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‘Daddy, get out’: A war correspondent’s incredible escape · The Front

0:03
Speaker 1: From The Australian, here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
0:06
Speaker 1: It's Friday, September 18, 2026. How do you find your
0:13
Speaker 1: way back to happiness after seeing the worst of humanity
0:17
Speaker 1: and watching your friends die? For veteran Fox News correspondent
0:21
Speaker 1: Benjamin Hall, who sustained life-threatening injuries in a Russian strike
0:26
Speaker 1: while reporting from Ukraine... his wife and daughters.
0:29
Speaker 2: Lit the way.
0:31
Speaker 1: Today, Benjamin Hall shares his remarkable story and why there's
0:35
Speaker 1: only one thing he'd change.
0:41
Speaker 3: That is where we find Benjamin Hall, who joins us
0:43
Speaker 3: live from the capital city. Everyone knows that the Russian
0:46
Speaker 3: invasion is coming. The only question is when.
0:49
Speaker 1: A Fox News reporter, Benjamin Hall, he has been injured
0:54
Speaker 1: just while reporting right outside of Kyiv. This has been
0:59
Speaker 1: a very difficult day for the Fox News family because two.
1:02
Speaker 2: Of our co-workers have died in Ukraine. In Kyiv, Ukraine,
1:07
Speaker 2: Benjamin Hall, Fox News. I went to a black, black place.
1:13
Speaker 2: It was dark. It was peaceful. It was quiet.
1:15
Speaker 3: I mean, it's close to another world as you can imagine.
1:19
Speaker 1: Benjamin Hall is one of the world's most experienced war correspondents,
1:23
Speaker 1: and he's had an incredible journey back to the power
1:26
Speaker 1: of love and the power of faith. After a catastrophic
1:29
Speaker 1: series of injuries, he suffered on March 14, 2022, in Ukraine,
1:34
Speaker 1: where he was covering the war.
1:36
Speaker 2: For Fox News.
1:38
Speaker 3: I saw my eldest daughter right in front of me
1:40
Speaker 3: on a six years old and as lifelike as you
1:43
Speaker 3: can imagine, she was right there into this blackness. And
1:46
Speaker 3: she said to me, daddy, daddy, you've got to get
1:48
Speaker 3: out of the car, got to get out of the car.
1:51
Speaker 3: And it brought me back and I opened my eyes
1:53
Speaker 3: and the flames were around me. I took one step
1:55
Speaker 3: out of the car and the third shell then hit
1:56
Speaker 3: the car itself. And I was saved because of my daughter.
2:01
Speaker 3: And when you are being in a position like that,
2:03
Speaker 3: you go to the one place that gives you the
2:05
Speaker 3: most strength. And I lay there for 40 minutes, trying
2:08
Speaker 3: to patch myself up, trying to stay alive.
2:10
Speaker 1: And I thought of them, We're very lucky to have
2:20
Speaker 1: Benjamin here in Australia with us now to talk about
2:23
Speaker 1: his journey back to strength and everything remarkable that's happened
2:27
Speaker 1: to him since then. Thanks for joining us on The Front.
2:29
Speaker 2: It was a pleasure. Thanks for having me on.
2:31
Speaker 1: You write so movingly in your book, Saved, about the
2:35
Speaker 1: attack that killed your colleagues, Pierre and Sasha, and injured
2:39
Speaker 1: you so badly. But your focus in your writing has
2:43
Speaker 1: been not really about yourself, even though it's your story.
2:45
Speaker 1: It's about all the heroes who saved you, who brought
2:48
Speaker 1: you back to safety. It's quite a remarkable world that
2:51
Speaker 1: I think maybe even you didn't know existed, even despite
2:55
Speaker 1: your years of covering wars. these sort of Jason Bourne
2:58
Speaker 1: characters who are in the shadows ready to spring to
3:00
Speaker 1: life and help people extract from dangerous situations, for example.
3:05
Speaker 1: Did you know those people existed?
3:08
Speaker 3: Yes, to a certain degree, but I had no idea
3:10
Speaker 3: of the characters behind them. These are people who will
3:13
Speaker 3: go around the world. They will go into burning fires.
3:15
Speaker 3: They will do whatever they can just to save people.
3:18
Speaker 3: And they do it just because they believe that that's
3:20
Speaker 3: the way to make the world a better place. And
3:22
Speaker 3: I was very badly injured in Ukraine, and they couldn't
3:25
Speaker 3: find a way to get me out. I'd lost a
3:26
Speaker 3: leg and a foot and a thumb and an eye,
3:28
Speaker 3: and I was barely alive. And this group of people
3:31
Speaker 3: just came to find me. And they set off towards
3:34
Speaker 3: the front lines, despite the accent, I'm an American citizen.
3:37
Speaker 3: So they said, there's an American who's been injured. We're
3:40
Speaker 3: going to do whatever we can just to find him.
3:42
Speaker 3: And I'm alive today because of their actions.
3:47
Speaker 2: When I first saw Ben, I said, Ben, you don't
3:49
Speaker 2: know me. I'm Rich Jaddick.
3:50
Speaker 3: I'm a physician.
3:51
Speaker 2: I'm here to get you out. And he said, when
3:53
Speaker 2: do you want to go?
3:55
Speaker 3: And I suppose a lot of my work ever since
3:57
Speaker 3: then has been focused on these people. And they are,
4:00
Speaker 3: I suppose, a group of people that make our community stronger. Now,
4:02
Speaker 3: I don't think all of us, by the way, need
4:03
Speaker 3: to be running into fires if you can't do that.
4:06
Speaker 3: And not all of us are like that. But I
4:07
Speaker 3: think that kind of character can begin in a small
4:10
Speaker 3: little way. It is by just helping the person who's
4:12
Speaker 3: having difficulty crossing the road. It's by going to your
4:14
Speaker 3: neighbor who needs help. And I think that these people
4:17
Speaker 3: are the amazing heroes who go to the vast extremes.
4:20
Speaker 3: But We just all, and I remind myself all the time,
4:23
Speaker 3: we can all be doing this. We can all be
4:24
Speaker 3: helping others. And I think that if you start small,
4:27
Speaker 3: it grows bigger and bigger. And so I tell everyone
4:28
Speaker 3: I speak to at the moment, do something good today.
4:31
Speaker 3: Help someone today. And it's going to make us live
4:34
Speaker 3: in a better world.
4:35
Speaker 1: Your contribution has in part been your writing. You have
4:38
Speaker 1: written two incredibly inspiring books honouring those people and explaining
4:43
Speaker 1: your experience. I think partly as an.
4:46
Speaker 2: Act of service. They're beautiful books. Was it about your.
4:50
Speaker 1: Experience that made you choose positivity and this story of resilience,
4:54
Speaker 1: especially in this age when I think people tend to
4:57
Speaker 1: dwell in their trauma? Yeah.
4:59
Speaker 3: Well, look, sadly, I've spoken to many soldiers who have
5:02
Speaker 3: been injured across my career and you see them go
5:05
Speaker 3: in two directions. Half of them come out of it
5:09
Speaker 3: with this sort of really positive idea that let's not
5:11
Speaker 3: waste a moment.
5:12
Speaker 2: Life is great.
5:12
Speaker 3: You know, I found my life. The other half go
5:15
Speaker 3: the other direction. They lose who they are. They lose
5:16
Speaker 3: their identity. And there's that form of PTSD that's so difficult. Now,
5:21
Speaker 3: I'm very lucky that I came out of it in
5:22
Speaker 3: the positive way. I had my family, three daughters to
5:24
Speaker 3: go home to. And from the minute I was injured,
5:25
Speaker 3: it was thinking about, how am I going to move forward?
5:27
Speaker 3: When I was lying on the side by the car,
5:30
Speaker 3: barely alive, I was thinking, how am I getting home?
5:31
Speaker 3: Whatever it takes, let's find a way to get home.
5:33
Speaker 3: And I suppose if I can take what happened to
5:35
Speaker 3: me and try and help those people who don't feel
5:37
Speaker 3: in the same way, then that's a great service I've done.
5:39
Speaker 3: And so, again, a lot of my focus right now
5:41
Speaker 3: is trying to help the people who are not doing
5:43
Speaker 3: so well. And when I wrote those two books, it
5:46
Speaker 3: was talking about When I was having bad moments, how
5:49
Speaker 3: did I find a way through them? You know, who
5:51
Speaker 3: were the people who came to me and how can
5:53
Speaker 3: that be replicated? And so I tried to write them
5:55
Speaker 3: both as an adventurous story. I talk about the conflicts
5:57
Speaker 3: I've covered and the stories I've done, but really it's
5:59
Speaker 3: about the.
6:00
Speaker 2: People, the people who come out when you need it.
6:02
Speaker 3: And I'm also a firm believer that many people don't
6:04
Speaker 3: think they have the ability to get through difficult moments.
6:06
Speaker 2: Well, you do. Everyone does.
6:09
Speaker 3: I learned it when my back was up against a
6:10
Speaker 3: wall and I was barely alive and I found a
6:12
Speaker 3: new level of strength. You can learn to stop yourself
6:15
Speaker 3: to think about why you have to do things. You
6:17
Speaker 3: take deep breaths. And you move forward, you break down
6:19
Speaker 3: what you're going through. And so I do think there
6:21
Speaker 3: are ways in which everyone can get through it, but
6:23
Speaker 3: many people aren't aware they have that strength. And we do,
6:26
Speaker 3: we've got it inside us. And so the books are
6:27
Speaker 3: hopefully an attempt to sort of convey that.
6:30
Speaker 2: Ukraine is now a nation at war. Just hours ago,
6:34
Speaker 2: Russian forces began their attack. October 7th, 2023 marks the
6:37
Speaker 2: deadliest ever attack on Israel. More than 1,200 people were murdered.
6:41
Speaker 1: Syrian rebels have captured the capital city of Damascus overnight,
6:45
Speaker 1: toppling the Assad regime that has ruled the country for generations.
6:51
Speaker 1: Over your long career covering conflict in all sorts of places,
6:54
Speaker 1: journalism has changed. The world has changed. Once upon a time,
6:58
Speaker 1: journalists were the only way for these stories to be told.
7:01
Speaker 1: Now everyone has a cell phone, everyone can document what
7:04
Speaker 1: is happening around them, and sometimes I think that's their
7:06
Speaker 1: way of trying to make sense of what's happening to them,
7:08
Speaker 1: to take some kind of action. Now that that's the case,
7:12
Speaker 1: and we can see live streamed attacks from Ukraine, documented
7:17
Speaker 1: by people who are there, the civilians who are there
7:19
Speaker 1: on the ground, What's the role of journalists and why
7:22
Speaker 1: does it matter for us to still put our lives
7:24
Speaker 1: at risk by going into these places?
7:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, I will start off by saying that all of
7:28
Speaker 3: us can go onto social media and you can get
7:31
Speaker 3: videos you want to look at and it can be
7:33
Speaker 3: really helpful. And so I don't want to say that's
7:35
Speaker 3: not correct. We must never use it. It's about finding
7:37
Speaker 3: the balance. You can get some core video and information
7:41
Speaker 3: from them, but you have to double check it. You
7:43
Speaker 3: have to verify it. And that's what's very hard to
7:45
Speaker 3: do on social media. And I think that's the reason
7:47
Speaker 3: why journalists are even more important right now. You have
7:49
Speaker 3: to find a journalist and a network or a newspaper
7:52
Speaker 3: that you trust, that you know are going to the ground,
7:54
Speaker 3: that are speaking to the right people. And when you
7:56
Speaker 3: can build up that trust with your viewers and your readers,
7:58
Speaker 3: I think you can show them that you are really
8:01
Speaker 3: on the ground and reporting well. I've also found that
8:04
Speaker 3: I've never once gone to cover a story where I
8:07
Speaker 3: haven't learned something. And I think, oh, I know the story.
8:09
Speaker 3: I know what it's going to be like. It's never true.
8:11
Speaker 3: There are other elements to it. There are other angles
8:13
Speaker 3: to it. And I think that's why being on the
8:15
Speaker 3: ground is just as important. You can't just get the
8:17
Speaker 3: full information by what you see on your phone or
8:19
Speaker 3: what the video clip shows. You need to listen to
8:21
Speaker 3: a variety of different voices. And that is going to
8:23
Speaker 3: be more difficult now that AI is coming out, now
8:25
Speaker 3: that we have social media. But it's just as important
8:27
Speaker 3: that we keep doing that. And so I think that
8:30
Speaker 3: journalists are....
8:32
Speaker 2: There are fewer and fewer journalists.
8:33
Speaker 3: I think it's going to be a battle going forward,
8:35
Speaker 3: but I'm a firm believer that journalists offer something that
8:38
Speaker 3: AI and tech never can.
8:41
Speaker 1: Part of your journey out of Ukraine was on a
8:45
Speaker 1: train that was taking some world leaders, by coincidence, who
8:49
Speaker 1: had been there for meetings with the Ukrainian government. Your
8:53
Speaker 1: team negotiated their way onto that train in quite remarkable circumstances,
8:57
Speaker 1: and it meant that you didn't have to potentially die
9:00
Speaker 1: on a rocky roadside where your injuries wouldn't have been survivable.
9:04
Speaker 1: We saw, we've seen in recent days that Russia has
9:06
Speaker 1: attacked one of the main train lines used by diplomatic groups,
9:09
Speaker 1: including former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson just hours before.
9:14
Speaker 1: How was your reaction when you heard that news and
9:16
Speaker 1: what does it make you think about the way that
9:18
Speaker 1: conflict's going in Ukraine?
9:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, to a certain degree, I was surprised it took
9:22
Speaker 3: this long. I mean, I think Putin has been doing
9:24
Speaker 3: everything he can to stop People going to Ukraine, going
9:27
Speaker 3: to speak to Zelensky. It's a big question about whether
9:29
Speaker 3: or not Boris Johnson was targeted or whether it's a
9:31
Speaker 3: warning sign for people not to continue going in. But
9:35
Speaker 3: I think Russia has reached a point where it's on
9:38
Speaker 3: the back foot in the conflict and it's.
9:39
Speaker 2: Going to start escalating.
9:41
Speaker 3: And not only is it going to start escalating by
9:43
Speaker 3: launching gray zone attacks across Europe. sabotage, arson, cyber attacks.
9:48
Speaker 3: And we're seeing more and more and more of these.
9:50
Speaker 3: There was a drone a couple of weeks ago that
9:52
Speaker 3: almost hit a plane at a German airport.
9:55
Speaker 2: These are escalating.
9:56
Speaker 3: And I think that the attack that we saw on
9:59
Speaker 3: Boris Johnson's train as well, a few carriages behind, is
10:01
Speaker 3: an escalation of that. It is a warning sign from
10:04
Speaker 3: Russia saying, if you don't back off, and they've been
10:06
Speaker 3: saying this for a few years, if you don't back off,
10:08
Speaker 3: if you keep supporting Ukraine, we're going to keep escalating.
10:12
Speaker 3: It's kind of similar to Iran, to be honest. You
10:13
Speaker 3: have both sides that are saying, well, if you don't stop,
10:16
Speaker 3: we're going to escalate. And it's this terrible idea where
10:19
Speaker 3: Both sides are going to keep escalating. And I believe
10:22
Speaker 3: that you have to face evil down. You know, Russia
10:24
Speaker 3: wants Europe and NATO to turn away and say, OK,
10:27
Speaker 3: we'll pull back. I'd say that's the wrong thing to do.
10:30
Speaker 3: But it's in a difficult position. And I do think
10:33
Speaker 3: we're going to see it escalating. I think that, well,
10:36
Speaker 3: very briefly, I think that we may well see a
10:38
Speaker 3: Russian draft. I think that British intelligence said half a
10:41
Speaker 3: million Russian soldiers have now died. You know, 1.2 million
10:44
Speaker 3: died and injured. That's a crazy amount of people. And
10:47
Speaker 3: I think that Russia will have to bring in a draft,
10:48
Speaker 3: 300,000 extra soldiers. That's going to create some destabilisation in Russia.
10:52
Speaker 3: And so, you know, there are lots of things happening
10:54
Speaker 3: right now. But Putin's backed into a corner. He's going
10:57
Speaker 3: to escalate. And I fear that's what we're going to see.
11:03
Speaker 1: We're in the age of the hot take. Everyone's got
11:05
Speaker 1: an opinion about the war in Iran or the war
11:07
Speaker 1: in Ukraine or the conflict between Israel and Hamas. We're
11:11
Speaker 1: seeing one of the world's biggest artists, Ed Sheeran, face
11:14
Speaker 1: a kind of cancellation campaign by musicians who he was
11:17
Speaker 1: touring with after one of them was himself cancelled for
11:21
Speaker 1: having a view on that conflict. How do you kind
11:24
Speaker 1: of think your way through a conflict like Israel and Hamas,
11:27
Speaker 1: for example, when everyone seems to have a very strident
11:31
Speaker 1: opinion without the experience that you have of actually being there? Yeah.
11:36
Speaker 3: First of all, when I look at Hamas, it's off
11:39
Speaker 3: the front pages. This is an area that is flattened
11:42
Speaker 3: and no one is really coming. We've seen that time
11:44
Speaker 3: and time again in Gaza. You know, what happened in
11:48
Speaker 3: Gaza is a prime example where there was wrong done
11:53
Speaker 3: on both sides. You know, Hamas was behind October 7th
11:57
Speaker 3: and the most brutal attack that we've seen on civilians.
12:01
Speaker 3: Hamas also controls so many of the people in Gaza.
12:05
Speaker 3: They use them as human shields. they are one of
12:07
Speaker 3: the worst terror groups out there, and Israel, having been attacked, responded.
12:12
Speaker 3: But then you can look at the other side and say,
12:14
Speaker 3: what should the level of the response be? 70 plus
12:16
Speaker 3: thousand people killed, many of them children. And I think
12:20
Speaker 3: that we live in a world where you've got to
12:21
Speaker 3: be careful where to try and stop the bad people,
12:25
Speaker 3: to try and stop this evil, you must be careful
12:27
Speaker 3: that you don't become the bad person. And that's this battle.
12:31
Speaker 3: And so I think it's a conflict in which we've
12:33
Speaker 3: seen terrible things happen on both sides. And frankly, the
12:37
Speaker 3: world and the region has turned away from it. And
12:41
Speaker 3: it's one of the saddest stories, I think, of all
12:43
Speaker 3: the conflicts that we've seen. And you look at the
12:45
Speaker 3: images from Gaza and it's flattened.
12:48
Speaker 2: It's flattened. And there's no development happening there.
12:51
Speaker 3: So Hamas aren't going to give up no matter how
12:53
Speaker 3: bad things are inside Gaza. And it's again, this just
12:57
Speaker 3: seems like a dead end for everyone there.
13:03
Speaker 1: Coming up, what does a war correspondent wish for his children?
13:29
Speaker 1: This is the world we're going to be handing on
13:30
Speaker 1: to our children. You have four daughters, Honor, Hero, Iris
13:34
Speaker 1: and Baby Sage. Congratulations on the birth of a new
13:37
Speaker 1: baby and with your wife, Alicia. Your books are really,
13:41
Speaker 1: and your story are love letters to them and the
13:44
Speaker 1: story of your realisation about the power of love and
13:48
Speaker 1: what it means to you. Do you ever wish that
13:53
Speaker 1: this had not happened to you? Or do you feel
13:57
Speaker 1: as though the gift that it has given you, this experience,
14:01
Speaker 1: was worth all the suffering? Yeah.
14:03
Speaker 2: First of all, I wouldn't change my injuries. I wouldn't
14:07
Speaker 2: go back.
14:08
Speaker 3: I am the person I am today. I'm a stronger
14:10
Speaker 3: person because of it. I've learnt a lot. And, no,
14:13
Speaker 3: I wouldn't go back and change it to get my
14:16
Speaker 3: limbs back and whatnot. I would turn it back to
14:19
Speaker 3: bring back our team. Pierre and Sasha died. The other
14:22
Speaker 3: two Ukrainians with us died. you know, so out of
14:24
Speaker 3: five of us, four died. And I would turn it
14:26
Speaker 3: back in a heartbeat and go back to bring it
14:29
Speaker 3: to the way things were.
14:31
Speaker 2: But not personally.
14:33
Speaker 3: You mentioned my daughters there, and they're one of the
14:35
Speaker 3: reasons that I was saved. You know, I was in
14:37
Speaker 3: this car, the shells had been falling, we were being
14:39
Speaker 3: targeted in a civilian car. And after the second one landed,
14:43
Speaker 3: I got shrapnel in my eye and across my face,
14:45
Speaker 3: and I was almost gone. Never thought I was going
14:47
Speaker 3: to die. I just said, this is why I'm here.
14:50
Speaker 3: And I'm going to do whatever it takes to get
14:51
Speaker 3: back to them. I will crawl. I'm not going to
14:54
Speaker 3: complain about the pain. I'm going to do whatever I can.
14:57
Speaker 3: And as I was saying earlier, you find sexual levels
14:59
Speaker 3: of strength. And for me and for many people, that
15:01
Speaker 3: comes from your family. And I just think that sometimes
15:05
Speaker 3: in life, we get distracted by what's important. And this attack,
15:09
Speaker 3: my injuries have brought me back to what really matters.
15:11
Speaker 3: And it's not just being at home with family.
15:13
Speaker 2: There are other things.
15:13
Speaker 3: There is making sure you're a big, strong part of
15:15
Speaker 3: the community. It's helping others. It's about working very hard.
15:18
Speaker 3: It's about making sure the world is going to be
15:19
Speaker 3: a better place when you leave it than when you arrived.
15:20
Speaker 2: And so all those are important, but that begins at home.
15:24
Speaker 3: And I think that's, what's going to make us stronger
15:25
Speaker 3: in the future. So no, I wouldn't change what happened
15:27
Speaker 3: to me, but I would bring it. I would to
15:29
Speaker 3: bring back Pierre and Sasha, who were the most remarkable
15:32
Speaker 3: journalists who are incredible people. And I often, talk to
15:35
Speaker 3: somebody about survivor's guilt, being the only one who survived,
15:38
Speaker 3: is that difficult?
15:39
Speaker 2: And I look at it and I say, I've got
15:41
Speaker 2: two ways to go.
15:41
Speaker 3: I could either have survivor's guilt and feel proper, you know,
15:44
Speaker 3: terrible anxiety about it. I could think about what they
15:46
Speaker 3: would have wanted or if I would have wanted it,
15:48
Speaker 3: I died.
15:48
Speaker 2: And that is, don't waste a moment with life. Pick
15:52
Speaker 2: yourself up every day.
15:53
Speaker 3: Go find something positive. You know, keep working, keep being
15:56
Speaker 3: close to people, do whatever you can. And so I
15:59
Speaker 3: live my life now just saying, let's not waste a moment.
16:02
Speaker 3: You've been given a second chance at life.
16:04
Speaker 2: Let's use it.
16:05
Speaker 3: Let's do what we can. So now I am the
16:07
Speaker 3: person I am today and I'm immensely.
16:08
Speaker 2: Proud of it.
16:09
Speaker 1: These beautiful girls might decide to be war correspondents when
16:13
Speaker 1: they grow up. Do you think about that and how
16:15
Speaker 1: are you going to cope?
16:16
Speaker 3: I do and I would encourage them if they wanted
16:18
Speaker 3: to do so, 100%. I believe firmly in what I
16:20
Speaker 3: do and I believe in journalism. I believe that You know,
16:23
Speaker 3: we make the world a better place if we know
16:24
Speaker 3: what's happening around the world. And so I would say,
16:26
Speaker 3: go for it. My wife would think very, very differently.
16:30
Speaker 3: And maybe when it happened, I would probably change my mind.
16:33
Speaker 3: But if they sat me down and explained why it
16:35
Speaker 3: was important and where they were going and that that
16:38
Speaker 3: was what they felt they wanted to do in life,
16:39
Speaker 3: then I would say, go for it.
16:41
Speaker 2: As an aside story, I've been in a couple of conflicts.
16:43
Speaker 3: My parents have passed away now, but when I was
16:46
Speaker 3: a first-look war correspondent, I remember being on rooftops using
16:50
Speaker 3: a sat phone in Syria and Libya, calling my parents
16:52
Speaker 3: while there were shells falling. And boy, did they tell
16:56
Speaker 3: me since then that it was one of the worst
16:57
Speaker 3: things they could ever have imagined. So I understand what
17:00
Speaker 3: it's like for parents when your child is out there fighting,
17:05
Speaker 3: but I also believe in the importance of journalism.
17:07
Speaker 2: Is it a young.
17:08
Speaker 1: man's or a young woman's game you know is that
17:11
Speaker 1: the the province do you think of people who don't
17:13
Speaker 1: have children and and a partner waiting at home.
17:15
Speaker 3: For them well it's a really big question because a
17:18
Speaker 3: lot of my close friends and colleagues have children at
17:20
Speaker 3: home uh both uh men and women you know and
17:23
Speaker 3: there's a big debate should they be out there and
17:27
Speaker 3: you know i did I actually made the decision with
17:29
Speaker 3: my wife to pull back from covering the front lines.
17:31
Speaker 3: I've been doing it for 17-odd years, and we had
17:34
Speaker 3: three daughters, and I said, that's it.
17:35
Speaker 2: You know, I get it. I've got children.
17:37
Speaker 1: Time to be sensible.
17:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, we've got to stop.
17:39
Speaker 3: And I'd moved to D.C. I was carrying the State Department.
17:41
Speaker 3: I'd been doing that for a few months, and then
17:42
Speaker 3: Russia invaded Ukraine. First thing I did, I said, I've
17:45
Speaker 3: covered that. I picked up the phone, I called my wife,
17:47
Speaker 3: and I said, I actually said, one more.
17:50
Speaker 2: I said, one more. And it was the one in which,
17:53
Speaker 2: you know, we were hit. But.
17:59
Speaker 3: You have to really understand why you're doing it to
18:02
Speaker 3: see the benefits in journalism because it has a real
18:04
Speaker 3: knock-on effect on family members. And I think about the
18:07
Speaker 3: life my children would have had if I didn't come back,
18:09
Speaker 3: and that does make me sometimes think, wow, was it
18:11
Speaker 3: worth the work I was doing.
18:13
Speaker 2: For them to lose their father? And I don't know.
18:16
Speaker 3: I'm 50-50 on that. It didn't stop me doing it,
18:18
Speaker 3: but I'm aware of the dangers.
18:21
Speaker 1: Well, thank you for your service to journalism and to truth,
18:24
Speaker 1: and thanks for being with us today.
18:26
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
18:37
Speaker 1: Benjamin Hall is a correspondent with Fox News and author
18:40
Speaker 1: of Saved, a war reporter's mission to make it home.