
Grant W. Jones |
Review of Marcus Luttrell, with Patrick Robinson, Lone
Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the
Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10. New York: Little, Brown, 2007.
Pp. 390. ISBN 978-0-316-06760-7. |
The purpose of Operation Redwing was to insert a
four-man Navy SEAL sniper team into a remote region of the Hindu
Kush Mountains of Afghanistan near the Pakistan border. The still
undisclosed target of Redwing was a high-level al-Qaeda/Taliban
figure. Upon arriving in the target area, the team encountered the
terrain's lack of cover and was quickly discovered by sympathizers
of the local Jihad guerrilla band. The resulting firefight between
the four SEALs and over a hundred mujahedeen left Markus Luttrell as
the sole survivor of the sniper team. His comrades, Lieutenant
Michael Murphy, Petty Officer Matthew Axelson, and Petty Officer
Danny Dietz were killed by the mujahedeen. While attempting to
locate and rescue the SEAL team, a U.S. Army helicopter was shot
down with a loss of eight soldiers and eight SEALs. This disaster
makes 28 June 2005 the worst single day in the history of American
Special Forces.
Lone Survivor is Luttrell's firsthand
account of what happened that bloody day. It is also an absorbing
tale of how and why Luttrell came to be on that mountain, how he
survived, and the men he proudly served with. This fast-paced
narrative should appeal to those interested in Special Operations,
the War on Terror in Afghanistan, or a cracking good yarn.
As befits an autobiographical work, Lone
Survivor does not have a thesis per se. However, the
narrative is knitted together by three interrelated themes, which
may be summed up with reference to their emotional essence. First,
there is Luttrell's sincerity or seriousness of purpose. The man is
100% committed to his country, comrades, and mission. This accounts
for the complete absence of cynicism in his story. Second,
there is Luttrell's deep patriotism and his belief in the justice of
America's ongoing campaigns against Islamic Jihad. Last, there is
Luttrell's anger directed at the mainstream media and "liberals." He
blames "liberal" policies, attitudes, and reporting for contributing
to the deaths of his comrades. The emotional intensity of his book
helps the reader understand what motivates brave young men to endure
the extreme rigors of SEAL training and combat with a merciless
enemy.
A large section of the book is devoted to
describing in detail the severity of the legendary seven-month SEAL
training course at the Naval Special Warfare Center in Coronado,
California. Luttrell concentrates on the first seven-week phase of
training, which emphasizes physical conditioning and endurance,
teamwork, and mental toughness. "Teamwork. They slam that word at
you every other minute. Teamwork. Teamwork. Teamwork." (81).
This training culminates in what is accurately called Hell Week. The
U.S. Navy's official website notes that during Hell Week a trainee
can expect no more than four hours of sleep.[1]
The purpose of Hell Week is to push the prospective SEALs to the
very limits of physical and mental endurance. "Some of the guys
really were hallucinating now .… I cannot explain how tired we were"
(144). Of 164 men in Luttrell's class, only thirty-three made it
through Hell Week. This brutal training accounts for Luttrell's
survival, the courage and skill of his comrades, and their ability
to hold off hundreds of the enemy:
Those instructors have watched men
drop, watched them fail, watched them quit, and watched them
quietly, with ice-cold, expressionless faces. That's not heartless;
it's because they were only interested in the others, the ones who
did not crack or quit. The ones who would rather die than quit. The
ones with no quit in them (83).
Such was, among others, Medal of Honor recipient
Lt. Michael Murphy. The four SEALs attempted to retreat to better,
more level terrain by literally jumping and falling down a series of
steep escarpments. All had been either wounded or injured in the
falls; the situation could not have been more desperate. "Fuck
surrender," Lt. Murphy exclaimed, "Remember, bro, we're never out of
it" (235). Throughout the battle, he had been trying to acquire
communication with the forward American base at Asadabad,
Afghanistan. Since the mountainous landscape rendered his efforts
unsuccessful, Murphy, realizing that without immediate relief his
men were dead, moved onto open ground, where he was able to gain
contact with Asadabad:
I could hear him talking. "My men are
taking heavy fire … we're getting picked apart. My guys are dying
out here … we need help." And right then Mikey took a bullet
straight in the back. I saw the blood spurt from his chest. He
slumped forward, dropping his phone and his rifle. But then he
braced himself, grabbed them both, sat upright again, and once more
put the phone to his ear. I heard him speak again. "Roger that, sir.
Thank you." Then he stood up and staggered out to our bad position,
the one guarding our left, and Mikey just started fighting again,
firing at the enemy (237).
On the other end of that call for help was SEAL
Team 10 leader Lieutenant Commander Erik Kristensen. Along with
him, seven other SEALs volunteered without hesitation for an
extremely dangerous daylight insertion into the hostile mountains of
Afghanistan. The U.S. Army MH-47 Special Operations Aircraft (SOA, a
helicopter) had a crew of eight men from the 160th Special
Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR). The Chinook was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) and all sixteen aboard were lost. As this
tragedy was transpiring, Luttrell was literally blown off the face
of the mountain by an RPG. His comrades were dead and he was without
provisions, badly injured, and lost in hostile territory.
Besides his SEAL training, the values Luttrell
learned growing up on an east Texas ranch sustained him during his
ordeal. During the oil boom years of the 1980s, his parents did well
in the breeding and selling of horses. When the boom ended, the
Luttrell brothers learned more about perseverance and hard work as
the family got back on its feet. Marcus and his brother Morgan (also
a Navy SEAL) were out mending fences by the age of nine. These young
men took in self-reliance, determination, and independence of mind
with their mother's milk: "Nothing just happens. You always have to
strive" (33). From their father David they learned the core values
of the U.S. Navy: honor, courage, and commitment. While still in
high school, Luttrell sought out Billy Shelton, an ex-Green Beret,
to begin his training for the Special Forces. He was not the only
young man who trained with Shelton. Reading the section on
Luttrell's childhood, one feels nostalgic for a mostly bygone
American ethos. This is the first, but not last, instance of a "two
Americas" theme running throughout the book.
Although he is neither a "political person" nor a
war-lover, Luttrell's patriotism led him to join the SEALs to fight
for his country and Texas (39), a professional warrior doing the job
he was trained for. Luttrell argues that the men in the armed forces
are America's best, and he hopes that someday the nation's
government will learn to trust them (38).
In this vein, one is reminded of another combat
veteran's memoirs. E.B. Sledge's With the Old Breed is
usually remembered for its vivid descriptions of the horrendous
battles of Peleliu and Okinawa, including stories of Marines using
K-bars to extract gold-filled teeth from dead (and not yet dead)
Japanese soldiers. Nevertheless, in his concluding remarks, Sledge
notes that there are worse things than war: "Until the millennium
arrives and countries cease trying to enslave others, it will be
necessary to accept one's responsibilities …."
[2]
He and his comrades are now counted members of the "greatest
generation." The intelligence, academic accomplishments, patriotism,
and dedication to values many now hold in disdain make Luttrell and
his comrades the "greatest" of the current generation.
Luttrell and Sledge also share a common source of
anger, though in the latter's case far less pronounced. In
discussing the inability of some veterans to reintegrate into
civilian life, Sledge observes that
We were unable to understand
their attitudes until we ourselves returned home and tried to
comprehend people who griped because America wasn't perfect, or
their coffee wasn't hot enough, or they had to stand in line and
wait for a train or bus .… We just wished that people back home could
understand how lucky they were and stop complaining about trivial
inconveniences.
[3]
Fortunately for Sledge, his comrades, and the
nation, WWII vets did not also face a hostile press. By contrast, a
recurring theme of Lone Survivor is Luttrell's justified
anger as a warrior trying to defend his nation with one arm tied
behind his back. This anger is directed at "liberals" in Washington,
"where the human rights of terrorists are often given high priority"
(37), and at the "liberal media," ignorant of military affairs and
always willing to provide a megaphone for "the liberal part of the
U.S.A.," for whom America and its military are bullies and murderers
(36). Luttrell holds these two groups responsible for restrictive
Rules-of-Engagement (ROE) that lead to the deaths of American
soldiers on the battlefield: "they represent a danger to us … they
make us concerned, disheartened, and sometimes hesitant" (38). Stern
methods are required in counterinsurgency (COIN) warfare because "in
the end, your enemy must ultimately fear you, understand your
supremacy" (28).
In describing both his experiences in Iraq in
2004 and his ludicrous court martial for murder, U.S. Marine
Lieutenant Ilario Pantano, in his book Warlord, makes remarks
similar to Luttrell's:
They should have feared us. But instead, the Muj apparently thought
they could overwhelm our bases. That came from the stupidity of the
proportional response. The fact that the insurgents could even
consider massed assaults meant that we had not been sufficiently
brutal … we had become an "ineffective occupier" and not because of
the number of troops, he [Paul Bremer] argued, but because of our
overly restrictive Rules of Engagement and our discomfort with
killing the guys that needed to be killed.[4]
This issue is central to what transpired in the
Hindu Kush. Luttrell maintains that the death of his comrades was
(at least partially) due to both the ROE and the resulting concern
about being charged by zealous JAG (Judge Advocate General) officers
and crucified by the media. The terrain around the village that
Operation Redwing was focused upon was open and bereft of good
concealment. The SEALs took the best position to observe the
village. However, three goatherds, including a teenage boy, stumbled
upon them and were captured. While the SEALs discussed what to do,
the herders' flock was milling about, bringing attention on their
location. Luttrell states that the "correct military decision" in
this situation would have been to kill the goatherds, who would
surely divulge the Americans' location to the Taliban, and that "to
let these guys go on their way was military suicide" (202-3). But
Lt. Murphy stressed that if they killed the herders, they
would be charged with murder. Luttrell asserts that this concern and
the fear that "the U.S. media [would] attack us without mercy" led
him and Murphy to release the goatherds (206). Before the SEALs had
time to shift to a new position, they were under attack by
approximately 150 Taliban.
After being blown off the mountain, Luttrell
managed to evade his pursuers for about a day. Then he had a great
stroke of luck, becoming the beneficiary of a code of hospitality
known as lokhay warkawal, literally "giving of the pot" (72,
285). He was found by two villagers who provided him with
desperately needed water and first aid and eventually took him to
their village to recuperate from his ordeal. According to the custom
of lokhay, Luttrell had the protection of the entire village.
Why the village elders decided not only to save Luttrell's life, but
also risk attack by the Taliban is not clear. An Associated Press
story of 10 July 2008 reported that Afghan villagers killed two
Taliban "militants" in defense of aid workers: "According to our
culture, when the people invited the aid workers to dig a well they
cannot allow the Taliban to kidnap and behead them .... They were guests, and we never give up our guests."[5]
Under the protection of the villagers, Luttrell
recovered from his wounds and was rescued a week later. The story of
his stay in the Afghan village is most interesting. The
mutual affection between him and the village children is especially
endearing: "They never knocked, just came tumbling in, grabbing me
and hugging me" (315). Luttrell notes the balance of power between
the Taliban and the villagers. Without the support of the
heavily-armed villagers, the Taliban could not operate. A stalemate
ensued. The Taliban could huff and puff, but they dared not directly
attack the village and earn the villagers' enmity (339). Family
loyalties are fundamental there, and the last thing the Taliban
needed was a blood feud with the local people.
This fascinating book has already found a large,
non-academic audience. Academics, especially those not interested in
military affairs, will learn from it just what the military does and
why. What Aristotle wrote over 2,300 years ago applies to Luttrell
and his comrades: "The beauty of the soul shines out when a man
bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because
he does not feel them, but because he is a man of high and heroic
temper."[6]
Such men are always needed, as their values and
virtues are never outdated.
Kansas State University
grantj@ksu.edu
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[2] E.B. Sledge, With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa
(NY: Oxford U Pr, 1990) 315.
[4] Ilario Pantano, with Malcolm McConnell,
Warlord: No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy (NY: Threshold,
2006) 315.
[5] Amir Shah, "2 Taliban Killed by Group of
Afghan Villagers," Associated Press (10 Jul 2008) <link>.
[6] Nicomachean Ethics 1.10 (1100b30).
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