Saturday, April 11, 2009

SEALs: An American Superpower

After reading United States Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell's book, "Lone Survivor," you can't help but feel slightly at ease to know that there is an elite group of warriors fighting for freedom, known as the Navy SEALs.

In his book, Luttrell articulates the dangers that he and his SEAL team encountered while in Afghanistan during Operation Red Wing in 2005. In search of a high ranking Taliban leader, Luttrell's SEAL team 10 came upon goat herders in some remote field in Afghanistan. However, the SEALs had some doubts about the legitimacy of these goat herders believing that they might be Taliban scouts. Regardless, the SEALs interrogated the herders and continued their mission. Consequently, Luttrell and his team are ambushed by hundreds of Taliban, who had been informed of the American SEAL team by the goat herders. Despite their efforts, every member of SEAL team 10, except for Luttrell, was killed. Luttrell had been taken captive by Taliban forces, but soon escaped only to tell the world of his courageous story.

Recently, Luttrell, living at home in Texas, was involved in a high speed chase following four men who had executed his golden Labrador, Dasy, that had been given to him for rehabilitation purposes. "Dasy," an acronym of Luttrell and his three SEAL team members, had been shot with a .357 magnum outside Luttrell's home. Trained to kill, Luttrell, however, allowed the police to arrest the four men.

America must remember to salute its fallen heroes, but also heroes like Marcus Luttrell. In addition, Captain Richard Phillips, hostage to Somalian pirates, has also been rescued by Navy SEALs. Hopefully, the world can see that we can be a good country filled with good people. However, we will always be protected by the courageous men and women of our military. As the Gadsden Flag says, "Don't Tread on Me."

2 comments:

  1. It is the high intensity training that helped these experts of combat save Capt. Richard Phillips during this whole pirate controversy:

    http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/04/13/somalia.rescue.breakdown/index.html

    These guys are truly masters of their craft and will selflessly step in harm's way to protect the life of any US citizen. I envy the level of skill these guys have and the bond that they share. To land a shot that far away and in such hostile conditions is truly super-human. Cheers to America's true heroes.

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  2. I agree that anyone who puts their life on the line to protect a nation of people should be commended. However, I don't quite understand your connection between the SEALs and the idea of other countries respecting us as "good people." If anything, our military is a major reason other countries hold is in such low regard. They don't care that our soldiers are courageous, or that they have big muscles.

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