Michael Bay's "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi" is bringing to light the hotly debated handling of the 2012 attack on two American diplomatic compounds in Benghazi, Libya, where two foreign service workers and two CIA contractors lost their lives at the hands of Islamic militants.
From political cover-ups to an ongoing national security debate, much has been said about the attack.
The aftermath of this horrific event was a stunning display of he-said-she-said finger pointing in the U.S. media, with leaders like presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama being criticized for how the situation was handled.
And yet there was another story from these attacks that wasn’t being told in the media — a heroic feat of courage and bravery by six American security operators stationed in Benghazi that averted what could have been a much more tragic incident.
Michael Bay’s “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi” seeks to put these security operators’ experiences on the silver screen starting this Friday.
The movie is based on a book written by Mitchell Zuckoff that uses five of the surviving members’ (the sixth member, Tyrone Woods, died from the attacks) firsthand accounts of what happened at the compound to give readers a look into what these men went through in Libya.
I was able to meet up with two of these security contractors, Mark “Oz” Geist and John “Tig” Tiegen, both former Marines who looked like they could snap me like a toothpick. Still, it was humbling to be in their presence. Their answers to questions had a mixture of a hardened veteran mentality with a subtle playful edge that I couldn’t help but find endearing.
The main point these two men wanted to emphasize was that their story was not to be used for anyone’s political gain.
“It’s not about the politics, it’s all about that night on the ground,” Tiegen said. “People ask us, ‘Do you think it’s going to affect Hillary (Clinton) and this and that. Honestly, we don’t care if it affects Hillary. That’s not our goal.”
Geist spoke about how surreal it was to be on set, watching the movie of his experiences in war brought to life. He especially appreciated the actors’ efforts to do the story justice.
“Max Martini, who plays me, wanted to know about my background, where I grew up, my family life — because that allows him to encompass so much more of me into that character,” he said. “Then it’s not just some guy carrying a rifle or shooting a gun, it’s everything else.”
I haven’t seen the movie, but the book takes an interesting turn when the security officers defy their commanders orders to “stand down” in order to save lives. Tiegen said job security wasn’t exactly on his mind during this situation.
“We had somebody on the radio saying, 'Hey, if you don’t get here, we’re gonna die,' so we’re not going to sit there and listen to people being killed over a radio when we can go over and make a difference," he said. “We didn’t really care about the consequences at that time so we took off.”
Both Geist and Tiegen have served in the line of duty before, yet these attacks in Benghazi have now become a huge part of their lives in terms of notoriety and media coverage. However, Geist said the incident didn’t start out as a defining moment in his career.
“It started out as just another day at work,” he said. “Bad guys trying to shoot you, you shoot back. Hopefully you shoot them before they shoot you, and you protect the ones that aren’t shooting.”
Tiegen added that the story is not about gaining fame and appreciation for what they had to do in Benghazi, but instead the focus should be on their roles as fighters and protectors of the U.S.
“I do the job to keep the bad guys over there, and I just like doing it,” he said. “If I can get 20 terrorists killed with one attack from a missile, I’d make my day. I can drink my coffee. We don’t do the job to be rewarded.”
It must not be easy to go through these traumatic experiences and then watch them unfold again through the Hollywood lens with actors like John Krasinski from “The Office” retelling your life story. Yet, Geist said he is proud of the movie and excited for what it will bring to the public eye.
“I think the movie, the way it’s made and the efforts that they’ve brought to it to make it as true to life as possible, is going to bring you, the viewers, the same thing,” he said.
“People are gonna walk away from it with a different viewpoint of the whole scenario and realize what we want is that there’s these people out there that give their lives in some of the worst places in the world, and they’re separated from their families, and I think it’ll be just a change of view to a lot of people on both sides of the aisle.”
Click here for more information on “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi.”
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Reach the reporter at jhgolds2@asu.edu or follow @misterjacobgold on Twitter.
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