Marcus Luttrell is a warrior. He was determined to join the Navy Seals and did not give up even when he did not make it past training (which is explained in detail) at his first go. He wanted to be a Seal more than anything and with the help of one of his greatest role models, Billy Shelton, he becomes one. His Seal Squad consists of three of his best friends Danny, Mikey and Axe who are some of the bravest people introduced in the novel. The plot of the book really starts to kick off when the Seal team is given their very important mission called Operation Redwing in which they are to hunt down a man named Ben Sharmak. As soon as the mission kicks off, the seal team is spotted by a group of three goat herders. This is when the mission starts to go wrong and all hell breaks loose. Marcus is the only one to survive this chaos.
The first reason this book is such a great one is that the Author of the novel, Marcus Luttrell, actually is the “Lone Survivor” and experienced all of these events first hand. The reader is assured a very accurate and passionate story. Some of Marcus’s passion and feelings come out throughout the story making the emotional connection with all of the characters very strong. The reader also gets a very accurate representation of what it is really like to be in the military and what goes through a soldier's head when in battle. Marcus also goes through what the soldiers think of the media and the way that they have to act in order to keep the media quiet. He says “In the military, if we don't know something, we say we don't know and proceed to shut up until we do. Some highly paid charlatans in the media think it's absolutely fine to take a wild guess at the truth and then tell a couple of million people it's cast-iron fact, just in case they might be right” (Luttrell 132). The soldiers have it tough and the media played a huge role in Operation Redwing since they were not able to do anything to the goat herders and were forced to set them free. Even Marcus himself says “My heart dropped directly into my stomach. And I cursed those fucking goatherds to hell, and myself for not executing them when every military codebook ever written had taught me otherwise. Not to mention my own raging instincts, which had told me to go with Axe and execute them. And let the liberals go to hell in a mule cart, and take with them all of their fucking know-nothing rules of etiquette in war and human rights and whatever other bullshit makes ’em happy” (Luttrell 154). The battle would have played out a completely different way if that had not happened.
Secondly, this book is very motivational and really changes the reader's perspective on people fighting for their country. Some parts of the book were very emotional and most of the novel was filled with motivational quotes that were some of the things that got the Navy Seals going when they thought that they could not fight any more. Again, Marcus says “I will never quit. I persevere and thrive on adversity. My Nation expects me to be physically harder and mentally stronger than my enemies. If knocked down, I will get back up, every time” (Luttrell 202). Marcus shows true patriotism and reassures the reader that the soldiers of the US military are dedicated to keeping the people of their country safe. It is amazing to see how strong these soldiers can be during these tough times.
Finally, a feature of this book that made it stand out from other war novels is just how realistic it is. This book is not just some war story that has a happy ending where the main character survives the battle and makes it to the end. This is most definitely a tragedy novel. Although Marcus survived he was physically and mentally injured and lost his brothers to the war. He was not happy with the outcome at all and even says “Look at me, right now in my story. Helpless, tortured, shot, blown up, my best buddies all dead, and all because we were afraid of the liberals back home, afraid to do what was necessary to save our own lives. Afraid of American civilian lawyers. I have only one piece of advice for what it’s worth: if you don’t want to get into a war where things go wrong, where the wrong people sometimes get killed, where innocent people sometimes have to die, then stay the hell out of it in the first place” (Luttrell 356). This book really takes the reader into the war and makes them realize how much of a tragedy this story really is. In the end you can’t help but feel sympathy for Marcus and the rest of the team’s family. It truly was a heartbraker.
In conclusion, I had a really good time reading this book. I had seen the movie a couple of years ago but was still intrigued with some of the extras I had not got to enjoy from the movie. the book goes more in depth with the lives of the team and Marcus and should definitely be read before watching the more watered down movie. Another thing to note is that although the reader probably knows of the true story and the outcome of the novel, the book does not drag on and has a lot of interesting content that keeps you engaged even with knowing that the team will die and Marcus will be the Lone Survivor. This book is a really good read and I definitely recommend it to anyone who wants a book that will expose the true sacrifices of war and military told through the eyes of an actual soldier who went through all of these great tragedies.
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