Book Review - Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell
Reading Lone Survivor ( 400 pages, Little Brown and Company, Hardcover, $24.99 ISBN-13: 978-0316067591) , the story of a 2005 ambush of a Navy SEAL team during Operation Redwing in Afghanistan left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand I was nearly in tears as I read Marcus Luttrell's account of his teams ambush by Taliban fighters and the loss of his three SEAL teammates AND all 20 men who came to their rescue in response to the team's OIC (Officer In Charge) desperate and heroic plea for help. I was even more moved by the story of the Afghan tribesman who protected Luttrell from the Taliban fighters who were hunting him and trying to finish him off. On the other hand I came away a little disappointed that Luttrell, the author and sole survivor of the ambush, did not come away with what I felt were maybe some obvious observations and conclusions after his ordeal and instead decided to turn his book about the horrific events of June 2005 into a platform to rail against liberal media and against what he felt were wrongheaded Rules Of Engagement (ROE) which he felt were responsible for the massacre of his team.
Lone Survivor follows Marcus Luttrell, a NAVY SEAL medic and sniper, through his SEAL training, his Hell Week and BUD/S training and gives us a glimpse of how the Navy trains and develops an elite group of warriors who are maybe one super-soldier serum away from being real-life Captain Americas. Men who become Navy Seals start out tough and are turned into nothing short of human weapons. The description of Hell Week alone will make you marvel at what a dedicated, passionate and patriotic person will do for his country. Knowing that there are people out there like Luttrell makes me feel just a little bit safer in the times we live in today.
The book then takes us up to a fateful night in June 2005 when Luttrell and three of his SEAL Team comrades were inserted into a mountainous area of Afghanistan near the Pakistani border on a mission to capture or kill a notorious al Qaeda leader who was protected by a couple of hundred Taliban fighters. The mission was the kind of thing SEALS were made and trained for; behind enemy lines, overwhelming odds in a hostile environment. High in the mountains and mostly above the tree line the members of Operation Redwing find poor conditions to take cover in and eventually are accidentally discovered by three unarmed civilian goatherds, one of them a teenage boy.
The members of the team debate their options on the mountainside, one of which includes killing the three men since they have no way of taking them prisoner and letting them go ran the risk of them tipping of the Taliban in the area and compromising their position and their mission. A vote is taken, with Luttrell casting the deciding vote to let the men go, a decision the SEAL seemed to instantly regret. Sure enough the four SEALS are soon being ambushed by Taliban and all three of Luttrell's teammates are killed during a heroic and desperate fire-fight with as many as 200 Taliban fighters. Luttrell is blasted off a mountainside and into unconsciousness by an RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade) blast and he manages to find a hiding place and temporarily escape the Taliban onslaught. Luttrell soon encounters an Afghan Pushtun tribesman who gives him sanctuary in way that obliges the man's entire village to protect Luttrell, even if it means fighting the Taliban to the last man themselves.
The story is harrowing, emotional, sad, inspirational and at times even graphic detailing of Operation Redwing, the men of SEAL Team 10 and the terrible things our country will ask men to do and go through. The story of Luttrell's teammates who fought valiantly against impossible odds even after being badly wounded , their dedication to their teammates and their feeling that if they could just get to level ground that they would be able to fight their way out of trouble is something that everyone should read or at least become familiar with to get a better understanding of what elite fighting men go through.
But, here is where I wanted to separate the story from the storyteller; when the SEALS have the Afghan civilians prisoner they debate killing the men so that their position will not be tipped off. Luttrell casts the deciding vote to let them men free. Fear of criminal charges and reprisals from "Liberal media" are cited as the deciding factors in his decision. But something else apparently guided Luttrell's decision beyond what he considers the correct military strategy (kill them or not), he writes "But my trouble is, I have another soul. My Christian soul. Something kept whispering in the back of my mind, it would be wrong to execute these unarmed men in cold blood."
Luttrell paints himself as a good Christian, although perhaps not a devout one, but a good Christian nonetheless. At this point in his story he seems to have made the decision to let them go based on a simple decent Christian principle. As soon as things go south, though, Luttrell changes his tune writing "I’d turned into a fucking liberal, a half-assed, no-logic nitwit, all heart, no brain, and the judgment of a jackrabbit." Luttrell goes on to curse the ROE which he feels are wrong-headed and a formula for failure, the liberal media which he feared would have crucified him and his team had they murdered the civilians and just about everything and everyone else who might have condemned the murder of the goatherds.
So, in his logic, Luttrell is equating being a Christian with being a liberal? I don't get it. He also seems to miss his own observations about the existence of a higher power. Throughout his account of the fire-fight with the Taliban Lutrell describes hearing the Voice of God, and then as he falls down a mountain and is blasted from place to place he is amazed that his rifle is always within reach and he attributes this to the hand of God.
If his decision to let the goatherds go was a Christian one, and if his luck with his escape was in part due to divine intervention of some sort, why didn't he come to the conclusion that I did, that he was being rewarded by God for his Christian decision. Luttrell is adamant in his recounting that had they killed those civilians that things would have turned out differently, but who is to say that would be true? They were being sent into a meat-grinder of a mission, with odds at anywhere from 35-1 to as high as 50-1. During the fire-fight Luttrell admits that the Taliban force is well-trained, using solid tactics and very well equipped. Had they continued on their mission it is possible they would have met the same fate, except maybe even Luttrell would have been killed. Other than a brief moment after their insertion, Luttrell and his comrades never question the sanity or potential success of the mission or even of the wisdom of sending such a small squad on this mission.
Later in the book Luttrell recounts his good fortune of being discovered by a friendly Afghan tribe who protected him from the Taliban and who made several efforts to find him safe passage out of the area. At one point he describes praying with the tribesman but silently "sneaking in a quick word to my own God". In my opinion Luttrell also misses another important point, that Muslims and Christians worship the same God, but Luttrell never seems to connect the dots that his Christian decision to let the civilians go might have led to his good fortune of finding the Afghan tribe. Since the villagers seemed to know all about the events of the fire-fight, was it not also possible that they knew about the decision that they made NOT to kill the goatherds? It never seemed to occur to him that they were rewarding him for his and his teams decision.
What might have been a powerful book about the discovery of God on the battlefield, about the power of faith and the virtue of making the Christian and moral decision is instead turned into an almost hateful screed about the evils of the liberal media, bleeding-heart politicians and even against the expectations of the general public about how to fight a war. The book almost seems written so that it will be plugged by Rush Limbaugh and the Neocons of Fox News.
I also have a problem with the way Luttrell portrays his friend and OIC Mike Murphy as indecisive and unsure of what to do when confronted by the unarmed civilians. I have had the pleasure of knowing two men who have served in the Special Forces (both of them Rangers) and the one thing I know about them is that neither of them are indecisive. They might not make the right call, but they make the call especially in tough situations. I don't want to discount Luttrell's story at all, but I wonder about this part of it. Mike Murphy is now being considered for the Medal of Honor, this country's highest military commendation, and I honestly don't think he would have been put in command of the mission if he had a trouble with making decisions at critical junctures. Last time I checked Special Forces troops are not trained in consensus building.
Luttrell also gives short-shrift to the Afghan villagers who saved him from the Taliban. While he does detail their heroism and the risks they took to protect him, he slights them by offering no postscript to their story. We do read about the medals and commendations given to him and his comrades, his meeting with the President and with all of his teams families. But he does not offer any look at the village, the men or in particular the man who kept him safe in that village, after he left. He does offer a couple of "I never saw him again" type of observations, but I wound up wondering whether he even cared to find out about his saviors.
So, do I recommend that you read Lone Survivor? Yes I do. The descriptions of SEAL Training, of Hell Week and BUD/S training, the description of the mission and how it went wrong, the accounts of the fire-fight between the four SEALS and as many as 200 Taliban fighters, all of this is worth reading. Honestly, we should all know what we ask men and women in the armed forces to do in defense of this nation. Lots of people get seriously screwed up in the name of God and Country, we should know about this in more detail than you are afforded watching on Headline News or in what minimal fish-wrap that passes for a daily paper these days. Good people die as we ask them to make unthinkable decisions. Maybe we do have unrealistic expectations about warfare in this century, and maybe when we are faced with an enemy like al Qaeda or Taliban we can't expect that things be all clean and tidy. But Luttrell's assumption that liberal thinking lead to the demise of his team misses a point which seemed obvious to me; that maybe God does exist on the battlefield and that there is some kind of reward for making the moral and Christian decision.
So, my advice, read the book but separate the story from the storyteller, or at the very minimum keep an open mind about the conclusions that Luttrell comes to. If you are of a conservative mind and you believe in the evils of the "liberal media" you will find yourself agreeing with Luttrell's conclusions. However if you read the story as I did you might see something more than the general Fox News anti-liberal rants, something even more powerful.
In conclusion I want to stress that I know that it might sound like I am being harsh on Luttrell, perhaps even attempting to discredit his story, nothing could be further than the truth. I am only pointing out that I came away with a much more powerful message the Luttrell did from his own story. Read the book, you decide.
Lone Survivor follows Marcus Luttrell, a NAVY SEAL medic and sniper, through his SEAL training, his Hell Week and BUD/S training and gives us a glimpse of how the Navy trains and develops an elite group of warriors who are maybe one super-soldier serum away from being real-life Captain Americas. Men who become Navy Seals start out tough and are turned into nothing short of human weapons. The description of Hell Week alone will make you marvel at what a dedicated, passionate and patriotic person will do for his country. Knowing that there are people out there like Luttrell makes me feel just a little bit safer in the times we live in today.
The book then takes us up to a fateful night in June 2005 when Luttrell and three of his SEAL Team comrades were inserted into a mountainous area of Afghanistan near the Pakistani border on a mission to capture or kill a notorious al Qaeda leader who was protected by a couple of hundred Taliban fighters. The mission was the kind of thing SEALS were made and trained for; behind enemy lines, overwhelming odds in a hostile environment. High in the mountains and mostly above the tree line the members of Operation Redwing find poor conditions to take cover in and eventually are accidentally discovered by three unarmed civilian goatherds, one of them a teenage boy.
The members of the team debate their options on the mountainside, one of which includes killing the three men since they have no way of taking them prisoner and letting them go ran the risk of them tipping of the Taliban in the area and compromising their position and their mission. A vote is taken, with Luttrell casting the deciding vote to let the men go, a decision the SEAL seemed to instantly regret. Sure enough the four SEALS are soon being ambushed by Taliban and all three of Luttrell's teammates are killed during a heroic and desperate fire-fight with as many as 200 Taliban fighters. Luttrell is blasted off a mountainside and into unconsciousness by an RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade) blast and he manages to find a hiding place and temporarily escape the Taliban onslaught. Luttrell soon encounters an Afghan Pushtun tribesman who gives him sanctuary in way that obliges the man's entire village to protect Luttrell, even if it means fighting the Taliban to the last man themselves.
The story is harrowing, emotional, sad, inspirational and at times even graphic detailing of Operation Redwing, the men of SEAL Team 10 and the terrible things our country will ask men to do and go through. The story of Luttrell's teammates who fought valiantly against impossible odds even after being badly wounded , their dedication to their teammates and their feeling that if they could just get to level ground that they would be able to fight their way out of trouble is something that everyone should read or at least become familiar with to get a better understanding of what elite fighting men go through.
But, here is where I wanted to separate the story from the storyteller; when the SEALS have the Afghan civilians prisoner they debate killing the men so that their position will not be tipped off. Luttrell casts the deciding vote to let them men free. Fear of criminal charges and reprisals from "Liberal media" are cited as the deciding factors in his decision. But something else apparently guided Luttrell's decision beyond what he considers the correct military strategy (kill them or not), he writes "But my trouble is, I have another soul. My Christian soul. Something kept whispering in the back of my mind, it would be wrong to execute these unarmed men in cold blood."
Luttrell paints himself as a good Christian, although perhaps not a devout one, but a good Christian nonetheless. At this point in his story he seems to have made the decision to let them go based on a simple decent Christian principle. As soon as things go south, though, Luttrell changes his tune writing "I’d turned into a fucking liberal, a half-assed, no-logic nitwit, all heart, no brain, and the judgment of a jackrabbit." Luttrell goes on to curse the ROE which he feels are wrong-headed and a formula for failure, the liberal media which he feared would have crucified him and his team had they murdered the civilians and just about everything and everyone else who might have condemned the murder of the goatherds.
So, in his logic, Luttrell is equating being a Christian with being a liberal? I don't get it. He also seems to miss his own observations about the existence of a higher power. Throughout his account of the fire-fight with the Taliban Lutrell describes hearing the Voice of God, and then as he falls down a mountain and is blasted from place to place he is amazed that his rifle is always within reach and he attributes this to the hand of God.
If his decision to let the goatherds go was a Christian one, and if his luck with his escape was in part due to divine intervention of some sort, why didn't he come to the conclusion that I did, that he was being rewarded by God for his Christian decision. Luttrell is adamant in his recounting that had they killed those civilians that things would have turned out differently, but who is to say that would be true? They were being sent into a meat-grinder of a mission, with odds at anywhere from 35-1 to as high as 50-1. During the fire-fight Luttrell admits that the Taliban force is well-trained, using solid tactics and very well equipped. Had they continued on their mission it is possible they would have met the same fate, except maybe even Luttrell would have been killed. Other than a brief moment after their insertion, Luttrell and his comrades never question the sanity or potential success of the mission or even of the wisdom of sending such a small squad on this mission.
Later in the book Luttrell recounts his good fortune of being discovered by a friendly Afghan tribe who protected him from the Taliban and who made several efforts to find him safe passage out of the area. At one point he describes praying with the tribesman but silently "sneaking in a quick word to my own God". In my opinion Luttrell also misses another important point, that Muslims and Christians worship the same God, but Luttrell never seems to connect the dots that his Christian decision to let the civilians go might have led to his good fortune of finding the Afghan tribe. Since the villagers seemed to know all about the events of the fire-fight, was it not also possible that they knew about the decision that they made NOT to kill the goatherds? It never seemed to occur to him that they were rewarding him for his and his teams decision.
What might have been a powerful book about the discovery of God on the battlefield, about the power of faith and the virtue of making the Christian and moral decision is instead turned into an almost hateful screed about the evils of the liberal media, bleeding-heart politicians and even against the expectations of the general public about how to fight a war. The book almost seems written so that it will be plugged by Rush Limbaugh and the Neocons of Fox News.
I also have a problem with the way Luttrell portrays his friend and OIC Mike Murphy as indecisive and unsure of what to do when confronted by the unarmed civilians. I have had the pleasure of knowing two men who have served in the Special Forces (both of them Rangers) and the one thing I know about them is that neither of them are indecisive. They might not make the right call, but they make the call especially in tough situations. I don't want to discount Luttrell's story at all, but I wonder about this part of it. Mike Murphy is now being considered for the Medal of Honor, this country's highest military commendation, and I honestly don't think he would have been put in command of the mission if he had a trouble with making decisions at critical junctures. Last time I checked Special Forces troops are not trained in consensus building.
Luttrell also gives short-shrift to the Afghan villagers who saved him from the Taliban. While he does detail their heroism and the risks they took to protect him, he slights them by offering no postscript to their story. We do read about the medals and commendations given to him and his comrades, his meeting with the President and with all of his teams families. But he does not offer any look at the village, the men or in particular the man who kept him safe in that village, after he left. He does offer a couple of "I never saw him again" type of observations, but I wound up wondering whether he even cared to find out about his saviors.
So, do I recommend that you read Lone Survivor? Yes I do. The descriptions of SEAL Training, of Hell Week and BUD/S training, the description of the mission and how it went wrong, the accounts of the fire-fight between the four SEALS and as many as 200 Taliban fighters, all of this is worth reading. Honestly, we should all know what we ask men and women in the armed forces to do in defense of this nation. Lots of people get seriously screwed up in the name of God and Country, we should know about this in more detail than you are afforded watching on Headline News or in what minimal fish-wrap that passes for a daily paper these days. Good people die as we ask them to make unthinkable decisions. Maybe we do have unrealistic expectations about warfare in this century, and maybe when we are faced with an enemy like al Qaeda or Taliban we can't expect that things be all clean and tidy. But Luttrell's assumption that liberal thinking lead to the demise of his team misses a point which seemed obvious to me; that maybe God does exist on the battlefield and that there is some kind of reward for making the moral and Christian decision.
So, my advice, read the book but separate the story from the storyteller, or at the very minimum keep an open mind about the conclusions that Luttrell comes to. If you are of a conservative mind and you believe in the evils of the "liberal media" you will find yourself agreeing with Luttrell's conclusions. However if you read the story as I did you might see something more than the general Fox News anti-liberal rants, something even more powerful.
In conclusion I want to stress that I know that it might sound like I am being harsh on Luttrell, perhaps even attempting to discredit his story, nothing could be further than the truth. I am only pointing out that I came away with a much more powerful message the Luttrell did from his own story. Read the book, you decide.
Comments
Also some of the grammar in the book would make a grmmar school teacher wonder about the author!
I have never served with a indecisive officer. I have served with some dumb ones but when they made a bad decision they never thought twice.
My men and I were not trained to ponder the ramifications of our orders. I often would tell my new soldiers about 3 of our guys in a supposed green zone.
How they turned a corner and stood facing 3 Iraqi regular army. A classic double take by two groups that did not expect the other. Except that our men died without ever firing a single round.
It was witnessed that one of the group dropped his weapon and began begging for his life. His two buddies instead of taking advantage of this distraction followed suit and they were gunned down seconds later.
I don't tell this to show how cruel the enemy is to my soldiers. I do not blame the Iraq reg in the slightest. How dare these invaders who are killing my people beg for my mercy.
I told them so they knew that the difference between a live soldier and a dead soldier is often how many rounds are left in your magazine, not how much you love your family.
With this kind of psychological condition we go through and reinforce in each other, hesitation is rare. Rare enough that I have never seen it. I wasn't even special forces. I was a logistic specialist. They just wouldn't stop shooting at damn trucks though. ;P
I got my ass chewed out once for swerving my truck to avoid what looked like a man in a sleeping bag that was partially in my path.
My Sgt gave me a hour "WTF is your problem?" and informed there are no people in the road there are only speed bumps and you never slow the convoy.
I will show them how a real Editor rearranges things.