Benghazi Hero: John 'Tig' Tiegen at Shot Show 2018

John 'Tig' Tiegen is one of the heroes of Benghazi, and nowadays, he spends his time doing free gun matches and giving motivational speeches around what he experienced at Benghazi. Tiegen also travels to events like SHOT to shoot different types of guns for Kahr® Firearms Group, which sponsors Tiegen. Tiegen is at SHOT Show 2018 to help promote his sponsors, and show off some of their new products, including a free .50 caliber Desert Eagle that they are giving away at the end of SHOT.

After Benghazi, Tiegen went back two more times before writing his book 13 Hours. After that, he began giving speeches about the book. Talking about his story and experiences was therapeutic for Tiegen. Tiegen came to SHOT Show in 2014, and sort of fell into the gun industry. He began doing some 3-gun competitions here and there and began to pick up more sponsors. Now, he enjoys being a part of the gun industry.

Tiegen is a big fan of 3-gun, but he doesn't take it nearly as seriously as some other competitors. It's a good adrenaline rush for Tiegen. Tiegen uses the NEMO AR platform when he is in a 3-gun competition, and he uses a Benelli shotgun as well. Tiegen's first 3-gun competition was the MGM Ironman competition, one of the toughest 3-gun competitions available. Tiegen said he wanted to go ahead and get the hard competition done first. Kahr® brought Tiegen on to help them with a few designs, and Tiegen said it has been fun, but there has been a learning curve. One of the many great things about SHOT Show is getting to meet the variety of people working in the gun industry, and Tig Tiegen is certainly one of those people.