Death in a high place

It was late June 2005, in the Hindu Kush mountain range that snaked between Afghanistan and Pakistan like a gossamer barrier. The border meant very little to the legions of hardened Taliban fighters who would routinely cross over into neighboring Pakistan to escape the Americans who were hunting them. These wild men of Afghanistan were seasoned mountain fighters used to moving quickly through impossible terrain and attacking en masse.
To Navy SEALs Mike Murphy, Danny Dietz, Marcus Luttrell and Matt Axelson it was a mission to be completed. The SEALs were part of a reconnaissance and surveillance team inserted just south of a mountain known as Sawtalo Sar and were tasked with observing, identifying and either killing or capturing Ahmad Shah, a local anti-coalition militia leader.
The SEAL team fast-roped from their MH-47 Chinook piloted by members of the elite US Army Special Operations Aviation Regiment and immediately set out for the summit of the mountain near the village where Shah was thought to be holed up in. It was dark and freezing cold by the time the men arrived at their overwatch position high up on the Sawtalo Sar. The real problem was a lack of vegetation or indeed finding anything larger than a pebble to hide behind, but the resourceful SEALs made due. They stayed in their area until mid-morning when the blazing sun half-baked the men alive in their exposed position. It was around this time that the SEAL team had an unexpected visitor in the form of three local shepherds and their flock of sheep. The SEALs forced the three Afghans to sit down while they debated what to do with them. According to survivor Marcus Luttrell, the team discussed possibly killing the unarmed shepherds to avoid compromise, but no one was comfortable with that idea. In the end, they simply let the three men go and almost immediately regretted it when not more than 30 minutes later, they were under attack by a group of 20-30 enraged Talibans armed with AK-47s and rocket propelled grenades. The battle lasted for several hours in a heroic feat of arms that should go down in history alongside Rorke’s Drift and the Lost Battalion. Slowly, the SEALs began to loose the gun battle and take serious injuries. Although the SEALs are trained and schooled to be the best war-fighters on earth, they are not bullet proof and they can only carry so much ammunition per man. The SEALs made several attempts to contact their combat operations center, eventually getting through by using an iridium satellite phone. Despite the calls for help, the only one left alive was Marcus Luttrell, who was discovered by a friendly Pashtun who gave him shelter in his village.
It was around this time that an even bigger tragedy involving the special operations fighters was happening. Knowing that a SEAL team was in peril, a massive rescue operation was under way. A quick reaction force was launched consisting of several helicopters filled with operators from various SEAL teams as well as SOAR personnel.
As the rescue force closed in, one of Shah’s fighters scored a direct hit with an RPG below the rear rotor of one of the MH-47’s. The rocket propelled grenade took out the transmission and rotor which caused the big aircraft to plummet to the ground like a stone killing all aboard. The loss of the three SEALs, combined with the eight on board the ill-fated helicopter as well as eight Special Operations Aviators was at the time the greatest loss of life in the special warfare community to date.
To the Taliban on the ground, it was a great victory. They looted the wreckage and the dead soldiers for weapons and equipment and even found a laptop with sensitive information on it. All in all, it was a disaster and a stunning blow for the Special Operations Command. In keeping with their creed “No man left behind”, the bodies of the sixteen operators as well as the three SEALs were recovered. Ahmad Shah and his cell of fighters returned to the area of the ambush three weeks later and continued to be a hostile presence in the area until he was killed in a gun battle with Pakistani police in April 2008. For survivor Marcus Luttrell, he owes his life to the friendly Pashtun named Gulab Khan and the other villagers who gave him sanctuary and refused to hand him over to the Taliban. Luttrell, through Gulab, was able to contact a Marine commander based in Asadabad who was finally able to extract him despite the fact that Luttrell had been moved several times to avoid capture. For his efforts in aiding an American, Gulab was threatened with death by the Taliban and was forced to relocate to Asadabad, near the American base. On September 14th, 2006, SEAL Team members, Matthew Axelson and Danny Dietz were posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for “undaunted courage and heroism” Marcus Luttrell was awarded the Navy Cross in a ceremony at the White House and in 2007, Lt. Michael Murphy was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during the battle on the Sawtelo Sar.

The Witch of November

Captain Ernest McSorley tugged at the collar of his coat and squinted at the fading sun of the cold November afternoon. A veteran mariner, McSorley had over 40 years on the Great Lakes and high seas and was looking forward to retiring at the end of the shipping season to be with his ill wife. He had been captain of the Great Lakes freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald for three years now and had a seasoned crew of 28 men under his command.
The big ore boat was somewhat of a legend due to her impressive size (729 feet long) as well as her record-breaking performance when it came to ore hauling. One of her former captains, Peter Pulcer, was known to play music and entertain tourists with a running commentary about the “Mighty Fitz” when navigating the Soo Locks on Lake Superior. Generally speaking, freshwater boats were built to last more than 50 years, so having been launched in 1957; the Edmund Fitzgerald was little more than halfway through her service life.
The weather reports for November 9th, 1975 were fairly typical for the Great Lakes but did show a storm system moving south of Lake Superior for the next 24 hours. Lake Superior is the largest fresh water lake in the world with a surface area the size of South Carolina. If it were possible to pump it dry, you could cover the entire land-mass of North and South American with over a foot of water. Its average depth is just over 480 feet although it plunges to over 1,300 feet in certain areas. Suffice to say, it’s a massive fresh water lake that acts as a mini-ocean and has produced some truly horrifying storms.
When the Fitz left Superior, Wisconsin that afternoon, she was carrying her usual load of taconite iron ore pellets that would be melted down into steel in one of the massive smelters near Detroit. She joined a second freighter, the SS Arthur Anderson under command of Captain Jesse Cooper, when both ships got word that a gale warning had been issued for the whole of Lake Superior.
Autumn is a tough season to be a mariner on the Great Lakes due to the high winds that blow across the water during the fall. Often the low pressure systems that fuel these winds pulls artic air from the north and warm Gulf air from the south to form storm systems that wreck havoc on shipping. These storms have the power of a Category 2 hurricane and are responsible for over 350 shipwrecks in Lake Superior alone.
When both the Anderson and the Fitzgerald got word about the “Witch of November” that was forming, both captains altered their course northward to seek shelter near the Canadian side of the lake. At 1 a.m. on November 10th, both the Arthur Anderson and the Edmund Fitzgerald were in the middle of a huge winter storm. As the center of the storm passed over the ships, the wind direction changed from northeast to south and picked up speed once again. The ships were battling huge seas with waves cresting at 25 feet. Tons of water came crashing over the decks of the Edmund Fitzgerald and her captain was starting to worry about making it to retirement.
The Arthur Anderson lost sight of the Edmund Fitzgerald around 2:45 p.m. due to heavy snow. At the time, the Fitz was about 16 miles ahead. Right around 3:30, McSorley radioed the Anderson to report he was taking on water and he had lost two vent covers. His ship had also developed a list due to the tons of water it had taken on. Shortly after this transmission, the US Coast Guard warned that the Soo Locks were now closed and all ships should seek safe anchorage to ride out the ferocious storm. Captain Cooper onboard the Anderson directed the Fitzgerald towards the direction of Whitefish Bay in an attempt to reach a safe location from the raging storm. In a cruel twist of fate, both the Whitefish Point light and the radio beacon were not working, so McSorely was forced to radio any vessel in the area to aid in his navigation. Captain Cedric Woodard of the Avafors spoke with McSorley about 5 p.m. and told him “I have a bad list, I have lost both radars and am taking heavy seas over the decks in one of the worst seas I have ever been in”.
Meanwhile back on the Arthur Anderson, the crew was battling to keep afloat in seas that were now between 25 and 30 feet with 85 mph gusts of wind. The Anderson also reports being struck by a series of massive rogue waves over 35 feet tall. These rogue waves, often called “three sisters” crash onto a vessel in a rapid succession. The first wave hits and before the water can drain off, a second and third wave strike which can overload a deck with tons of water.
At 7:10 p.m., the Arthur Anderson notified the Edmund Fitzgerald of another ship in the area and asked how she was doing. McSorely answered that “We are holding our own”. Minutes later, the Mighty Fitz sank beneath the waves with all hands. No distress signal was ever sent. She simply could not be raised by radio and had suddenly vanished off the radar.
Captain Cooper aboard the Arthur Anderson radioed first the coast guard and then several vessels nearby to report he had lost contact with the Edmund Fitzgerald. At 10:30, the Coast Guard asked all commercial vessels near the Whitefish Bay area to assist in the search for the Fitz. All that was found was some floating debris, a few lifeboats and rafts, but that was all. Contrary to rumor at the time, no bodies of the crew were ever recovered.
On November 14th, 1975 a US Navy aircraft detected a magnetic anomaly in the area where the Fitz was last reported. This was followed by a search using side scan sonar which located two large objects lying close to each other on the lake bottom. In May of 1976, the US Navy unmanned submersible, CURV-III positively identified the wreckage of the Edmund Fitzgerald lying in 530 feet of water. The bow section sits upright in the mud whereas the stern lies upside down and is angled away from the bow. Heaps of twisted metal and taconite ore make up the debris field.
Exactly how and why the Edmund Fitzgerald sank has never been adequately explained although various theories abound. One theory puts the blame on the main hatches not being properly secured or that the clamps were damaged, but this was discounted during various dives to the wreckage which clearly shows the hatch clamps in perfect condition. One of the more plausible theories has the Fitz shoaling or grounding on an unknown shoal which caused the entire ship to bend in the middle or “hogging” in nautical terms. This most certainly would have caused structural failure that could have broken the ship in two and sent her to the bottom in short order. In any event, the loss of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald and her crew of 29 was a shock to the maritime community of the Great Lakes. In the years since the tragedy, various changes have been put into place to further safeguard against further disasters. In 1977, the Coast Guard made it mandatory that all ships over 1600 tons must use depth finders. In addition emergency positioning indicating radio beacons (EPIRB) are now installed on all Great Lakes vessels and all vessels must undergo a yearly pre-November inspection by the Coast Guard to ensure all hatch vent closures are in good order as well as to make sure all vessels have the proper lifesaving equipment.
The Edmund Fitzgerald tragedy was eloquently memorialized by Canadian singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot in his moving ballad “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” which is probably one of the most hauntingly beautiful musical pieces ever written about a maritime disaster.