[THEME MUSIC]

Two weeks ago, a House committee

released an 800 page report blasting

the White House for its handling of the Benghazi incident.

The investigation into whether our government knew and lied

about what happened that night was

one of the costliest in our nation's history.

But before Benghazi became a touchstone political issue,

it was the site of an American diplomatic compound in Libya.

And Kris Paronto was assigned to protect it.

NARRATOR: On September 11, 2012, terrorists

attacked the US State Department and a nearby CIA annex

in Benghazi, Libya.

Kris Paronto was one of six American security operators who

fought the attackers in an effort

to protect the ambassador and other Americans stationed

there.

My teammates did so many amazing things.

And it's a story of that battle.

It's a story of a lot of sacrifice that went on.

It shows that there are still guys out there that

are willing to sacrifice their lives for others, to put others

before themselves.

NARRATOR: Kris sets the record straight

on what really happened that night

in the book "13 Hours," which is also a major motion picture.

[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

We are all going to die.

And Kris Paronto joins us now.

Chris, thanks so much for being here.

God bless you.

Thank you for having me.

Thanks for your service.

I am so glad to be on "700 Club."

I do-- I watch this.

Imagine that, I do watch TV every once in awhile.

I believe you.

You're a true American.

You're a patriot.

Of course you watch.

Thank you.

Well, I watched the movie again last night.

Yes, ma'am.

Your nickname was Tonto.

Yeah, it was.

And well, it still is, obviously.

Yes.

And in the movie, you were the guy that kind of

made everyone laugh.

But well, we won't get into all of that.

We can't, not in this show, we can't do that, no.

[LAUGHTER]

It was very funny.

But what role, what was your role in Benghazi?

Well, you know, the team, six of us,

consisted of what was called the Global Response Staff.

In a nutshell, we just provide protection,

low, very low profile.

What's great about our job is that we get

to be immersed in the culture.

We get to really interact with the populace there.

You get to know the people.

And you also get to know the difference between Islam.

And you get to know the difference between terrorism.

INTERVIEWER: And that was your first time in Libya?

That was my-- actually, I had worked in Tripoli before.

So I was pretty well-versed in Libya itself.

Granted, you know, I would be more well-versed if I was there

for a couple years.

But you have to get well-versed to know the populace,

just so you can do your protection work.

INTERVIEWER: So Kris, a year prior, the Libyans

were thanking us for getting Gaddafi out.

What happened?

Why did they turn on us?

It's the same thing that happened in Iraq.

It's some of the same thing that's

going back on in Afghanistan.

When we pull people out or we don't

put a necessary force on the ground,

there's a vacuum in power.

And that vacuum is filled by terrorists.

And that's exactly what took place there in Libya

is, that we got Gaddafi out of there.

Now the terrorists come in.

And they vie for power, because we don't

have any control in the area.

And we've actually made the country worse.

INTERVIEWER: Wow.

Well, Kris, take us back to that day.

It was the anniversary of September 11.

KRIS PARONTO: Yeah, it was.

INTERVIEWER: In 2012.

Yes, it was.

INTERVIEWER: What was it like when

you woke up that morning, just a regular day?

It is.

For us, we are very much always on, always, basically always

on always, always on point.

Our deployments are relatively short because of the stress

levels that sometimes we don't even

realize we're going through.

So we were ready for whatever was going to go on that day.

But honestly, with the GRS guys, Global Response Staff,

we're always, always ready for something.

Other than that, the State Department,

no, they didn't seem like they were-- not

the guys on the ground, but the head shed up top in DC

didn't look like they were taking it that seriously.

So--

INTERVIEWER: I know a letter had come in that said--

KRIS PARONTO: There had been.

INTERVIEWER: There could be there.

KRIS PARONTO: Again, there could be an attack.

You would have thought, because Ambassador Stevens

and his high levels of ambassadorship,

that they would have had a more superior force, more security

there.

And they did not.

So it was odd for me, on the State Department side,

for seeing them be out there with no security.

But as far as the CIA was concerned and the GRS guys,

we were ready to go.

But you know, we're always ready to go.

And that just says a lot for our backgrounds.

So you guys are holed up at the CIA annex

and about a mile away.

Three quarters.

Is where the ambassador is.

And that's called the outpost.

What happened?

I mean, describe what happened when you found out

that was under attack.

Well, when I found out, we first

got a first call the radio that says

that we need all GRS to report to the team room.

We go out.

And I remember, walked out my door.

And you can see the firefight.

And you could see the tracers, the heated rounds

that their machine guns used.

You can hear the explosions from rocket-propelled grenades.

And like I do, whenever I do my speaking events,

it's beautiful.

It's gorgeous.

If you just let yourself go and let-- and you do.

You let God have a little bit of control the situation,

because in those situations, you can't control everything,

you're able to enjoy.

You really are.

You are able to enjoy and just take it all in.

And that's where guys like SEALs, and rangers, and SF guys

are able to respond, and work, and fight in these areas.

INTERVIEWER: Kris, you and your team

desperately wanted to rush in.

KRIS PARONTO: Oh, yeah.

And help save those Americans.

But you were told to stand down.

KRIS PARONTO: Yeah.

You were told to wait, stand down and wait.

And to me, it's semantics.

To me, that's stand down three different times.

You have to maintain your composure.

And we did.

But when we heard that, on the radio from the State Department

security officer, diplomatic security officer, Alec

Henderson, he said, if you don't get here,

we're all going to bleeping die.

We just looked at each other and said, we gotta go.

And that's [INAUDIBLE].

INTERVIEWER: What about-- the CIA guy in the movie

is pretty arrogant.

Bob [INAUDIBLE]

He's basically saying, you've got to follow my orders.

But at that point, when you hear on the radio,

if you guys don't come and rescue us, we are going to die,

you guys took over.

You do.

God's law comes in effect and man's law is put aside.

You have to do what you're trained to do.

And you have to do what'd you do for another human being.

John 15:13, "Love is no greater than this,

that a man lay down his life for his friend."

And that's how we live by-- it's a creed that a lot of us

live by overseas.

That's the scripture you have on your website right now.

On my website right now.

And that's where it comes from.

I checked out your website yesterday.

You did?

Well, thank you.

I sure did.

Is it still going OK?

They're still keeping it up?

I loved how big you have that scripture.

This guy is a believer.

All right.

So what was the scene like when you arrived at the compound?

People don't realize that we had to fight our way on foot.

Unless you've seen the movie or you've read the book,

it took us in 30 minutes to fight our way 400 more meters,

because we couldn't get to the compound.

Because we lost the initiative.

So when we got there, it was completely on fire.

INTERVIEWER: Well, and there are so many bad guys.

I mean, you don't know who--

You don't know who it is.

You don't know who the good guys are and the bad guys are.

And that's what makes this job or those jobs that we do--

What's the word you guys called it called the bad guys?

Tangoes, right?

Well, we call them tangoes in the movies.

Sometimes, we call them some other things.

But we won't go into that.

But I think we're warranted.

Well, you've said, Kris, in these situations,

you've got to go in knowing, I could lose my life.

Yeah.

Why is that important?

Well, if you don't accept the fact that, yeah, we

might possibly lose our lives over there, I don't think,

at least me, I don't think you can really do your job.

If you're always fighting-- and you're not fighting to give up.

You're not going there, oh, we're going to die.

And that's just not how it is.

You just realize and accept, again, God's got control.

If this is when I'm supposed to die,

then this is when I'm supposed to die.

But I'm going to fight like heck till that happens.

So, unfortunately, you were not able to save--

No.

The ambassador, but you were able to save some people.

We were.

There were five security officers

that we were able to get out of there.

And then, there were over 30 people at our annex

that we were able to fight and save that night as well.

Let me ask you.

If you had gotten there 15 minutes before,

when you wanted to go--

Yeah.

Would it have been a different outcome?

Yes, and I've testified to that.

Ambassador Stevens and Sean Smith would still be alive.

And I have become very good friends

with Sean Smith's mother.

And she knows that.

And it's hard, because I say that we failed.

When I get asked, well, whose fault it was that they died?

Well, it's the terrorists' fault, yes.

But I say, you know what?

We could have [INAUDIBLE] over sooner.

And we take a lot of onus on that.

But that's how Rangers, and SEALs, and SF guys are.

So you did what you could there.

You had kind of a victory.

That was the first wave.

Then you went back to the CIA annex.

Yes, ma'am.

And all hell is breaking loose there too.

Yeah.

Yeah, it was.

We were able to defend our own keep.

We had practiced, at least in our facility.

And we had the tactical equipment

to protect it three different times

that night, until they brought in mortars,

which are large 81 millimeter rockets, more or less.

We had no way to defend against that.

And that's where we lost Ty and Glen.

I mean, were you surprised that they regrouped and they

came against the annex like they did?

Not really.

People don't realize this, and this

is why I speak out against terrorism, it won't stop.

And they have just the multitude of people.

And they will lose it.

They do not care about losing their lives.

They will come and continually come on and attack you.

And they'll throw themselves at the gauntlet again and again,

until they achieve their objectives.

So it really didn't surprise us that they

kept continuing to attack.

Kris, recently, you've launched a new education initiative.

Yeah, yeah.

Tell us, what's it called and what's it about?

Well, it's a C4 called LeadingFromtheFront.org.

It is-- I'm very outspoken against terrorism.

I'm very outspoken against leaders

that don't address terrorism or don't call it for what it is.

And that is, it's jihadism.

It's radical Islam.

It's Islamism, terrorism, whatever.

INTERVIEWER: Thank you for saying it, yes.

Those are all the same words.

It is.

It is.

For me, honestly, I don't mind being the lightning rod.

I don't mind being that person out front

but that gets the critics coming after me.

I think that's what I really wanted to do it for,

is because I want people to have a strong voice

against politicians that won't address it.

Because it is a problem.

And it's a very dangerous problem.

And I don't want to see my son and my daughter

grow up in a world where they have

to worry about some guy shooting up a club or some guy

blowing it up in the word of sharia or jihadism.

I don't want that to happen.

So is it safe to say, you're not going back

to insurance adjusting?

No.

Insurance adjusting is pretty much dead.

My brother-- I have a fantastic family--

he took the company over.

Yeah, I don't think I could fit into that.

You think God's redirected yours?

Yeah, I think I'm going a different route.

Now, I'm not saying I can't do it again, maybe as a retirement

job in 20 years.

But yeah, I don't think I have the mindset for that anymore.

Well, we're so glad that you're doing what you are.

Thank you.

And we so want to thank you.

Thank you so much.

For your service and what you did that night

and continue to do to protect America.

And to learn more about what happened that night,

get the book.

If you loved the movie, the book is even better.

It's called "13 Hours, the Inside Account of What

Really Happened in Benghazi."

And it's in stores nationwide.

And don't forget about Kris's new project,

Leading From the Front.

For more info on that, just go to his-- well,

you can go to his website.

Or you can go to our website, cbn.com.

And Kris, God bless.

What a pleasure.

God bless you, too.

Thank you for having me on again.

You're a real hero.

We appreciate it.

Thank you, ma'am.