Great book and great movie. I came across an article recently that questioned Lutherll's accounts. For those that are more astute in this area than me, Did it go down as Luttrell said in his book? Apparently the Afghan that rescued Marcus says that it didn't completely happen the way he says.. The Afghan says that the Taliban heard the chopper hovering on the mountain where the 4 Seals roped in and tracked them rather easily, waited for the right time and ambushed them. That goes along with what Luttrell says. Luttrell goes on to describe a protracted hours-long gun battle between the 4 seals and between 80-200 Taliban fighters where he took the first shot with a headshot to a Taliban fighter and it was on at that point. The 4 Seals took out roughly 50% of the Taliban fighters before the other 3 Seals eventually lost their lives to multiple, unsurvivable gunshot wounds. Luttrell then got blown down into a ravine by an RPG where he was able to hide in a crevice until nightfall and escape the area eventually being found by this friendly Afghan villager. Luttrell said he was down to a mag and a half out of the 11 he carried. The Afghan said that he still had all 11 mags when he found him. The afghan also says that there were only 7-8 Taliban fighters that snuck up on the Seals and ambushed them and the firefight was over very quickly. A marine that was on the mission to recover the Seal's bodies from that mountain said that they did recover the 3 Seals but found no Taliban bodies there. He also said he had been on several missions on that same mountain before this and said there were never even 30+ Taliban in the area. Now, it would be logical for the Taliban to take away their dead instead of leaving them lying on the mountain side, but could they cart off 50+ dead bodies that quickly from the side of that steep mountain in just a few days? Possibly.
I've loved this book and movie for years, and now I read this crap that makes me question what I have always believed. To me, Luttrell has been a hero and don't want to question in my mind his account. However, when he is the only survivor, I guess technically he could give any course of events and there is no one to really question it. Curious if anyone knows more about this whole story. I'm a non-fiction book junky and hate when one of my favorites gets called into question.
I've loved this book and movie for years, and now I read this crap that makes me question what I have always believed. To me, Luttrell has been a hero and don't want to question in my mind his account. However, when he is the only survivor, I guess technically he could give any course of events and there is no one to really question it. Curious if anyone knows more about this whole story. I'm a non-fiction book junky and hate when one of my favorites gets called into question.
