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.