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Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 | 
 enlarge | Author: Marcus Luttrell
Publisher: audible.com
Category: Book
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $11.23
You Save: $3.75 (25%)
Rating:  740 reviews
Sales Rank: 7028955
Media: Audio Download
ASIN: B000TD15PM
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| Customer Reviews: Read 735 more reviews...
 ROE costs American Lives June 23, 2007
Monty Rainey (New Braunfels, TX)
314 out of 457 found this review helpful
Let me start by saying, even though I'm well past my prime, I'm a big, tough guy. I've been in more than my share of rough situations. What I'm trying to say here is, it's not easy to get me to water up. But this book had me sobbing before I even finished the introduction. Unless you're just absolute pond scum that has no compassion whatsoever for our military, be forewarned this book will definitely have you wiping your eyes more than a few times.
Author Patrick Robinson conveys Petty Officer Luttrell's story magnificently. He is to be commended. You will flip through these pages in a day or two and be unable to put this one down.
I'm not going to spend much time on the story itself. Just read the book. You'll not find many more graphic descriptions of such things as an almost incomprehensible training regimen, the unique brotherhood that develops among men who have trained and fought together (particularly special forces), courage under fire and an incredible network of support for a fallen loved one.
You will have a plethora of personal emotions exposed. For me, I think what drove hardest upon my psyche is the intense hatred I feel after reading this book, not of the Taliban and Al Queda (although they rank right up there in the I freakin' hate your guts department), but rather of two entities right here in America; the National media and the U.S. Congress. This mission cost us twenty-three of our very finest, and those two entities are directly responsible for their deaths and countless others. They should all have their ROE shoved right up their backsides.
Not since our government disbanded the great American military fighting force of WWII in 1945 have they given the military the support needed to win wars. Sure they've provided the proper equipment and training, but then they have sent our troops into battle time after time with their hands tied behind their backs. The guys in Korea got a taste of it. We damned sure got plenty of it in Nam. They sort of allowed the guys in Gulf War I to do their job, but now, it's just over the top.
And then you've got the piece of [...] news media. 98% of those pukes ought to be ,.... Well, okay, I'm ranting now and not reviewing, so let me get a grip. In war there is always an army defending freedom and an army seeking to destroy freedom. Whichever army wins will determine the difference between freedom and slavery for that nation. It's obvious which side many in the news media and in Washington D.C. are pulling for.
Marcus Luttrell is a true American hero. As are his fallen team members. I am thankful Marcus is a U.S. Navy Seal. I am thankful he decided to make this story known. I am thankful to my grandchildren for giving me this book for Father's Day. I have several new names and families to hold in my prayers.
Absolutely Unimaginable June 12, 2007
Jengo (LONDON)
226 out of 256 found this review helpful
This book takes you inside the Navy SEALs training program in Coronado. You are with Marcus Luttrell throughout BUD/S and Hell Week. You fly with him and his teammates in a C-130 to the Hindu Kush, where the hunt begins for bin Laden's right-hand man. But then it all goes terribly wrong, up there in the mountains of Afghanistan.
This book, written by Patrick Robinson, reads like a fast-paced thriller, told in Marcus's understated voice. It is a rivetting, important, sad story of lost friends, valor, courage and the intricacies of modern war. It is an important book, destined to become an American classic.
Just Amazing June 20, 2007
Go ADF! (Brisbane, Queensland Australia)
142 out of 196 found this review helpful
I remember when this incident happened back in 05 and I had no idea of the amazing story of this Texan, and his involvement in the great crusade of our time. As an Australian, it did not get much newstime over here. Thank you PO Luttrell for your service in the GWOT, and God Bless Australia and the USA, the two greatest nations on Earth, and Texas and Queensland, the two best states to come from.
 Pure garbage August 9, 2007
RVJ (Fort Lewis, WA)
83 out of 157 found this review helpful
I am an active duty member of the Army, and I am a special operations soldier, so I feel that maybe, just maybe I have a tiny bit of credibility when I talk about things of this nature. I felt this book was pure trash, I would read passages out loud to my team mates and we would all laugh. Mind you, it breaks my heart to hear about Americans dying, I'm not talking about that. What I am talking about is this guy's apparent blame that liberals killed his friends. I was in aw that the officer in charge even suggested killing those goat herders! That IS MURDER! Not because liberals have tied our hands with useless rules, but because they were unarmed civilians! He would have been (and should have been) tried as a murderer, because that's what he would have been. No officer in his right mind would give that command, and most soldiers would recognize that as not being a lawful order. There are about 10 different ways to handle that situation. They made a mistake...that's how it goes sometimes. I'm not even going to get into the absurdity of putting it to a vote; I have no idea when the military became a democracy.
I have been privy to some other issues involving this operation, and it is general opinion that these guys really messed up big time.
I hated this book, it gives special ops a bad name, and I don't suggest it to anyone, god forbid some civilian actually believe the authors load of nonsense.
So go ahead, now post your silly little comments about how un-American I am, or whatever. I'm not impressed, especially if you have never done anything for your country besides keep the T.V. and couch industries in business. I have been serving for quite a while now, and I am confident that my patriotism is in tact. A goat rope operation is a goat rope operation, and poor planning will always produce poor results. And a garbage book is a garbage book.
pathetic, lame and embarrasing June 14, 2007
David A Swann (kaneohe, HI USA)
82 out of 371 found this review helpful
I had high hopes for this book. I really wanted to know what happened that day in the "Ghan" when a the Navy SEALS lost more men on one day than any time in their history. Ok, the basics are there and now I sort of know what happened. But the SEAL who tells his story, Marcus Luttrell, is so super gung-ho on his own ego and Bush and Country and God and Apple Pie and tales of amazing strength and adventure and his hatred for "liberals" that the story he tells loses all credibility if the reader stops for a moment to think about he or she has just read.
I will just cite one example of something that makes no sense: The Mark 12 battle rifle that these guys use large high-tech scopes. Anyone who knows anything about these weapons knows just how fragile the optics are on these things. These rifles are accurate and leathal but they are not rugged AK-47s. Accurate? yes. Able to withstand falling down the sides of mountains and remain accurate? no way. But yet somehow Luttrell's rifle always somehow falls right at his feet after sliding and banging down hundreds of feet of mountainside and then prseto - he picks it up and continues to fire away, hitting targets at great distances over and over and over and over and over. And he says clearly that he is still using his scope, not iron sights. It is, to say the least, not believable.
Also, I love the bit about when the team is deciding whether of not to murder 3 goat herders and they say, "Well, if we kill them, that doesn't make us murderers." The irony is perfect. Luttrell and his men are just as morally self rightous as the people they are fighting - not to mention their commander in chief George W. Bush. Somehow, when the terrorists shoot innocent people, they are murderers, but when God-fearing and Mom-loving Americans shoot innocent people, they aren't. Why? Because they say so. And how do we even know that the 3 goatherders even alerted the Taliban? There is no proof - just this assumption that they did. As far as we know, they could have been part of the same village of people who helped save his life.
So Luttrell wishes that they had "quietly" killed the 3 goatherders. I guess that means they would have cut their throats. Nice image of our warriors cutting the throats of 3 tribesmen (one of them a kid) simply for stumbling across the four SEALS. Isn't that what Bob Kerry did in Vietnam? Yeh, he cut the throats of 2 kids and their elderly grandparents so they could carry on with the "Op." Ah yes, we are soooo much better than our evil enemies, aren't we?
pathetic.
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