Kris "Tanto" Paronto Discusses Faith on the Battlefield
In the latest edition of the Maglite Podcast, Kris "Tanto" Paronto discusses the movie "13 Hours" and the role of his faith while in battle.
Transcript:
Maglite:
All right. Welcome to another edition, the Maglite podcast. We're doing a few with Outstanding American Chris Tanto. As I said in the very opening of the first one, Ranger Your Veteran, Be Goi Combat movie consult, an author, trainer, motivational speaker, founding member of E3 Firearms Association. So we were talking about that weird moment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In the movie, 13 Hour Secret Consult, Benghazi when you hear a bang from behind you and then a couple guys come stumbling out of the bushes behind you. One of them had kind of blown off a hand it looked like. Yeah. And you're like, really? You, you, you blow yourself up trying to fry us. Well
Kris:
What? Well, I I didn't hear the first explosion. It wasn't actual RPG that went off. Somebody was shooting a rock pill. Grenada and Rock Rocket Propel grenade at us. Um, and when those go, there's an explosion when it takes off because that's what propels it. Suppose boom. And you hear little explosion and then you're lucky to hear the explosion the next time. If it's close enough, hopefully you hear it. You don't feel it cuz you don't see RPG. That's one thing in movies, you don't see a vapor trail and RPG goes so fast, you're a boom and then it boom when it hits. I didn't hear that first boom for some reason. So when I came up, they came out of that side, this side of this building. The guy's running like this. He has no hand, his hand's gone. So he is running by and all I'm seeing is this profile like a carnival game, you know those carnival games.
Kris:
So my guns up and I'm looking at him and then his buddy comes out from outta nowhere and he's chasing him like this. So I'm seeing this view and he's holding pieces of his buddy's hand. So as I come up, I, I go, I wanna say Stop. You forgot your hand. That's what I'm thinking in my head. I'm like, Hey dude, stop. Your buddy's got your hand. Go back and get it. Um, all I can say to him and I go, What happened? And I probably said, Effing, what happened? The guy goes grenade. When he says grenade, I went, Oh. I thought to myself, Well idiot, don't throw grenades in us. You won't blow your hand off. I thought he tried to cook a grenade off. And I remember I said, I said, Well go up Sun dirt all night, You'll be fine. I was thinking the old football coaches, right. And um, cuz my dad growing up around football so long. And then I took a knee again and that's when that other one hit. And I, this time I did hear the first boom and as soon as I heard that first boom, my head went that RPG. And I remember I just shrunk as big. I, I made myself as small as I could. It hit closer. This one did knock me off my side. And, and then that firefight started the movie. Movie Got it all.
Maglite:
Another line I remember very clearly from the movie is you're on the roof and it's, you've already been through a couple of battles. Yeah. And I'm sure you get this one all the time. Um, well, I figure if I'm doing the right thing, don't take care of me. Where's that faith come from for you?
Kris:
Uh, I'm just being a Christian my whole life. And, and I, as you deploy more, um, and you see things more, you see the atrocities. I I think faith can go one or two ways. You either get stronger in your faith or your faith dissipates so you become an atheist or agnostic. Mine went the opposite direction. So I just always felt that, you know, and I was always my best person overseas. If I was being ethically good and my integrity was good, I was gonna get taken care of. And I was where I was supposed to be. And that was one thing I always talked to my pastor, you know, being overseas, I come back home like, Hey, I took a guy's life. I, it doesn't feel right. You know? And he is like, Well what are you doing? Well, you know, I'm at combat.
Kris:
He goes, You're doing the right thing. That's where you need to be at. So when I was able to come to terms with that and I just, that was how it was. It was just, God, this is where he wants me to be and I'm doing what he wants me to do. I pray on it, Okay, I'm here. Stuff's going wrong. God still wants me here. I'm doing the right thing. He's gonna take care of me. That doesn't necessarily mean I was gonna live. I just knew that that's where I needed to be. That's where he wanted to be. And if I died on that battlefield and I had was a prayer that I read and this is what it said. And I believe this is too, if I die on this battle for today, made a diet peace with you. It was that I had accepted that. If that was where my last breath was gonna be, well then that's the acceptance I'm gonna have because God wants me there. And I just thought to myself, did I tell my family I loved him the last time I talked to him? Yep, I did. I was clear. Yeah,
Maglite:
I, I travel quite a bit, so I'm not in the kind of danger you are, but every time I travel that's, I I try to make sure I don't leave without telling my kids and my wife that I love them. Um, so tell us about what you're doing now.
Kris:
Um, well we got E3 arms, definitely that thing's going great actually. I've been having a blast. I, I, I think the website as we're on it, I'm interacting people. It's the most I interact with anybody I, on any media site. I don't interact with people too much just intimately on a social media site. I don't, I I do post an Instagram on Facebook, but E3, the arm's website with the members, I'm interacting with them daily and it's great and it's, it's just fantastic. Cause you get a lot of just good questions that I think people won't wanna, they wanna ask on regular social media, but are just afraid to direct
Maglite:
Message. It's a safe place. It's a safe place to talk about firearms and tactical because I say stuff on Facebook and you know, you get attack. Oh
Kris:
Yeah.
So we're gonna, we're gonna hold this here and very specifically when we do the next podcast, you've had a chance to interrupt with a bunch of New Mag product. So I'm gonna ask you about that. Um, Kris Taranto here on the Maglite podcast.