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Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that Are you freshes? This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories. The 2013 film Lone Survivor tells the story of Operation Red Wings, the mission will become one of the deadliest in our war on terror. One of those chosen to lead this dangerous mission was Lieutenant Michael Murphy. who would give his life on that slope.
and become the first member of the Navy to receive the prestigious Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War. Here to tell his story is Kirk Higgins, Vice President of Content. at the Bill of Rights Institute. Let's get into the story.
Some might say that Michael Murphy was born to be a hero. Honor and service were part of his DNA. He was born in 1976 on Long Island, New York, and grew up in the village of Patchawk, near the island's southern shore. His father, Daniel, was a wounded Vietnam War veteran who went on to serve as a prosecutor in Suffolk County, New York. Michael Murphy developed a reputation early on for protecting and serving others.
In eighth grade, he confronted and stopped three bullies who were trying to shove a special needs student into a gym locker. He spent his summers as a lifeguard, keeping swimmers safe at Long Island beaches. He was a standout student too, graduating from Penn State University with honors degrees in political science and psychology. At this point, his life was at a crossroads. He had been admitted to several law schools and was considering a career as an attorney.
Instead? He decided to pursue one of the most difficult and dangerous jobs in the United States military. Becoming a Navy SEAL. He received an appointment to the U.S. Navy's Officer Candidate School in late 2000, and in January 2001, he began basic underwater demolition SEAL training, also known as BUDS, in Coronado, California.
Bud's training is famously grueling. The attrition rate can be more than 80%. But Murphy made it, graduating with SEAL Class 236. At the beginning of 2005, he was deployed to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. And it was during this deployment that he would demonstrate the courage and self-sacrifice for which he is still remembered.
In the spring of 2005, US intelligence was tracking the location of a Taliban leader who was responsible for the recent deaths of several US Marines. Four Navy SEALs were dispatched to find the leader and radio in for a larger task force to capture or kill him. The mission was known as Operation Red Wings. On the evening of June 27, 2005, the small SEAL team climbed aboard a special operations helicopter and lifted off into the dark night sky, heading toward a destination near Azbatabad, Afghanistan. At their landing zone, they roped 20 feet to the ground and hiked through the night over the water.
over rocky terrain until they reach their assigned position. But there was a problem.
So we were watching the target, and all of a sudden, a pair of little brown legs jumped over the muzzle of my gun. Let me tell you something, it got my attention fast. I didn't hear this guy, I didn't see him, and the biggest thing was I didn't smell him. When we get over there, our senses are so heightened that we pick up stuff that we normally wouldn't while we're over here. And let me tell you something, it got my attention.
And as I came up with my rifle to engage, he turned around, looked at me, had an axe in his hand.
Well, what's your natural reaction after somebody scares you? You get mad at them, right? Same thing happened with me. I'm a human being. I jumped over that log, subdued him, took that axe away from him.
He had a big long beard. If anybody has one of those and you want to get their attention, you grab them by it. They'll tell you whatever you want to know.
So I rolled my fist up in his beard and I walked back to where Danny was. I was like, get out of the way, I got to interrogate this guy. I was just trying to get his shade, actually, but that's what. But um All the mountains in Afghanistan they came upon, they came upon the one we were sitting on. In their world, that's inshallah.
God willed that. In our world, it's Murphy's Law. We had Murphy with us, so bad stuff always happened to us. About that time, 70 or 80 goats came beebopping up the mountain. Every side of it changed the whole dynamic of the mission.
And I know you're wondering why, but listen, when those goats don't wait on those shepherds. They go back up, follow that trail they've been following for 2,000 years, go back down to that village. They show up without the shepherds, the whole village comes back looking for them, make sure nothing bad happened to them. And if anything kind of feels uneasy or out of place, that guy we've been chasing and got him in that village is gone. We ran through some other stuff, but eventually, I mean, every scenario you could think of: zip-tying everything, zip-tying the goats, all the goats together.
I was like, I didn't bring enough. Huh. And goats are resilient. You zip tie five of them together, they're still gonna wind up in that village with a zip tie around a leg that said made in America. Where do you think that came from?
So, some other stuff came into play, and bottom line is though, you know. We're not murderers. There's a few things the military don't play around with. That's rape, revenge, and robbery. You can guarantee that.
We don't mess around with that crap.
So we cut them loose. The seals let the herders go, but knew they had to move fast. there was a good chance they would alert the local Taliban fighters. Sure enough, the SEAL team was soon discovered by around 200 enemy fighters. Oh, right above me was a tree, a big tree, bigger than the rest of them.
And all of a sudden I see a shroud and an AK muzzle peek around the tree. I throw my weapon on fire. He kind of pulls his head back around. You could hear him talking and setting up out of my peripheral. I could see him all moving around and everything like that.
I looked under my armpit at Mikey. I was like, get on the clock. We're fixing it. Get it on. There was a heavy exchange of gunfire, but it seemed like every Taliban fighter that fell, a new one took his place.
Small arms fire and belt-fed stuff, no rockets yet, no mortars yet or anything like that. It was so loud, I was screaming at the top of my lungs at Danny and Mikey. They couldn't understand a word I was saying. The SEAL team was surrounded and forced to make a desperate decision. They dove off a cliff to escape.
We pinball through this this uh grove of trees for about 200 yards. And I landed on my back and I broke my back in multiple places, broke my pelvis. And Mikey landed on his face. I remember he crushed his face pretty bad because when he sat up to look at me, It was, you know, all bloody or whatever. He turned around.
Well, that's when they hit us with the rockets and the mortars, and our world just kind of started blowing up around us.
Well, that's. Evas. Time to go to work. As Luttrell later wrote, Murphy quote, was ignoring his wound and fighting like a SEAL officer should. uncompromising, steady, hard-eyed, and professional.
They spread out into firing positions. but were given no time to rest as the assault continued. At no point in time was any of my teammates afraid of anything. At no point in time did anybody stall in the door, so to speak. They didn't kind of back up and say, hey, I don't want to be in this.
Hey, this is what we're here to do. Let's do this. By this time they had been fighting for about forty minutes. but it felt like a lifetime. Murphy wanted to get his men to safety and ordered them down another ravine.
I broke my nose real bad, shoved it through my face actually, and I bit my tongue in half and I swallowed it. And that totally incapacitated me. I was on all fours. I mean, like, he's trying to throw that thing up, man. I finally got it up.
At this point, Murphy turned to Lattrell to bolster his courage and said. Quote, remember, bro, we're never out of it. The fierce firefight raged on, but the Seals were hopelessly outnumbered. Axelson was shot in the head, but continued to fire his rifle. Murphy, still bleeding and suffering several wounds, knew something had to be done.
In a moment of extraordinary bravery, he turned to a last resort to help himself and his men. In the movie, they kind of portrayed this the right way, but except for one piece, and that's where we were separated, he didn't die alone. Any of all my guys that got killed, I was right there. Mikey was out on this boulder. Out in the middle of the fatal funnel.
No cover, no nothing on our satellite phone. Forgot he had that. Then he took two rounds through the chest and spun him like a top, dropped him on his face. This bothered me so bad. I mean, Danny was dead, and Axe was dying, and Mikey had just been hit.
I thought he was dead. I slung my weapon, tried to crawl up to him, couldn't make it. He took out a mobile phone that these seals only used in extreme situations as it revealed their location and had to be used in the open. He walked through heavy gunfire to sit on a rock and contacted headquarters. He dialed the number and yelled to be heard.
My men are taking fire. We're getting picked apart. My guys are dying out here. We need help. Then he was shot in the back.
Miraculously? He finished the call. He sat up with his rifle, finished the phone call off, took a round, straightened the spine, dropped him on his face.
Well he sat up again. I was waving my hands. I didn't want to fire him a weapon. I was just waving my hands. All I wanted him to do was come down to me.
I was like, just get down here to me. I'll carry you out of here, man. I'll get us out of here. And he went left. I lost sight of him.
He went behind this rock embankment. I heard his weapon go off. A lot of gunfire in there. Then he started screaming for help. He's like, I need help up here, man.
I need help. Moments later, he was killed by four Taliban fighters. Michael Murphy died heroically, trying to save his men. And he was not alone. 16 American soldiers gave their lives when their helicopter was shot down trying to reach Murphy and his men.
Uh Luttrell was the only survivor of Murphy's four-man SEAL team. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in two thousand seven. A Navy destroyer bears his name, and fitness fanatics regularly engage in a grueling exercise regimen he created known as the Murph Challenge. Lattrell wrote, Was there ever a greater SEAL team commander? An officer who fought to the last and, as perhaps his dying move, risked everything to save his remaining men.
Not a gesture. an act of supreme valor. Lieutenant Mikey was a wonderful person. A very, very great SEAL officer. if they ever build a memorial to him as high as the Empire State Building.
It won't ever be high enough for me. The story of Lieutenant Michael Murphy here. on our American stories.
Okay, only ten more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first. There. The last one.
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