Lone Survivor, Part I

I'm reading a fascinating book called, Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10. It's authored, as the title suggests, by Marcus Luttrell, the sole survivor of a Navy SEAL team that, in 2005, was sent to the mountainous Pakistani border to hunt for a top Al-Qaeda target. The book is co-authored by Patrick Robinson, who is already renown for penning highly popular U.S. Navy-based novels, so Lone Survivor combines the peerless insights of a real Navy SEAL with the talent and skill of a great writer. I'd recommend it to anyone.

I've yet to reach the climax of the story; I'm still covering the famous training, Luttrell calls it a baptism by fire, that goes in to the minting of a US Navy SEAL. Simply reading about the excruciating details of what these men have to endure in order to become SEALs is exhausting in itself. I can almost feel the muscles in my own body ache and burn as Luttrell describes, in detail, the seemingly impossible obstacles and exercises he and his fellow teammates underwent for weeks on end. The descriptions offered by Luttrell of the strength-sapping, mind-grating exercises go on and on and on. Reading every detail of Luttrell's experience, I am left to wonder how it's physically, let alone mentally possible to accomplish such demanding trials. He leaves few details to the imagination, even the sharp pain of seeing friends and companions abandon their quest out of sheer exhaustion. Luttrell was determined not to quit; he says he would rather have died first. I guess that's what makes him, and the rest of them, different, even great.

Here's an endearing excerpt from the book. While discussing his faith, Luttrell says,

I thought the late Pope John Paul II was the holiest man in the world, an uncompromising Vicar of Christ, a man whose guidelines were unshakable. Tough old guy, John Paul. A lot too tough for the Russians. I've always thought if he hadn't been a vicar, he'd have made a good Navy SEAL. - From Lone Survivor