At about midday, the first elements made contact with Marcus Luttrell. According to Marcus’s recollections, the first one he saw was an Afghan commando, followed by two Rangers from 2nd Ranger Battalion. The word spread quickly that Marcus had been found, and the Rangers got him to higher ground, where his wounds were further treated while the Rangers and Special Forces set security and prepared for the birds to come extract him.
The two 920th Rescue Wing HH-60 Pave Hawks would fly the extraction mission, covered by AH-64 Apaches, A-10 Warthogs, and an AC-130 Spectre. At 1452Z, the flight, call sign Halo 43, received its tasking, and Skinny and Spanky began their planning process.
Because of the Black Hawk’s vulnerability to ground fire (as had been graphically demonstrated in Mogadishu, Somalia, twelve years before), and the fear of losing yet another helicopter after the shootdown of Turbine 33, the HH-60s had only flown at night and would go into the extract in a pair, with one helo landing and the other flying top cover, its door gunners vigilant for any threats to the bird on the ground. It was decided that Skinny would fly top cover while Spanky went in, landed on the LZ, and retrieved Marcus, Gulab, and Gulab’s family. Spanky, on learning he was going to get the most dangerous part of the mission, became even more focused.
The pilots had not gotten a good look at the terrain near Sabray on their previous flights, and Spanky later recalled that the imagery they had to work off of didn’t give an entirely accurate picture of just how steep the terrain in the Shuryek Valley was. Regardless, they departed Bagram Airfield at 1750Z, heading east toward Kunar.
En route, Halo 43 received a radio call from Bagram, informing them that the extract grid coordinate had changed and that the LZ was 2 kilometers over from where they had planned. They received the call while ten minutes out from the LZ, prompting some frantic recalculation to ensure they got to the right spot. In the dark, in the mountains, a 2-kilometer error was going to make the rescue all but impossible if they didn’t figure it out.
As the copilots calculated the new grid coordinate, it made less and less sense. The flight computers were not changing the time or distance to the new grid. After what he described as trying to pull his hair out through his helmet, Skinny’s copilot, JP, figured out that there had been a misunderstanding by the source sending the new grid.
Military grid coordinates operate on a metric system, where each digit represents so many meters. Thus, a 4-digit grid is accurate to within 1 kilometer, a 6-digit grid is accurate to within 100 meters, etc. What had happened with the new grid coordinate was that the end of the 10-digit grid coordinate had changed, and someone had misinterpreted a 2-meter change as 2 kilometers. The LZ hadn’t changed at all.
As they neared the mountains, the cloud cover got heavier. The moon was not up, and the clouds were obscuring any starlight, rendering the pilots’ and crews’ night vision nearly useless. The AC-130 on station was supposed to illuminate the LZ with its IR floodlight, commonly known to the men on the ground as “the Eye of God.” This IR flood, invisible to the naked eye but incredibly bright on night vision, is usually used to mark targets for the gunship’s weapons, including a 25 mm chain gun, a 40 mm Bofors cannon, and a 105 mm howitzer. As they neared the LZ, however, they received a call from the AC-130, “Halo, negative burn, negative burn.” The AC-130 had to stay above the clouds and couldn’t burn through them with the floodlight. The LZ remained shrouded in pitch darkness. The pilots were already having to use their FLIR cameras to navigate, because the illumination was so poor.
On the ground, the Rangers and Special Forces were waiting with Marcus, watching the lights of the Taliban moving on the opposite slopes, as Ahmad Shah’s men tried one last time to capture the wounded SEAL. Based on his recollections and observations from the previous few days, Marcus helped the Rangers call in air support on the enemy positions. Spanky recalled the muzzle flashes and rocket strikes flickering over the mountainsides.
The problem still remained that the LZ was completely shrouded in darkness and invisible to the pilots. Unless they could get some reference to get a fix on it, the rescue was going to be a no-go.
At the last moment, one of the A-10s flying above dropped down through the clouds and briefly illuminated the LZ with his targeting laser. That was enough. Halo 43 started in toward the LZ.
Skinny went first, though he was flying top cover, swooping in low enough for the crew chief to toss a chemlight onto the LZ before climbing back into the sky, hoping to draw fire while getting into a better position to cover Spanky’s bird as it landed on the LZ. The chemlight provided Spanky with a visual reference on the LZ.
The LZ itself proved to be a narrow shelf among the village’s agricultural terraces, with a sheer rock wall on one side and a drop of 1,500 to 2,000 feet on the other. The level ground was actually narrower than the HH-60’s rotor disc.
As Spanky took his helicopter in, at about 10 feet above the ground, they found themselves in a complete brownout. A brownout happens when the helicopter’s rotor wash has kicked up so much dust and debris that it becomes impossible for the pilot to see the ground, or just about anything, for that matter. It is an extremely dangerous situation at the best of times. On the side of a mountain, in the dark, trying to land on a tiny shelf, it is much, much worse.
In those conditions, without being able to see the ground, especially with a 1,500-foot or longer fall on one side, there is a high risk of rollover. If one tire rests on something higher than the other, it acts as a pivot point. Even hovering under brownout conditions becomes hazardous, as the pilot has no references to keep the hover stable.
For some time, which seemed like forever to the pilots and crew, they hovered in the dust, trying not to crash. Gonzo, Spanky’s copilot, told the crew in the back that if they were of a praying disposition, now would be a good time. The PJs and crew lay down in the back, which they hoped would reduce the damage if they did crash.
Through the dust, Gonzo could catch glimpses of the rock wall to their left. He later estimated that they were 15 or 20 feet from the wall. One of the PJs in back saw the tail rotor come within 6 feet of the trees.
Spanky was trying to hold the bird level, searching for any reference at all. He later recalled thinking that they were going to die, that he’d failed not only his crew but Marcus and the rest of the guys on the ground.
When Gonzo warned him about the wall on their left, and with increasingly frantic warnings coming from the crew in the back, Spanky tried to correct to the right. The Black Hawk has two sets of controls, both of which can affect the bird at the same time. This is to allow the pilot or copilot to moderate the other’s maneuvers. Gonzo grabbed the stick and moderated Spanky’s correction, keeping them from going out over the edge.
Then, through the dust, in the dark, Spanky saw something. It was a bush on the terrace ahead of them, waving wildly in the rotor wash. He said it reminded him of the hanging plants he’d known as a kid. It provided him the hover reference he needed to get the bird steady. He eased the helicopter to the ground and landed. Once the pitch of the rotor blades changed, the dust began to settle. Spanky would later admit that he never would have tried such a landing if there had been any other option, even in daylight.
The PJs disembarked, and the first thing they saw was an Afghan tribesman approaching the helicopter. Without any identification, they first thought he was a threat, and the lead PJ had his weapon trained on him. Then a second, smaller man stepped forward, trying to communicate that they were friendly. The PJ wasn’t sure what to do until one of the Rangers approached and made linkup, verifying that the first man was in fact Marcus Luttrell. He was in Afghan tribal dress, largely because his uniform had been torn to pieces by bullets, RPG shrapnel, and the fall down the mountain.
The PJ asked Marcus an authentication question, to determine for certain that he was indeed the missing SEAL. In this case, the question was “What’s your favorite superhero?” Marcus, strung out from his injuries and the stress of the Taliban t
hreatening to take him for the last four days, at first looked at him as if wondering why he was being asked such a ridiculous question on the side of an Afghan mountain in the dark. Then he remembered and answered correctly. “Spider-Man.” It was one of the pieces of verifying information that had to be left at the JOC before any SOF team went outside the wire, in case just such a situation arose.
Although the original plan had been to extract Gulab and his family, the family was not on the LZ. The PJs brought Marcus and Gulab onto the Black Hawk and started looking Marcus over. The one who had first met him and verified his identity found himself wondering why they hadn’t taken off yet. They were still perched on a tiny LZ on the side of a mountain, and there were still Taliban out there in the dark. Then he remembered that it was his responsibility to alert the pilot that they were ready, so he called forward to Spanky that they were good. Spanky pulled them up off the mountainside, and they were headed away.
The bird headed to Asadabad first, only about 15 kilometers to the east. At 1942Z, they arrived at Asadabad and dropped off Gulab. He would be questioned, and measures would be taken to protect him and his family from retaliation by the Taliban for their role in sheltering Marcus. Marcus only had a moment to say good-bye to the man who saved his life; then the bird was pulling for the sky again, heading for Jalalabad.
At 1956Z, both Black Hawks landed at Jalalabad, and Marcus was taken to an MC-130 that was waiting to return him to Bagram Airfield. He arrived at Bagram at 2045Z and was met by four doctors and the repatriation team. The process of repatriation and recovery had to begin.
Marcus refused the litter the medical personnel had brought for him. Though he had been shot in the leg, he insisted on walking off the bird. He was a SEAL; he would walk.
One of those who met him was the CRO. He had left the JOC long enough to go meet Marcus, shake his hand, and know, for certain, that one of his brothers was home safe. Then he went back to work to retrieve the rest.
Later, Spanky would recall his crew celebrating as they got back. He said he didn’t think any of them quite understood just how close they had come to crashing and dying on the mountainside that night.
* * *
The 3rd Battalion Rangers had set out at sunup to begin their part of the search. While relatively lightly loaded, with Rhodesian vests and no body armor, they had gone from only a few hundred feet above sea level in Georgia to over 8,000 feet above sea level in Kunar. One Ranger who was there mentioned that it took only about an hour to realize just how difficult the mission was going to be. The team leaders were issued extra IV bags in case their men suffered heat injuries in the summer heat, struggling over the rough terrain.
The Rangers patrolled the mountains in the heat for the entire day, finding nothing, though at least one incident of a Ranger firing at what he thought was an enemy in the trees was reported. When they set in a new patrol base as darkness descended, two Rangers were almost hit by a descending resupply bundle, dropped by the aircraft overhead for the missing SEALs.
* * *
Earlier in the day, a team of 2nd Battalion Rangers had discovered remains of what they first reported as another SEAL. The Rangers had been patrolling the area of Sawtalo Sar for days, looking for any sign of the missing team. The terrain was brutal, and the heat (it was the middle of summer in Afghanistan, after all) was oppressive. The nearby Shuryek Valley was at 5,500 feet above sea level, and the summit of Sawtalo Sar stood at 9,230 feet. The Rangers were patrolling the fingers coming off Sawtalo Sar’s main ridge, which Marcus had begun calling “Murphy’s Ridge.” A great deal of the movement was up and down steep, rocky inclines covered in scrub and tall trees.
One of the Ranger patrols had been working their way along one of the fingers when, looking down into the ravine below, they spotted what looked like a body. Leaving part of the patrol on the high ground to hold security, several of the Rangers descended into the ravine to investigate.
After clambering down into the ravine, the Rangers found the bodies of both Michael Murphy and Danny Dietz. The Taliban had found them first and stripped them of their weapons and most of their equipment. Shah’s men had made a video that had gone up on the Internet and Al Arabiya TV earlier, showing off the weapons they had taken from the bodies of the dead SEALs, including camouflage-painted M-4s with ACOG scopes, suppressors, and M-203 grenade launchers. They had even displayed a shaky image of what they claimed was one of the SEALs’ ID cards. That appeared to be accurate.
As soon as they determined that they had found two of the missing SEALs, the Rangers called back to Bagram to inform the JOC. Given the altitude and the difficulty of the terrain, the JOC started putting together a High Angle Combat Search and Rescue Team, consisting of five PJs and one Combat Controller, to go in and retrieve the bodies.
At 1822Z, the team boarded an MH-47 helicopter and took off from Bagram, heading toward Kunar in the wake of the two Black Hawks that had left less than an hour earlier. Their objective, code-named Objective Thresher, was an LZ from which they would move on foot to link up with the Rangers. They landed at 2113Z and began the 1.5-kilometer trek to the Rangers’ position.
Day 6: July 3
It wasn’t an easy movement. Not only were they in hostile territory (though the Shuryek Valley was considerably more friendly toward U.S. forces than the Korengal Valley and the village of Chichal, on the other side of the ridge), but they were facing the same brutally steep, rocky terrain that the Rangers had been moving over in the dark. Under those circumstances, and with the loads involved, including radios, batteries, water, ammunition, and the specialized rescue equipment they would need, footing becomes treacherous, and a single slip can result in a nasty fall, which can set back the movement at best, and result in serious injury at worst. The rescue team had to move slowly and carefully not only because of the difficulty of the terrain and the weight but simply to avoid needlessly risking the success of the mission.
The movement, less than a mile as the crow flies, took over six hours. At 0330Z, with the sun already up, the PJs made contact with the Rangers and linked up on the high ground above the bodies.
The Rangers, who had been holding security on the area for over ten hours, turned the site over to the High Angle Team. For security, they had apparently pulled all their men up onto the high ground; there wasn’t anything more they could do for the bodies, and down in the ravine was a decidedly tactically unsound position. Telling the PJs where the bodies were located, they then moved up to the team’s original observation post (OP).
Using the OP as a starting point, the Rangers began searching for the body of Matthew Axelson. They searched 800 meters out from the OP, following the ridge. The Rangers kept to the ridgeline, leaving the ravine to the PJs.
Meanwhile, the High Angle Team got to work and headed down into the ravine where the Rangers had found the first two bodies. They had to do some searching of their own but found the remains, effectively for the second time. They began to prepare for retrieval, calling back to Bagram for the birds to come get the bodies. They would hold security, with the Rangers back on the high ground, until the helicopters arrived.
* * *
Back at Bagram, more problems arose. It wasn’t as simple as just sending the birds to pick up the bodies; they were in a ravine, with no usable LZ nearby, and at 8,600 feet above sea level. While regular forward flight isn’t too difficult for a helicopter at that altitude, hovering is another matter altogether. It becomes extremely difficult to hold the bird steady, or even maintain enough lift. There isn’t as much air for the rotors to move, so therefore less lift is generated. The fact that the terrain meant they would have to hover over a steep slope only made things more difficult; while over a flat surface, a helicopter’s rotors generate “ground effect,” where the air being forced downward by the rotors effectively “bounces back” up, creating a cushion of air and generating more lift. A steep slope denies the helicopter that ground effect, making generating lift even more difficult.
Also, the heavier the helicopter, the more the rotors would have to work to hold it up, and the more likely that the pilot wouldn’t be able to hold the hover at all. Since Spanky had flown the retrieval for Marcus the night before, it was Skinny’s turn to handle the hairy flying while Spanky flew top cover. Every bit of equipment not essential to the retrieval itself was taken off of Skinny’s helo, to cut down on the weight. Even the door guns and the ammunition were stripped off the bird, making the door gunners, and the rest of the crew, extremely nervous. They would have to rely entirely on the Rangers on the ground and Spanky’s door gunners to keep the Taliban off them while they flew the retrieval. They would be sitting ducks until they could get away from the mountainside. The internal fuel tanks were also removed, which was not only going to reduce the helicopter’s range but would further reduce the time they had to hover on-station. One of the PJs even removed his back armor plate from his vest. He didn’t tell anyone at the time, as it was a severe violation of Standard Operating Procedure in-theater, but he figured that even that little bit of weight savings might make a difference.
Just stripping the weight wasn’t enough. The CRO and the pilots sat down to try to figure out how to minimize the hover time. The longer the helicopter hovered over the ravine, the greater chance they would lose the lift and crash. They had to come up with a plan that would allow them to get in, come to a hover, retrieve the bodies, and get out in as short a time as possible.
It took five to six hours of skull session before they believed they had a workable plan put together. The CRO went to the JOC to call out to the Rangers and the High Angle Team with instructions. This was going to be a very difficult mission, with a very narrow margin for error.
Day 7: July 4
Following standard procedure, the retrieval effort for Murphy’s and Dietz’s bodies would not begin until after dark. The preparations meant the mission couldn’t go on the night of July 3, so at 2047Z the two Pave Hawks lifted from Bagram and headed back into the mountains of Kunar.
Operation Red Wings: The Untold Story Behind Lone Survivor (Kindle Single) (SOFREP) Page 3