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

“Yes,” whispered Mom.
“We got him, ma’am. We got Marcus. And he’s stable.”
Mom started to collapse right there on the bedroom floor. Scottie moved
swiftly to save her from hitting it. Lieutenant JJ Jones bolted for the door, stood
on the porch, and called for quiet. Then he shouted, “They got him, guys!
Marcus has been rescued.”
They tell me the roar which erupted over those lonely pastures way down
there in the back country of East Texas could have been heard in Houston, fiftyfive
miles away. Morgan says it wasn’t just your average roar. It was
spontaneous. Deafening. Everyone together, top of their lungs, a pure outpouring
of relief and joy for Mom and Dad and my family.
It signaled the conclusion of a five-day vigil in which a zillion prayers had
been offered by God-fearing folk; they understood in that split second after the
announcement that those prayers had been asked and answered. For them, it was
a confirmation of faith, of the unbreakable hope and belief, of the SEAL
chaplain Trey Vaughn and all the others.
Immediately, they raised the flag, and the Stars and Stripes fluttered in the
hot breeze. And then the SEALs linked arms with my family and my friends and
my neighbors, people who they might never see again but to whom they were
now irrevocably joined for all the days of their lives. Because no one, according
to Mom, could ever forget that one brief moment they shared, that long-awaited
moment of release, when fears and dreads were laid to rest.
I was alive. I guess that’s all it took. And all these amazing guys, with hearts
as wide as the Texas prairies, burst suddenly into song: “God bless America,
land that I love . . .”
That’s Mrs. Herzogg and her daughters; Billy Shelton; Chief Gothro; Mom
and Dad; Morgan and Scottie; Lieutenant Andy Haffele and his wife, Kristina;
Eric Rooney; Commander Jeff Bender; Daniel, the master sergeant; Lieutenant
JJ Jones; and all the others I already mentioned. Five days and five nights, they’d
waited for this. And here I was, safe in a hospital bed eight thousand miles away,
thinking of them, as they were thinking of me.
Matter of fact, at the time I was just thinking of a smart-ass remark to make
to Morgan, because they’d told me I was about to be patched through to my
family, on the phone. I guessed Morgan would be there, and if I could come up
with something sufficiently slick and nonchalant, he’d know for sure I was good.
Of course, it wasn’t as important to talk to him as it was to speak to Mom.
Morgan and I had been in touch all along, the way identical twins usually are.