One of the great things about the blogesphere is that on certain stories, you hear about them months, if not years in advance. The story of The One is the ultimate example. Here is a post on Froggy Ruminations from July 2005.
The story of this harrowing evasion will probably come out eventually, but while the account that I was unofficially given was not very specific, it is truly awe inspiring.
On September 17, 2006, Matt Burden, the founder of Blackfive and creator of the Someone You Should Know series, joined us on Pundit Review Radio to tell us more about The One and Operation Redwing, the deadliest incident in the history of the Navy SEALS.
On June 12, 2007 Marcus Luttrell’s Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 was published. I can say without hesitation that this is a book that you will never forget. From the Washington Post,
If you’re looking for a true story that showcases both American heroism and Afghani humanity, Marcus Luttrell’s Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 (Little, Brown, $24.99), written with Patrick Robinson, may be the book for you. In June of 2005, Luttrell led a four-man team of Navy SEALs into the mountains of Afghanistan on a mission to kill a Taliban leader thought to be allied with Osama bin Laden. On foot, the team encountered two adult men and a teenage boy. A debate broke out as to whether the SEALs should summarily execute the trio to keep them from alerting the Taliban. Luttrell himself was called upon to make the decision. He was torn between considerations of morality and his survival instinct, and he points out that “any government that thinks war is somehow fair and subject to rules like a baseball game probably should not get into one. Because nothing’s fair in war, and occasionally the wrong people do get killed.”
Luttrell opted to spare the Afghanis’ lives. About an hour later, the Taliban launched an attack that claimed nearly a hundred of their own men but also the lives of all the SEALs except Luttrell, who was left wounded.
Not long after that, the Taliban shot down an American rescue helicopter, killing all 16 men on board. Luttrell is sure that the three Afghanis he let go turned around and betrayed the SEALs.
But if nothing is fair in war, neither is anything foreordained. Luttrell was found by other Afghanis, one of whom claimed to be his village’s doctor. Once again, Luttrell had to rely on his instincts. “There was something about him,” Luttrell writes. “By now I’d seen a whole lot of Taliban warriors, and he looked nothing like any of them. There was no arrogance, no hatred in his eyes.” Luttrell trusted the man and his colleagues, who took him back to their village, where the law of hospitality — “strictly nonnegotiable” — took hold. “They were committed to defend me against the Taliban,” Luttrell writes, “until there was no one left alive.”
The law held, and Luttrell survived, returned home and received the Navy Cross for combat heroism from President Bush.
I cannot recommend this book with greater enthusiasm. Absolutely incredible.
That is the table setting for this awful story about worthless scum who deserved far worse than they got. Miss Underestimated has the infuriating details,
Marcus was at home, it was late at night and he was awake. He heard a gunshot outside, told his mom to stay inside, and when he went outside he saw a group of punks standing around his yellow lab named “Dasy,†lying dead in the ditch. These punks had shot Dasy with a .357 and killed her. Dasy was very special to Marcus, because she served not only as his therapy dog, but her very name was an acronym for the members of his SEAL team who fought and died in Afghanistan – Danny, Axe, Southern Boy (Marcus) and Yankee.
Marcus chased these punks over four counties, and he nearly shot the driver. Finally the Rangers caught up with these punks in Huntsville, TX
Uncle Jimbo from Blackfive added,
I watched it live on Beck and the biggest worry I had was that Marcus was going to say that he had actually shot the bastards and they would pan out and show that he was live from jail. He has more control than that though and simply chased them down in his truck and ran them into a road block. It was a heinous, despicable act and the weasels who did it will soon understand just how much they screwed themselves. I got calls from David Bellavia and then from Marcus’ Dad Pops soon after. We all were saddened by the shittiness of it, but happy that Marcus didn’t drop the hammer. Godspeed DASY.
Did you catch his side comment that he “doesn’t sleep at night”. That chilled me to the bone. Being The One carries an incredible burden. That he has to go through something like this here at home is just sickening. I didn’t think there was any way I could have more respect for Marcus Luttrell than I already did. What a man.