(Folks, that's a shot 25 yards longer than seven football fields!)
(Email without attribution)
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To the Citizens of America:
The U.S. Army tortured me. It began when I was sent by plane to Fort Knox, Kentucky.
I arrived wearing only a thin shirt and pants and was forced to stand outside in weather that was almost freezing. Then my clothes were taken from me and my head was shaved. I was put into a crude, ill-fitting uniform while soldiers yelled at me. There were quite a few others with me. We were all afraid, because if we didn’t do what the soldiers said, we were forced to fall to the ground and lie on our stomachs, then try to push ourselves up until our muscles burned with incredible pain while the soldiers yelled at us and used degrading terms.
One time they put us all in a long line and other soldiers stuck painful needles in our arms. Another time they put us in a room and filled it with tear gas and made us say our name and a number that they had assigned to us. Every day 20 or so of us were forced to go naked into a room where hot water sprayed from the walls. They used sleep deprivation constantly, and if we fell asleep at the wrong time we were again forced to lie on our stomachs, or even forced to run around the compound holding a heavy wood and metal object over our heads.
Some of us broke and were sent away, who knows where. Others, like me, were sent to an even tougher place where a very thick substance called “starch” was added to our uniforms. This “starch” kept any air from going through the crude fabric. We spent several hours a day in stress positions in the hot sun, standing straight up, not even allowed to move our eyeballs. I was forced to do things like jump off a high platform, to carry a heavy sack on my back for miles, and to crawl on my stomach through mud while the soldiers shot machine gun bullets over my head.
One day they told me that I had “graduated” and was now something called a Second Lieutenant. Although this happened over 40 years ago, I’ll never forget the experience, and will always be thankful to the Army for making me able to take life’s little annoyances in stride.
Richard Boren
Scottsdale, AZ
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Photo - www.specialoperations.comby 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 21st 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.
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