Operation Red Wing which was a US led expedition to hunt for Al Qaida guerillas and the Taliban was conducted in the rocky region of Kunar. Only the top quality Navy SEALs were involved in this strategic Navy SEALs mission.

The team

The Navy SEALs operation Red Wing comprised a small team of just 4 members namely Lt. Michael P. Murphy, PO Danny Dietz, PO Matthew Axelson and PO Marcus Luttrell. The mission started on June 28th 2005 and during the Navy SEALs operation 3 of the members were killed. Only one survived. The fourth Navy SEAL was miraculously protected by the local villages and later on rescued by US military forces. This story of rescue was so mysterious and interesting that it reached the cover story of Time magazine. The story was called – How the Shepherd Saved the SEAL’ on the 2005 issue of Time magazine.

The mission

The Navy SEALs mission was to hunt for Ahmad Shah who was an important Taliban leader. He was said to be located in eastern Asadabad. Unfortunately for the Navy SEALs it was a local shepherd who located the SEALS and instantly alerted the Al Qaida and Taliban forces. Soon the small team of 4 was encircled by the Taliban forces and a massive fire fight ensued.

Lt. Murphy’s courage

The number of Taliban forces far outweighed that of the Navy SEALs who were just 4 in number. As a result they were easily outdone. However even in the face of such extreme conditions, Lt. Michael P. Murphy or ‘Murph’ as he was popularly called, managed to keep cover long enough to send radio signals to ask for backup. He suffered rifle shots in the stomach as well as on his back but somehow managed to send the comms signal for cover. It took 2 hours, gruesome fighting and the death of dozens of Taliban forces before the three Navy SEALs succumbed to their injuries.

The rescue

As a result of Murphy’s distress calls to the Bagram Air Base, soon after a helicopter called MH-47 Chinook which carried 8 Navy SEALs and 8 nightstalkers came to the rescue of the team. They tried to extract the team members from the Kunar province in Afghanistan. However even after repeated attempts to rescue they failed. The escort helicopters for attack saw the whole sequence of firefighting which was conducted by the 4 member Navy SEALs team and called it ‘an unbelievable fight’. Miraculously even though the team was small in number they managed to put up a very good fight to the Taliban forces.

Luttrell’s rescue

With the Chinook helicopter down, Luttrell was now all alone left to fend for himself. He had been severely wounded in the firefight. He somehow managed to extract himself away from the firing zone and hid for cover while he waited for rescue. In the meantime this Navy SEAL was spotted by an Afghan man who said he was not from the Taliban. Soon after more Afghan men came to the scene armed with AK-47 rifles. They took away Luttrell from the scene and carried him to the Sabray village. They nursed Luttrell and cared for him and even protected him from the Taliban soldiers who came to search for him.

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This Article is written by James Kara Murat from USNavySEALstore.com, the contributor of US Navy SEALs Information Portal. A longer version of this article is located at US Navy SEAL operations in Afghanistan, and related resources can be found at US Navy SEALs Store.