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

them, and then they got into better position and shot Mikey Murphy through the
chest.
He came toward me, asking if I could give him another magazine. And then I
saw Axe stumbling toward me, his head pushed out, blood running down his
face, bubbling out of the most shocking head wound.
“They shot me, bro,” he said. “The bastards shot me. Can you help me,
Marcus?” What could I say? What could I do? I couldn’t help except by trying to
fight off the enemy. And Axe was standing right in my line of fire.
I tried to help him get down behind a rock. And I turned to Mikey, who was
obviously badly hurt now. “Can you move, buddy?” I asked him.
And he groped in his pocket for his mobile phone, the one we had dared not
use because it would betray our position. And then Lieutenant Murphy walked
out into the open ground. He walked until he was more or less in the center,
gunfire all around him, and he sat on a small rock and began punching in the
numbers to HQ.
I could hear him talking. “My men are taking heavy fire...we’re getting
picked apart. My guys are dying out here...we need help.”
And right then Mikey took a bullet straight in the back. I saw the blood spurt
from his chest. He slumped forward, dropping his phone and his rifle. But then
he braced himself, grabbed them both, sat upright again, and once more put the
phone to his ear.
I heard him speak again. “Roger that, sir. Thank you.” Then he stood up and
staggered out to our bad position, the one guarding our left, and Mikey just
started fighting again, firing at the enemy.
He was hitting them too, having made that one last desperate call to base, the
one that might yet save us if they could send help in time, before we were
overwhelmed.
Only I knew what Mikey had done. He’d understood we had only one
realistic chance, and that was to call in help. He also knew there was only one
place from which he could possibly make that cell phone work: out in the open,
away from the cliff walls.
Knowing the risk, understanding the danger, in the full knowledge the phone
call could cost him his life, Lieutenant Michael Patrick Murphy, son of Maureen,
fiancé of the beautiful Heather, walked out into the firestorm.
His objective was clear: to make one last valiant attempt to save his two
teammates. He made the call, made the connection. He reported our approximate
position, the strength of our enemy, and how serious the situation was. When