Most of our readers know the name of Navy SEAL Petty Officer 2nd Class Marcus Luttrell, whose 2005 team actions in Afghanistan were the subject of his outstanding book, Lone Survivor, subsequently made into a film.

But you may not know the story of the extraordinary leader of that team.

On June 28, 2005, a four-man SEAL recon and surveillance team led by 29-year-old LT Michael “Murph” Murphy included 25-year-old Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class Danny Dietz, 29-year-old Sonar Technician 2nd Class Matt Axelson, and 30-year-old Hospital Corpsman PO1 Luttrell.

Their counterinsurgent mission was code-named Operation Red Wings in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. The tragic result was a story of Valor against overwhelming odds.

The team was dropped by helicopter at 10,000 feet in the Hindu Kush mountains, deep into enemy territory near the Pakistan border. Their mission was to track down a brutal Taliban terrorist, Ahmad Sha, leader of a guerrilla cadre known as the “Mountain Tigers.”

Soon after the drop, the SEAL team was discovered by local goat herders, whom they released. The consequence of releasing those herders on the outside chance they would not expose the SEAL team position, was a deadly miscalculation. They turned out to be Taliban sympathizers who alerted the local militia, and in the firefight that followed against more than 50 Taliban Islamists, each of the SEALs was wounded.

LT Murphy deliberately exposed himself to intense enemy fire in order to reach an open position where he could call for extraction of his team. Shot a second time in the back, Murph was able to successfully contact the SOF Quick Reaction Force (QRF) at Bagram Air Base. The QRF responded to the call on two MH-47 Chinook helicopters, one flown by eight Army Night Stalkers from the 160th SOAR with eight additional SEALs on board. The Chinooks were escorted in by heavily armored Army attack helicopters.

Once over the embattled SEALs on the ground, Red Wings 11, the Chinook with the SEALs and Night Stalkers, was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade, causing catastrophic airframe failure and a crash into the mountainside, killing all 16 warriors on board. On that fateful day, three of the four SEALs on the ground were also killed, bringing the total of special operations forces who perished to 19.

It was the largest single-day loss of life in Operation Enduring Freedom and the worst loss for Naval Special Warfare operators since World War II.

Only Marcus Luttrell, who was blown over a ridge side by an RPG and rendered unconscious, survived. With a bullet wound to one leg, shrapnel embedded in both legs, and three vertebrae cracked, he managed to evade enemy combatants over the next four days, the last three of which he survived with the aid of sympathetic Afghan villagers. The Taliban confronted those villagers several times, but they refused to give up Luttrell. One villager took a note from Marcus to a Marine outpost, and a massive operation was launched to successfully rescue him.

Luttrell was awarded the Navy Cross, the USN’s second-highest decoration under the Medal of Honor, and his teammates, Danny Dietz and Matt Axelson, posthumously received the same awards.

For his extraordinary heroism, LT Michael Murphy was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

LT Murphy’s citation notes in part:

Demonstrating exceptional resolve, Lieutenant Murphy valiantly led his men in engaging the large enemy force. The ensuing fierce firefight resulted in numerous enemy casualties, as well as the wounding of all four members of the team. Ignoring his own wounds and demonstrating exceptional composure, Lieutenant Murphy continued to lead and encourage his men. When the primary communicator fell mortally wounded, Lieutenant Murphy repeatedly attempted to call for assistance for his beleaguered teammates. Realizing the impossibility of communicating in the extreme terrain, and in the face of almost certain death, he fought his way into open terrain to gain a better position to transmit a call. This deliberate, heroic act deprived him of cover, exposing him to direct enemy fire. Finally achieving contact with his headquarters, Lieutenant Murphy maintained his exposed position while he provided his location and requested immediate support for his team. In his final act of bravery, he continued to engage the enemy until he was mortally wounded, gallantly giving his life for his country and for the cause of freedom.

LT Murphy’s service and sacrifice have also been memorialized in the name of the guided missile destroyer USS Michael Murphy (DDG-112), now homeported at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It was commissioned in 2012 in Murph’s honor. The LT Michael P. Murphy Navy SEAL Museum is now open in West Sayville, New York, near Murphy’s Long Island hometown.

LT Michael Murphy and your fellow SEAL operators and Army Night Stalkers: Your examples of valor — American Patriots defending Liberty for all above and beyond the call of duty, and in disregard for the peril to your own life — is eternal. “Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

Live your life worthy of their sacrifice.

(Read more Profiles of Valor here.)

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776

Follow Mark Alexander on X/Twitter.

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Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of American Liberty, honoring their oath “to support and defend” our Constitution. Pray for our Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please consider a designated gift to support the National Medal of Honor Sustaining Fund through Patriot Foundation Trust, or make a check payable to “NMoH Sustaining Fund” and mail it to:

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