00:00:35not not appear in front of the camera as
00:00:40we headed out to the fire base in the
00:00:42Special Forces chopper none of us could
00:00:45imagine that we ourselves would become
00:00:46part of the story before the trip was
00:00:48over but the way events unfolded
00:00:51everything changed in this trips
00:00:57Afghanistan we did become part of the
00:00:58story was because we were caught up in
00:01:02the same mass casualty event as a lot of
00:01:07the soldiers we were filming other than
00:01:11the guys inside the vehicle we were
00:01:14closest to the truck just 35 feet away
00:01:17when it blew up
00:01:25when it blew up I do remember in an
00:01:30instant just seeing the back end of the
00:01:33truck he Bupp into the air the sound was
00:01:36so loud it was the only way I can
00:01:39describe it as it was almost silent
00:01:41there was a flash of light
00:01:46the flash of light essentially seemed to
00:01:49consume my cameraman Ryan Ryan just
00:01:52disappeared and at that time I just
00:01:55figured he was dead your reaction is
00:02:00holy SH I can’t believe that just
00:02:02happened to me
00:02:02I have a little baby at home I have a
00:02:05wife what am I doing here I’m here by
00:02:07choice I was shocked I was surprised
00:02:11that I was intact I was certain that I’d
00:02:14lost a foot or a hand or arm or
00:02:17something when I first saw Ryan he was
00:02:20covered in a blanket he looked pretty
00:02:22bad he was going into shock but I knew
00:02:25he was alive and I said to him I said I
00:02:29thought you were dead man and he looked
00:02:31at me and he said I thought you were
00:02:33dead too
00:02:35Ryan was injured worse than I was a lot
00:02:38worse than I was I thought and he had
00:02:40deep second-degree burns up and down his
00:02:43arms and it on his face
00:02:46we both had shrapnel through our faces
00:02:48and up and down her arms and I too had
00:02:51second-degree burns up and down my face
00:02:53but not as deep as his in the dutch
00:02:56field hospital I reached over to Ryan
00:03:00and I held his hand and he reached back
00:03:03and held my hand and he said to me Steve
00:03:07it’s not your fault
00:03:09I don’t blame you for what happened we
00:03:13both made the decision to come here and
00:03:15uh you know I pretty much broke down in
00:03:19tears a little bit because um that
00:03:22weighed heavily on my mind making films
00:03:25is always personal but this film had
00:03:29become intensely personal my cameraman
00:03:34was in a burn center we both were at
00:03:39risk of losing our sight we witness guys
00:03:42die in combat essentially we’d witnessed
00:03:45a lot of other guys suffer pretty
00:03:47significant wounds and we weren’t just
00:03:51going to let the story go
00:03:52it was too intensely personal by that
00:03:54time hopefully we’re just holding up a
00:03:59mirror to a reality to what’s going on
00:04:02out there people can take away from it
00:04:05just deeper insight into the complexity
00:04:09of the war being waged in Afghanistan
00:04:11and the incredible difficulties and
00:04:14sacrifices being made by those who are
00:04:17who are waging that war the one thing
00:04:20that strikes you when you get out there
00:04:21is just how kind of resourceful these
00:04:24guys are how autonomous and how alone I
00:04:27mean how on their own they are
00:04:30yeah we have the most powerful military
00:04:31the world’s ever created but these guys
00:04:34are pretty much out there on their own
00:04:36with what they have you know on the base
00:04:39and at their disposal I don’t want to
00:04:43gather too much attention to well what I
00:04:46went through and what the National
00:04:48Geographic film crew went through
00:04:49because the focus should be on on the
00:04:52Special Forces soldiers who were out
00:04:54there in the field and who are still out
00:04:57there in the field and enduring all of
00:04:59the hardships and dangers and losing
00:05:01friends and taking risks every day just
00:05:04watch out cause you got this mouse over
00:05:06here we went out for just a short brief
00:05:09window of time and came back home these
00:05:11guys go out and and see friends get
00:05:15killed and wounded and then go out again
00:05:17the next day and the next day and the
00:05:19next day
”