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

Right here was a twenty-first-century version of General Custer’s last stand,
Little Bighorn with turbans. But they hadn’t gotten us yet. And if I had my way,
they were never going to. I know all four of us thought exactly that. Our only
option, however, was to get to flatter ground. And there wasn’t any of that up
here. There was only one way for us to go, backward and down, straight down.
Mike Murphy called it. “They’ll kill us all if we stay here! Jump, guys, for
fuck’s sake, jump!”
And once more all four of us clutched our rifles, stood up, braved the flying
bullets, and headed for the precipice. We leaped into the void, Mikey first, me
next, then Axe, then Danny. The drop must have been about thirty or forty feet,
down into a thicket of shrubs alongside a little stream.
We were by no means at the base of this little escarpment, but at least we
were once more on a flat bit and not clinging to some cliff face. I landed directly
on top of Mikey, then Axe and Danny landed on both of us. There wasn’t even
time to let rip with a few curses.
We spread out and took up firing position again, preparing once more to blast
the enemy away from our flanks, where they would be sure to begin their
advance in the next stage of the battle. They were clambering down the rocks to
our right, and I was trying to make sure none of them made it to the bottom. My
rifle felt red-hot, and I just kept loading and shooting, aiming and firing, wishing
to hell I still had my Texas helmet.
We were trying to move into a decent position, jumping between the rocks,
working our way out into open ground. But we were picking up fire now. The
Taliban had seen us and were raining bullets down, firing from a prime overhead
spot. We moved back against the rocks, and Danny was shot again.
They hit him in his lower back, and the bullet blew out of his stomach. He
was still firing, Christ knows how, but he was. Danny’s mouth was open, and
there was blood trickling out. There was blood absolutely everywhere. It was
hot, and the stench of it was unmistakable, the cordite was heavy in the air, and
the noise, which had not abated since they first opened fire, was deafening. Our
ears were ringing from the blasts like we were wearing headphones.
And then they opened up with the grenades again. We saw the white smoke
streaking through the air. We saw them coming, winging down that canyon right
onto us. And when they blew, the blast was overpowering, echoing from the
granite rocks that surrounded us on three sides.
It was like the world was blowing up around us, with the flying rock
splinters, some of them pretty large, clattering off the cliff walls; the ricocheting