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

But then Axe reached for his rifle and got up. He leveled the weapon, got a
hold of another magazine, shoved it into the breech, and opened fire again, blood
pumping out of his chest. He held his same firing position, leaning against the
rock. He showed the same attitude of solid Navy SEAL know-how, the same
formidable steadiness, staring through his scope, those brilliant blue eyes of his
scanning the terrain.
When Axe got up, it was the bravest thing I ever saw. Except for Danny.
Except for Mikey, still commanding us after taking a bullet through his stomach
so early in the battle.
And now Murph was masterminding a way down the escarpment. He had
chosen the route and called up Axe to follow him down. And still the bullets
were humming around us as the Taliban started their pursuit. Mikey and Axe
were about seventy-five yards in front, and I was dragging Danny along while he
did everything he could to help, trying to walk, trying to give us covering fire.
“It’s okay, Danny,” I kept saying. “We just need to catch up with the others.
It’s gonna be all right.”
Right then a bullet caught him full in the upper part of his face. I heard it hit
home, I turned to help him, and the blood from his head wound spilled over us
both. I called out to him. But it was too late. He wasn’t fighting the terrible pain
anymore. And he couldn’t hear me. Danny Dietz died right there in my arms. I
don’t know how quickly hearts break, but that nearly broke mine.
And still the gunfire never abated. I dragged Danny off the open ground
maybe five feet, and then I said good-bye to him. I lowered him down, and I had
to leave him or else die out here with him. But I knew one thing for certain. I
still had my rifle and I was not alone, and neither was Danny, a devout Roman
Catholic. I left him with God.
And now I had to get back to help my team. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever
done in my life.
To this day I have nightmares about it, a chilling dream where Danny’s still
talking to me, and there’s blood everywhere, and I have to walk away and I don’t
even know why. I always wake up in tears, and it will always haunt me, and it’s
never going to go away.
And now I could hear Murph yelling to me. I grabbed my rifle, ducked
down, slipped and fell off a rock, then started to run toward him and Axe while
they provided heavy covering fire nonstop aimed at the Taliban’s rocky redoubt,
maybe another forty yards back.
I reached the edge, ran almost blindly into a tree, bounced off, skidded down