Lone Survivor_ The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 ( PDFDrive )

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might expect you to be. My only solace on that rueful occasion was that theinstructors walked on every single one of us that day.In the final test, I faced that thousand-yard barren desert once again andbegan my journey, wriggling and scuffling through the dusty ground, my headwell down, camouflage branches firm in my hat, groveling my way between theboulders. It took me hours to make the halfway point and even longer to ease myway over the last three hundred yards to my chosen spot for the shot. I was notseen, and I moved dead slowly through the rocks, from gully to gully, stayinglow, pressing into the ground. When I arrived at my final point, I scuffledtogether a little hide of dirt and sticks, and tucked down behind it, my riflecarefully aimed. I squeezed the trigger slowly and deliberately, and my shotpinged into the metal target, right in the middle. If that had been a man’s head,he’d have been history.I saw the instructors swing around and start looking for the place my shothad come from. But they were obviously guessing. I pressed my face into thedirt and never moved an inch for a half hour. Then I made my slow and carefulretreat, still lying flat, disturbing not a twig nor a rock. An unknown marksman,just the way we like it.It had taken three months, and I passed Sniper School with excellent marks.SEALs don’t look for personal credit, and thus I cannot say who the class votedtheir Honor Man.The last major school I attended was joint tactical air control. It lasted onemonth, out in the Fallon Naval Airbase, Nevada. They taught us the basics ofairborne ordnance, five-hundred-pound bombs and missiles, what they can hitand what they can’t. We also learned to communicate directly with aircraft fromthe ground — getting them to see what we can see, relaying information throughthe satellites to the controllers.I realize it has taken me some time to explain precisely what a Navy SEAL isand what it takes to be one. But as we are always told, you have to earn thatTrident every day. We never stop learning, never stop training. To state that aman is a Navy SEAL communicates about a ten thousandth of what it reallymeans. It would be as if General Dwight D. Eisenhower mentioned he’d onceserved in the army.But now you know: what it took, what it meant to all of us, and, perhaps,why we did it. Okay, okay, we do have our own little brand of arrogance. But wepaid for every last drop of that sin in sweat, blood, and brutally hard work.Because above all, we’re patriots. We will willingly carry the fight to
whoever may be the enemies of the United States of America. We’re your frontline, unafraid and ready to go in against al Qaeda, jihadists, terrorists, orwhoever the hell else threatens this nation.Every Navy SEAL is supremely confident, because we’re indoctrinated witha belief in victory at all costs; a conviction that no earthly force can withstandour thunderous assault on the battlefield. We’re invincible, right? Unstoppable.That’s what I believed to the depths of my spirit on the day they pinned theTrident on my chest. I still believe it. And I always will.
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Copyright © 2007 by Marcus Luttrel
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This book is dedicated to the memor
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“Help me, Marcus! Please help me!
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fighting force where valor is a com
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King Fahd Causeway.The six of us, d
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obliged to get out there and find.
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Cordell and Donna, and to his broth
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revs on the TAC. Don’t mess with
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petty officer second class. Like Sh
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photographing hot spots and danger
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But usually he came up with somethi
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cannot see. Someone described us as
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and plug into some quality happines
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the front line. Each of the six of
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blood.At which point, urged on by a
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They never tell us, or anyone else,
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My mom’s a seventh-generation Tex
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a way, I’m glad I lived through i
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and hard work. And he didn’t let
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their families. But they don’t se
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I’m not getting one dime from any
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Kush mountains. The most southerly
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opposition to their hard-line polic
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Jalalabad, Kandahar, and Herat. The
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Somehow these hickory-tough tribesm
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air brake on violence. According to
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in the grim island fortress of Chat
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us. There were always guys showing
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learned how to extinguish fires, es
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seem too much to ask in return, sin
Page 64 and 65: understand and will comply. We say
Page 66 and 67: 3. A minimum of 50 sit-ups in 2 min
Page 68 and 69: while I was prostrate on the floor
Page 70 and 71: everything. Why not just tell it li
Page 72 and 73: rowing, lifting, swimming, fighting
Page 74 and 75: our tests was called slide for life
Page 76 and 77: room inspection. The guy couldn’t
Page 78 and 79: The water was only a fraction above
Page 80 and 81: 4Welcome to Hell, GentlemenBattlefi
Page 82 and 83: times, because if we did not put ou
Page 84 and 85: ordered from one exercise to anothe
Page 86 and 87: There were about eighteen guys outs
Page 88 and 89: signifying resignation, and we hadn
Page 90 and 91: listened carefully while Chief Niel
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Page 94 and 95: determined young men who would rath
Page 96 and 97: opened fire, spraying the room with
Page 98 and 99: whistles kept blowing, one blast, t
Page 100 and 101: inserted that poison into my mind.
Page 102 and 103: below the thirty-two-minute standar
Page 104 and 105: supple for the day ahead.The new sh
Page 106 and 107: someone else.Joe Burns nodded curtl
Page 108 and 109: Somehow you find yourself able to b
Page 110 and 111: 1. Consider all weapons to be loade
Page 112 and 113: Florida. I was there on 9/11, and l
Page 116 and 117: 6’Bye, Dudes, Give ’Em HellThe
Page 118 and 119: mind. If a troop of wild tribesmen
Page 120 and 121: intel on him, from both satellites
Page 122 and 123: BRUTAL US TROOPS GUN DOWNPEACE-LOVI
Page 124 and 125: sensationally good news for our ene
Page 126 and 127: Sometimes we’d run across a group
Page 128 and 129: takes, was their obvious belief. In
Page 130 and 131: operation — get above the target,
Page 132 and 133: but underneath he could be very fun
Page 134 and 135: watch. You simply cannot do effecti
Page 136 and 137: have a good feeling about this. And
Page 138 and 139: It was really slow going, clamberin
Page 140 and 141: 7An Avalanche of GunfireDown the mo
Page 142 and 143: position where we could rest on thi
Page 144 and 145: That type of thing. Nothing else. N
Page 146 and 147: Omar Bradley? MacArthur? Would they
Page 148 and 149: about that...Marcus, I’ll go with
Page 150 and 151: we would be too well hidden for the
Page 152 and 153: hidden. I kept perfectly still, tha
Page 154 and 155: water, comms, phone. I’d even los
Page 156 and 157: uncompromising, steady, hard-eyed,
Page 158 and 159: was still fierce on all sides, but
Page 160 and 161: bullets; the swirling dust cloud en
Page 162 and 163: 8The Final Battle forMurphy’s Rid
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When that grenade blew me over the
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But then Axe reached for his rifle
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enemies. If knocked down, I will ge
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they shot him, I thought mortally,
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not together, not on this earth. Ax
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I had only one Teammate. And He mov
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to the quick reaction force (QRF) i
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found gun barrels snapped in half a
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I decided this was not a risk I was
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But my back hurt like hell. I never
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I’d travel a whole lot farther on
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They are born trackers, able to pic
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cross with honor.”I sang those wo
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dwell in the house of the Lord for
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announcement from the SEAL HQ in Ha
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positions. I could see one guy, the
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fighting as one in a team of four o
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You’re probably not going to beli
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was trying to communicate.“Americ
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Jesus Christ! I mean, Muhammad! Or
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As they approached me, I took out m
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else to do me harm. Nor would they
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them it was against my religion! I
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surrounded by more Taliban, all of
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somehow come back for me.Bang! Sudd
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killing mode, going for the leaders
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Eternal Father, strong to save,Whos
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was me. Like a lot of other folk ha
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three hours while we discussed, as
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prove too strong even for the Talib
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their language. Those kids were gre
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11Reports of My DeathGreatly Exagge
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were adults and kids, all mixed up,
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I sent them right out there again,
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It seemed apparent that my presence
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illuminated the sky beyond our imme
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Jeff Bender, Admiral Maguire’s pu
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here they had the last one.The more
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cornered.But an impending attack re
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alienating the people and, in parti
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For a few moments, I considered wri
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12“Two-two-eight!It’s Two-two-e
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ready for anything, bursting with f
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found, that I was stable and unlike
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The shattering din high in the Hind
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the SEAL skipper, Commander Kent Pe
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Right around this time, I was assig
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senior commanders came over and tol
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his face as he lay dying, just as t
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I didn’t know at the time that th
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Even though it may seem like a stra
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toward us is perpetuated by the lib
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Right here I’d run, jumped, heave
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recognized our C in C as “a real
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by Patrick RobinsonIn the fall of 2
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to change that.— Marcus Luttrell
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The guy in front is Billy Shelton,
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Taking the strain: This is a BUD/S
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Petty Officer Matthew Axelson in co
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Lieutenant Michael Murphy. If they
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Petty Officer Danny Dietz provided
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Up in the mountains or down at sea
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Lieutenant Commander Erik Kristense
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Shane Patton was replaced at the la
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U.S. Special Forces move in single
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Thankfully, not all Afghan villager
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Night and day for one week these lo
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I’ve taken it to the limit for my
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About the AuthorsPetty Officer Marc
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Lone Survivor_ The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 ( PDFDrive )

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