During the following weeks of Red Wings II, ground units of 2/3 undertook a number of patrols, as did members of the Afghan National Army, Army Special Operations units, and Navy Special Operations units. Weve got a dedicated section for the AR-15 here. Luttrells book was, what I believe to be, a spot-on first-hand account of the events and therefore accurate. The attendees were given a standing ovation by the more than 25,000 there to watch the game. you a link to reset your password. Operation Red Wings (often incorrectly referred to as Operation Redwing or Operation Red Wing ), [13] informally referred to as the Battle of Abbas Ghar, was a joint military operation conducted by the United States in the Pech District of Kunar Province, Afghanistan. Also the whole Afgan situation should have been avoided in the first place. They would have gone anyway. [2] Seiffert's list[19] included ten teams,[20] and the battalion settled on the fourth name on the list, "Red Wings", since the first three, New York Rangers, Chicago Blackhawks, and New Jersey Devils, each could be misconstrued as a reference to military units currently in Afghanistan at the time. Stephen C. Reich - Wikipedia But no, they took a vote, like boy scouts, and it was up to our hero to make the call, which he then blames on CNN. What injuries did Matt Axelson receive while in Operation Red Wing Following the call, Murphy managed to drag himself to a semi-covered position, where he began to cry out to Luttrell for help. Operation Red Wings On June 28, 2005, deep behind enemy lines east of Asadabad in the Hindu Kush of Afghanistan, a very committed four-man Navy SEAL team was conducting a reconnaissance mission at the unforgiving altitude of approximately 10,000 feet. Theres a movie, too, and its fairly well done but the book is much better and Marcus Luttrell himself wrote it with established author Patrick Robinson. Luttrell's claim that the mission was to hunt down a key ally of. Reich played for the "Team USA" baseball team in 1993, and has more wins than any other pitcher . [n 1][21] This error began with the publication of the book Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10, which was written by Patrick Robinson based on interviews with Marcus Luttrell. For the team to not find any dead combatants isnt unusual either because they have to be buried by sundown, so they will get the bodies fast. Erik Samsel Kristensen (March 15, 1972 - June 28, 2005) was a Lieutenant commander of the United States Navy SEALs who was killed in action during Operation Red Wings. I stood up, best I could, walk-crawled for at least four miles off that mountain and then onto another one. By Lt Murphy not eliminating the two young Afghanis by tying them up and gagging them or killing them, I feel that he brought down the hell on his teams head. ON the same day, a Quick Reaction Force of 8 Navy SEALs and 8 Army Night Stalkers were also killed when the MH-47 helicopter that they were aboard was shot down by enemy fire in the vicinity of Asadabad, Afghanistan, in Kumar Province. This is my opinion. 3rd Battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), Hunter Army Air Field, Ga. On 22 October 2007, President George W. Bush presented the parents of Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy the Medal of Honor for his actions on 28 June 2005. Hes a medically retired SEAL, a husband, a father, a public speaker, a hunter, and the kind of guy youd expect to find in Texas. If you did, you would know where soldiers are coming from! He was in mental and physical agony but he refused to give up. It's free to sign up and bid on jobs. This is an insult to Mike Murphy, as any officer who didn't plan for an obvious contingency like this would be incompetent. Finding blood pools and body parts are usually what post battle assessment comes up with unless you are the ones conducting the raid. Operation Red Wings Autopsy Report Hey you got any additional tin foil hats you could share? That QRF included an MH-47 Chinook, radio call sign Turbine 33, containing eight SEALs and eight 160th Army Special Operations Aviators. Because Gulab had previously met the Marine commander based at Nangalam, he asked an older man, Shina, from another part of the village of Salar Ban to make the trek with the note to the base in his stead and gave him 1,000 Afghanis (about twenty U.S. dollars) for the trip. It would be several days before a team of U.S. Army Rangers would arrive to extract Luttrell. Operation Red Wings - Wikipedia I will draw on every remaining ounce of strength to protect my teammates and accomplish our mission. [1][2] While many of Afghanistan's provinces at this time had stable security environments, one of the most restive continued to be the Kunar Province, which lies in eastern Afghanistan, on the border with Pakistan. When now-retired Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell saw MatthewAxelson alive for the last time the two men were hunkered down in a small hollow and Axelson was down to his handgun. One of the villagers made his way to a Marine outpost with a note from Luttrell, and U.S. forces launched a massive operation that rescued him from enemy territory on July 2. [citation needed], Command and control was lost and neither visual nor radio contact could be established with the SEAL team. He was also known as Muhammad Ismail, a guerilla group known to locals as the Mountain Tigers. I did not see that in Marcuss book. Marcus Luttrell (born November 7, 1975) is a retired United States Navy SEAL who received the Navy Cross and Purple Heart for his actions in June 2005 against Taliban fighters during Operation Red Wings in which he was the lone survivor. [2][40], The team, surmising that they would likely be compromised, retreated to a fallback position. [52], Not long before Operation Red Wings, relations with the Americans had improved in the Shuryek Valley and the greater Pech River region because of humanitarian work that had taken place. Najmudeen's surrender, however, left a power vacuum in the region. Rare footage of the disastrous Operation Red Wings from the - reddit [2] These groups were collectively known as anti-coalition militia (ACM),[1][2] and the common thread among all was a strong resistance to the unification of the country and subsequent increasing presence of national government entities in the Kunar. PDF Operation Red Wings Autopsy Report - x3media.com In Luttrell's own official after-action report filed with his superiors after his rescue, he estimated the size of the Taliban force to be around 2035. You can learn more about the foundation here and, if you are a veteran suffering from combat trauma, you can apply to attend here. Shah, they determined, was responsible for approximately 11 incidents against coalition forces and government of Afghanistan entities, including small arms ambushes and improvised explosive device (IED) attacks. Operation Red Wings is one of the darkest times in SEAL team history and the inspiration behind the movie Lone Survivor. And just like Pat Tillman, the DOD needed up a hero story to cover up a goatf@ck, except this time here's Luttrell already on the spot trying to cash in with a ghost written book so bad it can't even get the mission name right (it's Red Wings after the hockey team, not Redwing). If it pew-pews, its on. In actuality, LT Murphy successfully made the call while taking gunfire. Marcus Luttrell writes the book Lone Survivor about Operation Red Wings. The 3/3, which deployed to Regional Command East (which included Kunar Province) in late 2004 to conduct stability and counterinsurgency operations in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, identified a number of operational barriers because of Special Operations Command doctrine for the battalion's counterinsurgency work in the area. Even if it was a choice instead of an command. No AARs from missions before and after Red Wings, no HUMINT, SIGINT, or any other kind of INT corroborates the number of hostiles in Luttrell's story. And we're supposed to believe they stood around discussing what to do with the herders after the soft compromise, like no one ever considered the possibility? [46] Known simply as Gulab, he took Luttrell into his home that first day in accordance with the Pashtunwali custom of Nanawatai, whereby asylum is given to a person to protect them from their enemies. [61] In addition, the United States Navy Parachute Team, the Leap Frogs, brought in the American flag, the POW/MIA flag and the San Diego Padres flag. His brothers were dead, hed been repeatedly shot, his back was shattered, and hed racked up countless contusions and lacerations diving down the mountain. Every single soldier of those 20 who lost their life would still step onboard of that MH-47, even when they knew it upfront or thought for split seccond that he made a mistake! [72] In his book, Victory Point: Operations Red Wings and Whalers the Marine Corps' Battle for Freedom in Afghanistan, military journalist Ed Darack cites a military intelligence report stating the strength of the Taliban force to be 810. Making it work meant sacrificing himself. Murphy kept crying out for help, and Luttrell set aside his weapon and put his fingers in his ears because he could not stand to hear his best friend die. An estimated 35 Taliban were also dead. Luttrell became a SO1 by the end of his eight-year career in the United States Navy.. Luttrell co-hosts After Action, a TV show in which former special . In the wake of his brother's death, Jeff founded Axelson Tactical, designing and manufacturing custom-quality rifles. I can say or do NOTHING regarding the events because quite simply I wasnt there. It felt disrespectful to the other 3 guys. The film shows Murphy deciding to expose himself to enemy fire to get a message to a waiting Quick Reaction Force and hopefully save as many of his men as possible. Extortion 17: The deadliest day in the DEVGRU history - Spec Ops Magazine I watched a portion of one of his paid speeches where he claimed his back was broken and he had 11 through and throughs as he referred to them. [54] Luttrell was subsequently moved to different places until forces could arrive to extract him. His book says they fought, what, 100 insugents, killing 35? Surviving takes courage, too. Murphy contacted the SOF Quick Reaction Force at Bagram Air Base and requested assistance while continuing to be fired upon. The battalion began planning a new operation, tentatively called Operation Stars, which was named after the Dallas Stars professional hockey team (3/3's battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Norman Cooling, hailed from Texas,[32] hence most operations were named after Texas sports teams)[33] Stars, like the other operations before it, focused on disrupting ACM activity, although Najmudeen's surrender caused activity to drop, and specific groups proved difficult to pinpoint. Parents of slain Navy SEAL meet men who recovered their son's body They sought to conduct this operation at night, after positive identification of Shah by a Marine Corps scout sniper team, which would walk into the area under cover of darkness some nights before. Gulab claims when they found Marcus he still had his full load out. Upon reaching Sawtalo Sar, the two MH-47s received small arms fire. There were so many acts of valor and mind-blowing courage that day its impossible to list them all here. He began the foundation to help service members and their families who were and are recovering from combat trauma. That's some serious badassery; that's a level of practically inhuman strength. For the men who have seen the worst atrocities of combat and lost their brothers, surviving can take incredible will.