Books

The Battle of Murphy's Ridge, June 28, 2005, was among the most tragic days in U.S. special operations history, and only Texan Marcus Luttrell lived to talk about it.

His memoir, Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10, recounts how he and three other Navy SEALs were dropped on a mountainside in the rural Hindu Kush in eastern Afghanistan to carry out a reconnaissance mission and, if possible, assassinate Taliban warlord Ben Sharmak.

Shortly after landing, the men, highly trained veterans of the war in Iraq, were surprised by a trio of unarmed Afghan goatherds. The team had to choose: kill them and (in their assessment) face possible war crimes charges or free them and risk their telling the Taliban about the soldiers' position. The SEALs took a vote, and Petty Officer 1st Class Luttrell, a Huntsville-area native, voted to offer the Afghans a stay of execution.

He now calls that "the stupidest, most Southern-fried, lamebrained decision I ever made in my life."

Perhaps it was: Before he would be rescued nearly a week later, two of his team members would die in his arms; his best friend would die while calling his name for help; and another 16 special operations forces members, including eight SEALs, would die when their helicopter was shot down attempting a rescue.

Petty Officer Luttrell's story has already shot to the top of the best-seller lists, and it's easy to see why: At a time when confidence in the war on terror is at an all-time low, he offers a testament to the bravery of the men on the front lines.

He describes in detail how he, along with his fellow SEALs Petty Officer Matthew Axelson, Petty Officer Danny Dietz and Lt. Michael Murphy, killed perhaps half of the 100 to 150 Taliban who attacked the team before they themselves were shot.

Petty Officer Luttrell, his leg shredded by a rocket-propelled grenade, with three vertebrae cracked and his nose broken, was saved only by happenstance. An Afghan doctor took him in under the 2,000-year-old Pashtun tradition of lokhy warkawal, which literally means "giving of a pot." It is the ultimate form of hospitality, in which a village offers a guest succor, including food, shelter and "an unbreakable commitment to defend that wounded man to the death," writes Petty Officer Luttrell.

His story is every bit as thrilling as Mark Bowden's 1999 best-seller Black Hawk Down and, unexpectedly, quite moving.

We worry about Petty Officer Luttrell every moment he is with his Afghan benefactors and feel for his friends and family gathered at his home as they fear the worst.

Beyond being a harrowing true-life war story, Lone Survivor is notable for the insight into the physiology, psychology and politics of elite soldiers. Petty Officer Luttrell's worldview is that of a man who sees life primarily through a rifle scope. Everything is divided into friend and enemy, black and white. The Taliban, liberal media and lawyers, al-Qaeda and the Geneva Convention are evil and in his crosshairs; Texans (especially George Bush), Christianity, bravery, loyalty and self-sacrifice are good.

This single-mindedness will not sit well with all readers, but it does explain why he and his colleagues are so very, very good at their jobs.

Edward Nawotka is a Houston freelance writer.

The Eyewitness Account of

Operation Redwing and the

Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10

Marcus Luttrell

(Little, Brown, $24.99) PLAN YOUR LIFE

Marcus Luttrell will sign Lone Survivor at 7 p.m. Thursday at Borders, 2709 North Mesquite Drive, Mesquite.

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