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

left leg was still bleeding pretty bad, and I packed the wounds with mud. I had a
big cut on my forehead, which I also packed with mud. Both legs were numb. I
was not going anywhere. At least not for a while.
I had no medical kit, no maps, no compass. I had my bullets, and I had my
gun, and I had a decent view off my mountain, straight ahead over the canyon to
the next mountain. I had no pants, and no buddies, but no one could see me. I
was wedged in tight, my back to the wall in every possible sense.
I eased myself into a relatively comfortable position, checked my rifle, and
laid it down the length of my body, aiming outward. If enough of them
discovered me, I guess I’d quickly be going to join Danny, Axe, and Mikey. But
not before I’d killed a whole lot more of them. I was, I knew, in a perfect
position for a stubborn, defensive military action, protected on all sides,
vulnerable to a frontal assault only, and that would have to be by weight of
numbers.
I could still hear gunfire, and it was growing closer. They were definitely
coming this way. I just thought, Don’t move, don’t breathe, do not make a sound.
I think it was about then I understood how utterly alone I was for the very first
time. And the Taliban was hunting me. They were not hunting for a SEAL
platoon. They were hunting me alone. Despite my injuries, I knew I had to reach
deep. I was starting to lose track of time. But I stayed still. I actually did not
move one inch for eight hours.
As the time passed, I could see the Taliban guys right across the canyon,
running up and down, seemed like hundreds of them, plainly searching, scouring
the mountain they knew so well, looking for me. I had some feeling back in my
legs, but I was bleeding real bad, and I was in a lot of pain. I think the loss of
blood may have started to make me feel light-headed.
Also, I was scared to death. It was the first time in my entire six-year career
as a Navy SEAL I had been really scared. At one point, late in the afternoon, I
thought they were all leaving. Across the canyon, the mountainside cleared,
everyone running hard to the right, swarms of them, all headed for the same
place. At least that’s how it seemed to me across my narrow field of vision.
I now know where they were going. While I was lying there in my crevasse,
I had no idea what the hell was going on. But now I shall recount, to the best of
my gathered knowledge, what happened elsewhere on that saddest of afternoons,
that most shocking massacre high in the Hindu Kush, the worst disaster ever to
befall the SEALs in any conflict in our more than forty-year history.
The first thing to remember is that Mikey had succeeded in getting through