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

I stood there gazing at our new mountain stronghold with its massive, sheer
drops all around. It was perfect, but it was also highly dangerous. If an attacking
force came up on us, especially at night, we’d have no choice but to fight our
way out. If someone started firing RPGs at us, we’d all be blown to pieces.
There was only one way out, the way we had come. A skilled strategist like
Sharmak could have blockaded us out here on this barren, stony point, and we’d
have needed to kill a lot of guys to get out. And there was the ever present,
disquieting thought that Sharmak’s buddy bin Laden might also be in the area —
with probably the biggest al Qaeda force we’d ever faced.
But in its way, this place was perfect, with the most commanding views any
surveillance team could wish for. We just somehow had to burrow into this
loose, rocky shale, keep our heads down, stay camouflaged, and concentrate.
We’d be okay as long as no one saw us. But I still had a very uneasy feeling. So
did the others.
We all had something to eat, more water, and then we lay there facedown,
quietly steaming as the sun dried our clothes. It was now hotter than hell, and I
was lying under a felled log, jammed into the curve right against the wood, my
feet out behind me. But unhappily, I was on top of a stinging nettle that was
driving me mad. I could not, of course, move one muscle. Who knew if a pair of
long-range binoculars was trained on us at this very moment?
I was on glass, silently using the scope and binos. Murph was fifty yards
away, positioned higher than me among some rocks. Axe was to my right,
perched in an old tree stump hollow. Danny was down to the left in the last of
the trees with the radio, hunkered down, the only one of us with any shade from
the burning sun. It was approaching noon, and the sun was directly in the south,
high, really high, almost straight above us.
We could not be seen from below. And there was definitely no human being
level with or above us. At least, not on this SEAL’s mountain. We only had to
wait, stay very still, shut up, and concentrate, four disciplines at which we were
all expert.
It was deathly quiet up there, just as silent as the night. And the silence was
broken only by the occasional terse exchange between one SEAL and another,
usually aimed toward Danny’s privileged position in the shade, out of the direct
rays of the sweltering mountain sun. They were not particularly professional
exchanges either, lacking grace and understanding.
“Hey, Danny, wanna switch places?”
“Fuck you!”