Four US Navy SEALS departed one clear night in early July 2005 for the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border for a reconnaissance mission. Their task was to document the activity of an al Qaeda leader rumored to be very close to Bin Laden with a small army in a Taliban stronghold. Five days later, only one of those Navy SEALS made it out alive.
This is the story of the only survivor of Operation Redwing, SEAL fire team leader Marcus Luttrell, and the extraordinary firefight that led to the largest loss of life in American Navy SEAL history. His squadmates fought valiantly beside him until he was the only one left alive, blasted by an RPG into a place where his pursuers could not find him. Over the next four days, terribly injured and presumed dead, Luttrell crawled for miles through the mountains and was taken in by sympathetic villagers who risked their lives to keep him safe from surrounding Taliban warriors.
A born and raised Texan, Marcus Luttrell takes us from the rigors of SEAL training, where he and his fellow SEALs discovered what it took to join the most elite of the American special forces, to a fight in the desolate hills of Afghanistan for which they never could have been prepared. His account of his squadmates’ heroism and mutual support renders an experience that is both heartrending and life-affirming. In this rich chronicle of courage and sacrifice, honor and patriotism, Marcus Luttrell delivers a powerful narrative of modern war.
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Sexual Content - 0/5
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Violence - 4/5
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Language - 1/5
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Drugs and Alcohol - 0/5
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Summary
Overall Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 by Marcus Lutrell with Patrick Robinson Little, Brown & Company
2008. 416 pages I had a friend recommend this book as a must read. He couldn’t have been more right. I read the book in a day. The book starts with describing how the
author (Lutrell) became and Navy SEAL. Interesting insight into our deadliest warriors. The story follows Lutrell and the SEAL Team he is assigned to as they go on Operation Redwing, a mission to kill a known Al Qaeda terrorist in Afghanistan. The mission goes terribly wrong when the team makes a fateful decision about some civilians that it encounters. The story is an amazing recounting that shows the toughness and dedication of the Navy SEALs and their commitment to their country and each other. It’s important that we understand the sacrifices that our military makes for us, sacrifices that most of us would never want to be asked to do. A definite must read that may change the way that you look at our fighting men and women.
Violence The story of what these men went through is disturbing in the violence of the attacks on the SEAL Team.