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

Right here I’d run, jumped, heaved, pushed ’em out, swum, floundered, and
strived to within an inch of my life. I’d somehow kept going while others fell by
the wayside. A million hopes and dreams had been smashed right here on this
tide-washed sand. But not mine, and I had a funny feeling that for me this beach
would forever be haunted by the ghost of the young, struggling Marcus Luttrell,
laboring to keep up.
I walked back to my first barracks and nearly jumped out of my boots when
that howling decom plant screamed into action. And I went and stood by the
grinder, where the SEAL commanders had finally offered me warm wishes after
presenting me with my Trident. Where I had first shaken the hand of Admiral
Joe Maguire.
I looked at the silent bell outside the BUD/S office and at the place where the
dropouts leave their helmets. Soon there would be more helmets, when the new
BUD/S class began. Last time I was here I’d been in dress uniform, along with a
group of immaculately turned-out new SEALs, many of whom I had
subsequently served with.
And it occurred to me that any one of them, on any given day, would have
done all the same things I had done in my last combat mission in the Hindu
Kush. I wasn’t any different. I was just, I hoped, the same Texas country boy
who’d come through the greatest training system on earth, with the greatest
bunch of guys anyone could ever meet. The SEALs, the warriors, the front line
of United States military muscle. I still get a lump in my throat when I think of
who we all are.
I remember my back ached a bit as I stood there on the grinder, lost in my
own thoughts, and my wrist, as ever, hurt, pending another operation. And I
suppose I knew deep down I would never be quite the same physically, never as
combat-hard as I once was, because I cannot manage the running and climbing.
Still, I never was Olympic standard!
But I did live my dream, and then some, and I guess I’ll be asked many times
whether it had all been worth it in the end. And my answer will always be the
same one I gave so often on my first day.
“Affirmative, sir.” Because I came through it, and I have my memories, and I
wouldn’t have traded any of it, not for the whole world. I’m a United States
Navy SEAL.