Lone Survivor By Marcus Luttrell

Lone Survivor

Everyone can understand and typically determine the difference between a decision that will be inconsequential and one that will not, allowing the individual to make the right decision with ease most of the time. Although, when the individual is a Navy Seal, the line between the right and wrong choice can become blurry and hard to determine, and the consequences of the choice become much more severe. Marcus Luttrell was a member of SEAL Team 10 and wrote the novel “Lone Survivor” revealing his personal account of SEAL team 10’s memorable mission in Afghanistan. During this mission the team underwent a life or death decision; three Afghan goat herders stumbled upon the four SEAL members, giving the team the choice to kill the goat

The only statement the older man in the group said to the team was “No Taliban… no Taliban”; they were described by Marcus as standing still, with scowls on their face, and eyes full of hatred, waiting for their fate to be determined by the team (Luttrell 201). Marcus, out of kindness, handed the young boy, out of the three goat herders, a power bar, but the boy denied the acceptance of it by sitting the bar on a rock next to him. The team rationalized that all of the goat herders’ precarious actions were because of the confusion the trio probably felt due to the team’s presentence on the men’s mountain. Unsure of what the right action would be, the one member of the team, Danny, attempted to contact the headquarters. “We could see him becoming very frustrated, like all comms operators do when they cannot get a connection. He kept trying, and we were rapidly coming to the conclusion the goddamned radio was up the creek (Luttrell 204). Because the team was unable to get conformation from HQ to know what to do they had to jump into action and think on their feet because they knew that they did not have much time and the longer they spent deciding what the right thing to do was, the more dangerous the situation could become. The team discussed their options and quickly came to the

(221).