sound I heard. It was Oz whining like a girl. He was playing with his injured arm. I told told him to quit playing with it.

Geist: Hey I was trying to get it to work. It wouldn’t stay in place.

Tiegen: I grabbed the tourniquet that Oz had started to put on, got it in place, and helped him stand up. I asked him if he could get to the ladder by himself.

Geist: I told him hell yes. I knew Tig needed to check on Glen and Rone. I was hoping they were still alive. I sat on the edge of the ledge looking at the ladder and trying to figure how I was going to climb down. I survived several attacks on the annex, but wouldn’t it be my luck to fall off this darn roof and break my neck? Yea that’s the story I want my kids to hear.

I hooked my good arm around the top rung of the ladder and swung my body to try to land my feet on the first rung. My feet missed.

I pulled myself up with my good arm and climbed down. Once inside the building, I laid down on the floor. I knew I had other injuries that needed to be treated. I told them to cut my clothes off, and that’s when they found another 20–30 shrapnel holes.

Tiegen: After I got Oz over to the ladder, I went over to Rone. I rolled him over. I pulled his body armor off and checked for vitals. I checked his pupils.

No sign of life. I said a prayer over him. Next I went over to Glen. I checked his vitals and pupil dilation. No response. No sign of life. I also said a prayer over Glen.

I picked up their gear and weapons. We knew it was time to move. We had to get everyone out. We couldn’t defend against indirect fire.

Geist: We stabilized the wounded, secured the dead, and made sure we left no critical information behind. The militia that escorted us to the airport were Gaddafi loyalists.

Upon arrival, we loaded up the non-shooting personnel. I was in the back of a pickup truck. People came over to carry me on the plane. I sat up and brushed ’em off.

I said, “I walked into Benghazi. I’m walking out.”

Tiegen: That plane was the same plane that brought Glen and the guys from Tripoli down to Benghazi. This time, Glen wasn’t on it. This was a plane that was secured by the Tripoli team from a local Libyan, they had just met that day.

We got everyone loaded up and headed to Tripoli. We turned to the task of getting the ambassador’s body from the hospital. The Gaddafi loyalist commander volunteered to get him.

Once he returned with the Ambassador, we checked to verify his identity and his condition. He was in the same clothes I saw him wearing that morning on September 11th. There were no signs of torture or mutilation. He died of smoke inhalation.

At that point, we didn’t know how we were going to get out of Benghazi. Out of the blue, a C130 transport aircraft landed. It taxied over, did a u-turn and stopped.

One of the Tripoli team members went over with a translator and persuaded the pilots to take us to Tripoli. The last American to leave Benghazi left, not on an American plane, but on a Libyan plane flown by Libyan pilots.

The first U.S. aircraft to arrive in Libya was not a military jet but a medical transport bird that arrived at approximately 5 pm on the evening of September 12th, after the siege was over.

Geist: More than 30 American lives were saved that night. It’s because Americans never give up. We refuse to lose. Benghazi is not about politics. It’s about opportunities.

Opportunities taken when we defied stand down orders and opportunities squandered when Hillary Clinton failed to protect her people on the ground. Had she done her job, we would not have had to compromise the annex.

Ty, Glen, Sean, and Ambassador Stevens would be alive today. Now we as Americans have the opportunity to elect someone who will make this country safe again.

Someone who will have our backs. Someone who will bring our guys home. Someone who will lead with strength and integrity. That someone is Donald Trump.

Tiegen: We did our part. Now do yours. Thank you.