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

water, he went back and found the goddamned thing and filled it yet again.
I was alone in the late afternoon, and I saw the goatherds come by a couple
of times. They never waved or made contact, but neither did they betray my
position. If they had I do not believe I would be here. Even now I’m not sure
whether lokhay works for a guy who’s left the village.
Norzamund had left me some fresh bread, for which I was grateful. He went
home shortly after dark, and for several hours I saw no one. I tried to stay calm
and rational because it seemed Sarawa and his men were intent on saving me.
Even the village elder was plainly on my side. That’s nothing to do with my
charm, by the way. That’s strictly lokhay.
I sat there by myself all through that long evening and into the night. June 30
became July 1; I checked my watch around midnight so I knew when that
happened. I tried not to think of home and my mom and dad, tried not to give in
to self-pity, but I knew it was around 3:00 p.m. back home in Texas, and I
wondered if anyone had the slightest clue about how much trouble I was in and
whether they realized how badly I needed help.
What I definitely did not know was that there were now well over two hundred
people gathered at the ranch. No one went home. It was as if they were willing a
hopeless situation to become hopeful, as if their prayers for me could somehow
be answered, as if their presence could somehow protect me from death, as if
they believed that if they just stayed in place, no one would announce I had been
killed in action.
Mom says she was witnessing a miracle. She and Dad were serving three
meals a day to every person on that ranch, and she never knew where the food
came from. But it kept coming, big trucks from a couple of food distributors
were arriving with steaks and chicken for everyone, maybe two hundred meals at
a time. No charge. Local restaurants were trucking stuff in, seafood, pasta,
hamburgers. There was Chinese food for fifty, then for sixty. Eggs came,
sausage, ham, and bacon. Dad says the barbecues never went out.
Everyone was there to help, including the Herzogg family, big local cattle
ranchers, churchgoers, patriots, ready to step up for a friend in need. Mrs.
Herzogg showed up with her daughters and without asking just went to work
cleaning the place up. And they did it every day.
The navy chaplains made everyone recite the Twenty-third Psalm, just like I
was doing. During the open-air services, everyone would stand up and solemnly
sing the navy hymn: