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by Marcus Luttrell and Patrick Robinson

Little, Brown & Company; New York 2007

reviewed by Lance Thompson

In June, 2005, four U. S. Navy SEALs were inserted into the mountains of Afghanistan to hunt down an al Qaeda leader. The operation would prove to be the most costly in Special Operations history, and, as recounted by Leading Petty Officer Marcus Luttrell in Lone Survivor, one of the most heroic engagements in American combat lore.

This is not a review. The story is too powerful, and the telling too personal, to be critiqued by anyone who wasn’t there. Lone Survivor is simply a well-written and heartfelt account of combat and survival against terrific odds. It is also the story of two tightly-knit extended families–the Luttrells and their Texas friends and neighbors, and the SEALs and their military comrades-in-arms. The stories of these two families are interwoven throughout the book to tremendous emotional effect.

Luttrell heard the calling to be a SEAL early in life, and he takes the reader on that journey with him–from his hardworking Texas youth, his preparation for a military career that began when he was still a teenager, and the Darwinian training regimen that permits only the most motivated and capable applicants to become Navy SEALs.

The reader follows Luttrell to the battlefields of the 21^st Century–the Middle East and Afghanistan. Besides the expected descriptions of weapons, tactics and battles, Luttrell also captures the spirit of special operations warriors. These, the best-trained, best-equipped, most capable of our armed forces, are often depicted as invincible gladiators, but in this book they are all real flesh and blood men, susceptible to mortal danger and human emotion.

Even on the other side of the world, the voices of home still resonate for these men. They are buoyed by the encouragement of family and friends. But they also hear the words of those who will never know the dangers these men face, the decisions they must make, the consequences they must live and die with. The reader will see the effect of the debates carried on in the halls of Congress and the echo chambers of the media upon the warriors who risk their lives to carry out the policies of this nation. It is not an academic exercise to the men in uniform–the issues are demonstrably ones of life and death.

Lone Survivor is a powerful, affecting, suspenseful and reaffirming true story of modern war. It demonstrates the price of freedom, the gift that the members of our armed forces confer on all of us each and every day. We should cherish that gift, and we owe those who provide it the most sincere gratitude and the highest respect.