"Lone Survivor," recounted by Marcus Luttrell and written/recorded by Patrick Robinson, tells the story of Marcus's early life and the titular experience he had in Afghanistan.
Growing up in the wilds of Texas, Marcus was raised with valuable survival skills like shooting and swimming by his father, alongside his barely-older twin brother, and grew up as a very patriotic person. At a young age, a trainer for the U.S. seals was in town, and at their request, gave Marcus and his brother free but rigorous training routines to help prepare them for their plans to become U.S. Navy Seals.
Marcus also goes heavily into the political aspect of the war in the middle east, covering aspects such as the legendary warriors of the Pashtun tribe, who survived the might of the armies of even Genghis Khan and Britain, and who are sympathetic to the Taliban, and explains Lokhay, which is the most dedicated extent of hospitality towards a guest, where the tribe lays everything down to protect them.
He explains the Rules of Engagement, military law designed to prevent war crimes such as the shooting of innocents. Basically, you are not allowed to fire at another person until they shoot back or you positively identify their negative intentions. But if a squad is in enemy territory, has been chased and hunted by Taliban for days, and suddenly multiple middle-eastern men with towels on their heads (his words) and Ak-47's in their hands come running over a hill, every second you hesitate is another one that they have to line up a shot on you. While it may seem simple to politicians, it's anything but that to any soldier who's been in the field and knows how they can make a soldier concerned, disheartened, and even sometimes hesitant. And it's these rules that cost the lives of the rest of his four-man squad, and resulted in one of the biggest losses of life in Navy Seal history.
Flown into the rugged mountains of Afghanistan to capture or kill a Taliban leader and known associate of Osama Bin Laden, his team lands on terrain that quickly becomes apparent as a potential deathtrap for them: open land, no cover. As they try and find a safer path to their destination, they stumble across three goat farmers, and are faced with a conundrum: if they let the farmers go, they could run off and alert the Taliban of their presence. If they kill the farmers, they would be hung in the liberal media, incarcerated, and labeled as murderers.
They decide to let the farmers go, but quickly come to regret that decision, as soon the Taliban begin firing volleys of lead and rocket-propelled grenades from a nearby hill. They fight back, and with superior training they hold their own for a little bit, but the Taliban had the high ground, and used it to their advantage to unrelentlessly fire at Marcus and his squad. His squad began taking hits, and even kept fighting through it; however, his men finally began to succumb to their wounds and perished, leaving only him alive in Taliban-infested mountains.
With direct confrontation obviously out of the question now, he stayed in hiding, and even won a few encounters with stray soldiers, until word of his predicament reached the rest of his Seal team and they, along with another squad, came down to rescue him with a helicopter, before a well-placed from a Taliban rocket-propelled-grenade launcher entered the helicopter through the back hatch and exploded inside, destroying the helicopter and killing everyone inside.
Finally, a local Afghan not sympathetic to the Taliban takes him back to his tribe in the mountains, where they extend Lokhay to him, and help protect him against the Taliban until another helicopter can come and evacuate him.
This book was an extremely entertaining and inspiration read, that really shows the bravery and dedication of our armed forces, and everything they brave and endure so that we can sit here and enjoy the freedoms that so many have died for.
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