Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 Paperback – May 1, 2008

"I tried to get a hold of myself. But again in my mind I heard that terrible, terrible scream, the same one that awakens me, bullying its way into my solitary dreams, night after night, the confirmation of guilt. The endless guilt of the survivor. `Help me, Marcus! Please help me!' It was a desperate appeal in the mountains of a foreign land. It was a scream cried out in the echoing high canyons of one of the loneliest places on earth. It was the nearly unrecognizable cry of a mortally wounded creature. And it was a plea I could not answer. I can't forget it. Because it was made by one of the finest people I ever met, a man who happened to be my best friend."In 2005, Marcus Luttrell was part of a four-man mission in the mountains of Afghanistan. A member of the elite Navy SEALs, he was tasked with killing a Taliban leader who had close ties with Osama bin Laden. This small team was hidden outside a village, surveying the area and looking for their target, when a small group of goat herders stumbled upon them. The soldiers quickly detained the two men and the teenage boy and debated what they should do. The most obvious solution and the one that would be most conducive to their mission would be to immediately execute their prisoners. But when the four soldiers put it to a vote, it was determined that they should let these people go. Morality won over personal preservation. But was it morality or fear? "Was I afraid of these guys? No. Was I afraid of their possible buddies in the Taliban? No. Was I afraid of the liberal media back in the U.S.A.? Yes. And I suddenly flashed on the prospect of many, many years in a U.S. civilian jail alongside murderers and rapists." The former prisoners quickly and inevitably reported to the Taliban leaders and the SEALs were soon fighting for their lives. Before long three of the men were dead and the fourth, Luttrell, was running for his life (though not before they killed somewhere around 100 enemy soldiers. Don't mess with the SEALs!). It was a terrible slaughter, made worse when a helicopter carrying a rescue force was shot down, killing sixteen more Americans.Lone Survivor tells the story of this mission through the eyes of Littrell, the only man who lived to tell the tale. The book was released to great acclaim and has become a fixture on the bestseller lists. While the book is in many ways a typical war story (a description of SEAL training camp, tales of combat, lots and lots of bad language and tales of remarkable heroism) it goes beyond the story to share at least a couple of very important statements about warfare today. And this is, I think, where the reader stands to benefit most.One of this book's most important statements is that the current rules of engagement soldiers are required to adhere to are irrational and are the product of politicians who are far from the action. "Any government that thinks war is somehow fair and subject to rules like a baseball game probably should not get into one. Because nothing's fair in war, and occasionally the wrong people do get killed." American soldiers are being forced to fight in situations where they are almost guaranteed to take casualties because of restrictives rules of engagement. These rules may make sense to politicians safely ensconced in their Washington offices, but they are utterly unfair and unsafe on the battlefield. Luttrell states that these rules are costing lives and that the United States should not be willing to fight wars that she cannot fight to win.The other important statement is about the role of the media in modern warfare. Luttrell's disgust for the media knows no bounds. "It's been an insidious progression, the criticisms of the U.S. Armed Forces from politicians and from the liberal media, which knows nothing of combat, nothing of our training, and nothing of the mortal dangers we face out there on the front line." "I promise you, every insurgent, freedom fighter, and stray gunman in Iraq who we arrested knew the ropes, knew that the way out was to announce that he had been tortured by the Americans, ill treated, or prevented from reading the Koran or eating his breakfast or watching the television. They all knew al-Jazeera, the Arab broadcasters, would pick it up, and it would be relayed to the U.S.A., where the liberal media would joyfully accuse all of us of being murderers or barbarians or something. Those terrorist organizations laugh at the U.S. media, and they know exactly how to use the system against us." Those of us who have watched recent wars from afar can attest that this is exactly the case. The media, and particularly the liberal media, seems to side with the bad guys. Soldiers are fighting brutal warfare, all the wonder more terrified of their own nation's press than the guys shooting at them. They hardly know who the real enemy is.Lone Survivor is an enjoyable book, typical in many of its facets, but atypical in its deeper message. It is a book Americans would do well to read and to consider.

I was gifted with this book by my son, and I'm so glad I read it because it is the kind of story that stays with you long after the last page is turned. In fact, I've found myself checking Face book, the Boots Campaign, YouTube and elsewhere to gather more information about this courageous and outstanding man...Marcus Luttrell. Thank you for your service seems trite acknowledgment for the heroism and sacrifice of our brave Navy SEALs, but it needs to be said. Better stated: Thank you for your endurance, your God-given talents, dedication and zeal to help make our country and its citizens free from the oppressive zealots who would kill us in their misguided mission to annihilate the Great Satan.Lone Survivor is the true story of Operation Redwing and the lost heroes of SEAL Team 10. But it is more. The book opens with Marcus Luttrell's mission to personally meet the families of his dead comrades; not just his close brothers who were part of the mission, but also of the 16 heroes who came to rescue Marcus and his mates and who were shot down in their helicopter.The second part of the book details Marcus' early years, his training to become a SEAL while still a teenager, and later the actual training that took place in Coronado, CA and elsewhere. The degree of difficulty of SEAL training is explained in clear detail; out of well over one hundred men, only a handful will have the stamina and mental fortitude to finish. (Luttrell explains that the body can stand almost any punishment, but the battle between success or failure is in the mind.)Finally, after weeks and months of physical training, marksmanship, guidance and other tactical courses, the newly minted SEALs are pinned and ready to go. The final part of Lone Survivor deals with Operation Redwing and the betrayal of Petty Officers Marcus and his buddies Danny Dietz and Matthew Axelman and Lt. Michael Murphy. Also detailed is the story of Marcus Luttrell's survival, thanks in part to his overwhelming need to relate the last days of his group and in a larger part to the Pashtun villagers who protected him from the Taliban.Luttrell and his co-author, Patrick Robinson, have penned a gripping story of courageous men and one particular man's courage against near impossible odds. This is not the type of book I normally choose, but I found it enthralling, horrifying and so gripping I couldn't put it down.Lone Survivor has more than 1500 reviews; I doubt mine will add noticeably to them, but I have to say I found the book very engagingly written, and since Luttrell's views are similar to my own, not at all off-putting as some reviewers have commented. Also, as a published author who has checked, double, triple and quadruple checked my own manuscripts, let me say that no matter how many times you reread your work, errors get through. There was nothing in Lone Survivor that gave me an instant's pause.