In an effort to increase the necessary Hollywood kill count, the backstory of each of the men was completely lacking. What I have an issue with is blatant exaggerations such as, “Shah killed 20 Marines last week.” (No record of this exists anywhere) or “There are over 200 Taliban.” Small details like the use of the wrong helicopter used for the extraction, the fact that they referred to the mission as “Redwing” on more than one occasion, or the fact that SEAL or not, no one is going to run on the tarmac (in a tank top) of a military forward operating base doesn’t really bother me. PULL THE TRUTH APART AND WEAVEIT IN THE LIE MOVIENo movie ever gets it 100% correct this is a fact that I have come to tolerate following years of watching Hollywood tell us what they think war looks like. I believe, however, that this could have been accomplished without the egregious exaggerations. I believe that what they went through was more than worthy of a best-selling book and a major motion picture. This is in no way an attack on the men that conducted Operation Red Wings, I have the highest degree of respect for them and consider them among our nation’s greatest heroes. That is something that I am willing to endure to ensure that people have a better understanding of actual events. I understand fully that making these comments in a public forum will result in a potential onslaught of negative feedback. In addition to conversing with several other members of Special Operations that were involved, as well as my own personal accounts, I have to be honest and say that Lone Survivor did little to preserve the historical accuracy of one of the most significant missions in the Global War On Terror. I have had the distinct honor and privilege of speaking with several other service members from other elements since my book was published. I was awarded a joint service commendation medal for actions during this operation. My platoon aided in the recovery of Matt Axelson several days after the firefight had concluded. To my dismay, that is not what I got.īefore I go any further I feel that it is necessary to say that I was a part of the search and rescue operation to pull those men out. Far too often Hollywood has a tendency to sensationalize stories in an effort to sell more tickets so I was anxiously awaiting a highly accurate portrayal of the entire mission and those involved. This was not the first interview that I had watched where both Marcus and the director touted the extreme attention to detail and accuracy that they sought when making the film. The story had already been a best-selling book, however, with the release of the movie Marcus would have the platform to tell the story of the men that didn’t survive the mission. I halted our conversation when Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell came on to talk about the movie ‘Lone Survivor’ which was based on his real-life experience in Afghanistan during Operation Red Wings, a mission gone wrong in late June 2005. I sat with my father in late December watching the UFC fights. Lone Survivor was eventually made into a major motion picture, but that, too, generated significant controversy. “Lone Survivor,” the story of SEAL heroism in the mountains of Afghanistan, resurfaced in May 2016 after an article in which Mohammed Gulab, the man who saved lone SEAL survivor Marcus Luttrell, disputed some of the most important aspects of Luttrell’s story. This first appeared in The Havok Journal on March 23, 2014.
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