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

I decided this was not a risk I was prepared to take. My own rifle was loaded
and suppressed. There would be little noise to attract anyone else’s attention.
And very carefully, hardly daring to breathe, I raised the Mark 12 into the firing
position and drew down on the little man on the far ridge. He was bang in the
crosshairs of my telescopic sight.
I squeezed the trigger and hit him straight between the eyes. I just had time
to see the blood bloom out into the center of his forehead, and then I watched
him topple over the edge, down into the canyon. He must have fallen two
hundred feet, screaming with his dying breath all the way. I was not in any way
moved, except to thank God there was one less.
Almost immediately two of his colleagues ran into the precise spot where he
had been standing, directly across from me. They were dressed more or less the
same, except for the different colors of their vests. They stood there staring down
into the canyon where the first man had fallen. They both carried AKs, held in
the firing position but not fully raised.
I thought they might just take off, but they stood there, now looking hard
across the void which separated my mountain from theirs. From where I was,
they seemed to be looking right at me, scanning the cliff face for any sign of
movement. I knew they had no idea if their pal had been shot, simply fallen, or
perhaps committed suicide.
However, I think option one was their instinct. And right now they were
trying to find out precisely who had shot him. I remained motionless, but those
little black eyes were looking straight at me, and I realized if they both opened
fire at once on my rocky redoubt, the chances of an AK-47 bullet, or bullets,
hitting me were good to excellent. They had to go. Both of them.
Once more, I slowly raised my rifle and drew a bead on an armed Taliban
tribesman. My first shot killed the one on the right instantly, and I watched him
tumble over the edge. The second one, understanding now there was an enemy at
large, raised his gun and scanned the cliff face where I was still flat on my back.
I hit him straight in the chest, then I fired a second time in case he was still
breathing and able to cry out. He fell forward without a sound and went to join
his two buddies on the canyon floor. Which left me all alone and thus far
undiscovered.
Just a few hours previously, Mikey Murphy and I had made a military
judgment which cost three lives, the lives of some of the best SEALs I ever met.
Lying here on my ledge, surrounded on all sides by hostile Taliban warriors, I
could not afford another mistake. I’d somehow, by the grace of God, been spared