Book Review: Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell
Marcus Luttrell had a decision to make, one that would turn into the most regretful decision of his life. While on a reconnaissance mission scouting an Afghan mountain village that was known to harbor Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders, Marcus Luttrell, a Navy SEAL, and his three SEAL teammates encountered two Afghani shepherds and a teenage boy, along with a couple hundred of their sheep. The decision, whether or not to kill the Afghanis who would surely tell the Taliban leaders that they had spotted U.S. military personnel, came to a vote, but not before all the options had been weighed considerably. The SEALs tried to contact their central command but they had no working signal in the Afghan mountains. They knew that they could either kill the Afghanis, not compromise their mission, and then deal with the consequences later in a court martial, or they could let these Afghanis live, abort the mission, and risk exposing themselves to Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders. One SEAL voting to execute the villagers, another voting to let them live, and another abstaining from the vote, the decision was left solely to Luttrell. He eventually decided that he couldn’t execute the villagers in cold blood and so the SEALs let the Afghanis go, knowing full well they could possibly have just signed their own death warrants.
Only an hour later, after aborting their mission and starting the long hike back to their drop point, Luttrell and his teammates were surrounded on three sides by 160 or so Taliban soldiers. The ensuing firefight speaks volumes to the training and ability of the Navy SEALs, the most elite special operations task force in the U.S. military. The four Navy SEALs were outnumbered 40:1, and even though the Taliban kept pushing them farther and farther down the mountain, they never quit fighting. Hours and hours went by and finally only Marcus and his teammate and best friend Lt. Michael Murphy were left of the SEALs. But Lt. Murphy was already bleeding uncontrollably from at least four gunshot wounds, and his life was ended when an RPG (rocket propelled grenade) exploded too close to where he was crouching, launching him twenty yards in the other direction. Marcus having seen his best friend and two other buddies shot to pieces, now alone and shot up himself, decided he had no choice but to make a run for it.
In Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10, Marcus Luttrell details this ferocious battle and how a friendly Afghan village helped protect him by heroically fighting off the Taliban while he healed from his near fatal injuries. In a society that tends to stereotype all Afghani people as crazed terrorists, this book is a story that “showcases both American heroism and Afghani humanity” (Washington Post Book World). Lone Survivor has been called “one of the most gripping and heartbreaking descriptions of heroism in combat to come out of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq” and was a New York Times Best Seller (Houston Chronicle). The book, “every bit as thrilling as Black Hawk Down and, unexpectedly, quite moving,” is also now being made into a movie by Universal Pictures, and is expected to be released in 2013 (The Dallas Morning News).
Luttrell wrote this book to honor his buddies and tell of their gallantry and undaunted courage. The proceeds have gone to the Lone Survivor Foundation, a foundation founded by Luttrell and his wife. The foundation’s purpose is to help former soldiers and their families transition back into a normal life.
