SEAL of Honor (29 page)

After a lengthy delay and with the end-of-June command change just days away, CJSOTF-A commanders placed Operation Red Wings back at the top of their priority list. The four members of Murphy’s Alfa Platoon originally selected to serve as the reconnaissance element were Michael, as team leader; Petty Officer Matthew Axelson; Petty Officer Shane Patton; and LPO Marcus Luttrell. Michael was selected based on his previous Fitness Report and Counseling Records, combined with his proven performance in previous missions since he arrived in Afghanistan. However, twenty-four hours before the operation began, the task force’s commanders determined that Petty Officer Danny Dietz, currently assigned to SEAL Team Ten from SDVT-2, would replace Patton. Dietz was a communications expert, a skill that was deemed critical on this mission. Luttrell lobbied hard for Patton, who had performed superbly as a communications specialist in his previous missions. Luttrell wanted this to be an all SDVT-1 operation. But the commanders wanted more than one team to have the opportunity to participate in this mission, and so, despite Luttrell’s efforts, they went ahead with their decision to replace Patton with Dietz.

On June 25, Shah released a statement threatening U.S. forces. Commander Paro and Lieutenant Commander Kristensen discussed the threats during their daily conversation and determined that his rhetoric was essentially unchanged.

Petty Officer Second Class Matthew Gene Axelson, twenty-nine, was born on June 25, 1976, in Cupertino, California, to Cordell and Donna Axelson. After graduating from Monta Vista High School in 1994, he attended California State University, Chico, where he earned a degree in political science. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in December 2000, entering basic training, or boot camp, at Naval Station Great Lakes, near Waukegan, Illinois. After completing Sonar Technician Surface (STG) “A” school, he was selected to attend BUD/S training and graduated with Class 237.

After BUD/S, he attended Army Airborne jump school, SEAL Qualification Training (SQT), and SEAL Delivery Vehicle (SDV) School. He reported to SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 1 (SDVT-1) in December 2002 in Hawaii, joining Michael Murphy’s Alfa Platoon. Known as “Cool Hand Luke” to his teammates, at six feet four inches tall, he was quick, slim, and a superb athlete, and was considered an expert mountain climber and a SEAL sniper, both skills required on this mission. He and his wife, Cindy, were married in December 2003.

Petty Officer Second Class Danny Philip Dietz Jr., twenty-five, was born on January 26, 1980, in Aurora, Colorado, to Danny and Cindy Dietz. After graduating from Heritage High School in nearby Littleton in 1999, he enlisted in the Navy on August 31, 1999. Following his graduation from Recruit Training Command, Naval Station Great Lakes, on November 27, 1999, he completed Gunner’s Mate “A” school at the Naval Air Technical Training Center (NATTC), Pensacola, Florida. From there he transferred to BUD/S and graduated with Class 232 in 2001. He went on to attend the Basic Airborne Course at Fort Benning, Georgia, then SQT and SDV Training.

Immediately upon checking in at SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 2 in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on November 8, 2001, he was assigned to Task Unit Bravo as the secondary SDV pilot and the Ordnance and Engineering Department head. During a rigorous predeployment work-up he honed his skills and became one of the best pilots in the command. He married his wife, Maria, in March 2003. He leveraged his skills during a six-month deployment to European Command (EUCOM) as the lead pilot in multiple proof-of-concept rehearsals (detailed training exercises under full mission conditions). Upon his return from EUCOM, he was assigned to Task Unit Charlie as a primary Special Reconnaissance Team member and the Communications Department head. During predeployment he focused his attention on perfecting his SEAL sniper, reconnaissance, and field skills. In the barren and forbidding mountains of the Hindu Kush, his communications expertise would be critical.

Leading Petty Officer Marcus Luttrell, thirty, was born in 1975 in Huntsville, Texas. He began training for the SEALs at the age of fourteen with former Green Beret Billy Shelton and joined the Navy in 1999. He started with BUD/S Class 226; however, due to a fractured femur he suffered on the O-course, he graduated with Class 228 on April 21, 2000. After completing BUD/S, he attended Army jump school and SQT. He was then sent to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, for an additional six months of advanced training in conventional and unconventional medical skills, ranging from diagnosis and treatment of nearly every known condition to advanced emergency medicine and battlefield life support.

After SDV Training, he completed a two-year tour in Iraq. A highly competent and battle-proven corpsman, his medical training was a critical element in the preferred four-man SEAL units, although hopefully it would not be needed. If that were the case, he would serve as the backup sniper.

The plan seemed simple enough. Murphy and his team were to spend the first day monitoring Shah’s location and movements from a concealed position in the hills
above Asadabad, the capital of Kunar province. On day two, once Shah’s location was verified, SEAL Team Ten had orders to call in the prearranged SEAL assault force designated to neutralize Shah, his headquarters, and his Mountain Tigers. A combined task force of ground troops would then be deployed on the third day to begin conducting mop-up operations throughout the valley. This would, it was believed, neutralize any remaining ACM in the Korangal Valley.

The air mission briefing was conducted at the 160th SOAR Planning Center. Present from the 160th were Major Steve Reich, the operations officer; Captain Myron Bradley, the air mission commander; Chief Warrant Officer 4 Chad Easter, the senior flight lead; and the pilots and flight crews of the two assigned helos. Attending from the SEALs were Lieutenant Commander Erik Kristensen, Lieutenant Michael McGreevy, Lieutenant Michael Murphy, Senior Chief Dan Healy, and Leading Petty Officer Marcus Luttrell.

During the briefing every aspect of the mission was thoroughly detailed, including the all-important abort criteria. Abort criteria were a predetermined set of circumstances that could cause the immediate cancellation of the mission. The abort criteria for this mission were ACM at the helicopter landing zone (HLZ) and inadequate air support. Captain Bradley later related, “Nothing was overlooked, no detail was too small for consideration, everything was gone over in ‘eye-bleeding’ detail.” Although not openly discussed, all were acutely aware of the insistence from CJSOTF-A commanders for successful completion of the mission. At the conclusion of the one-hour meeting, it was announced that the mission was a go for the next operational period—the next period of darkness.

Early in the morning of June 27, confirmed intelligence pinpointed Shah’s location. By that afternoon, Kristensen and McGreevy had laid out the updated detailed maps and other photographic intelligence of the terrain for Murphy and Luttrell to review. Murphy, highly skilled in land navigation, drew a much smaller version of the map for his use. The target village location contained thirty-two houses—or, more accurately, straw huts.

After two additional delays during the day, Operation Red Wings was on for that night. A couple of hours before the operation commenced, during an electronic conversation with Hernandez, Murphy related that Operation Red Wings was proceeding. He said that this was the operation they had hoped for since their
arrival and that it was fitting that this would be their last mission before they left Afghanistan. Both were pleased that the SEALs were being utilized on this mission because it was the type for which they were specifically trained, and their afteraction report and direct experience would provide excellent training material for future teams and deployments. Hernandez related that he was “happy for them” and that he was still working on a plan that would allow Murphy’s squad to bypass the other cover-down operations and meet up with them in Iraq soon. Both looked forward to the reunion.

Just after dark, two helos were waiting on the flight line. Murphy, Dietz, Axelson, and Luttrell loaded into the lead Chinook MH-47E, which had the call sign Turbine 21, piloted by Easter and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Steve Swartz. Also on board were Captain Bradley; Staff Sergeant Ron Oster, the flight engineer; and three crew chiefs. Kristensen and McGreevy, the mission commanders, and a quick-reaction force (QRF) of twenty-five ground troops loaded into the other helo, which had the call sign Turbine 22
.
The QRF was a contingency in case there were any problems with the insertion or during the first twenty-four hours while the team was on the move to its target.

The Boeing MH-47E is a derivative of the CH-47D Chinook heavy-duty lift helicopter developed specifically for the 160th SOAR. It is a long-range special operations forces insertion/extraction platform with integral command and control capabilities. With a maximum speed of 154 knots, and a service ceiling of 11,000 feet, it features twin SATCOM (satellite communications) links, and is also equipped with an AN/APQ-174A multilode (terrain following, terrain mapping, air-to-ground ranging) radar, an AN/AAQ-16 forward-looking infrared (FLIR) system, and the integrated GPS-based scrolling map display system. The FLIR uses the detection of thermal energy to create a “picture” assembled for the video output that helps pilots and drivers steer at night, in fog, or detect warm objects against a cold background when it is completely dark.

Also equipped with two pintle mounts, one located at the right-side crew door and the other on the left-hand side at the first window, the MH-47E is capable of accepting a single machine gun, either an M60D single-barrel 7.62-mm medium machine gun or a single M134 7.62-mm six-barreled Minigun capable of firing two thousand to four thousand rounds per minute. With two guns up front at the cabin door and the left-side gunner’s window (M134s) and two guns in back at the machine-gun cutouts (M240 7.62-mm machine guns), it is a wellarmed aerial platform.

After the flight-readiness check, Easter took the lead helo, Turbine 21, skyward. Turbine 22 followed. Both helos headed northeast toward the treacherous
and unforgiving Hindu Kush range, a sixty-two-minute trip by air. To decrease the signature, or noise, of approaching forces, Turbine 22 broke formation at a predesignated point and proceeded to Asadabad to wait, then relocated to the forward operating base (FOB) at Jalalabad (J-bad), about a fifteen-minute flight from the designated insertion point. There, commanders monitored both the reconnaissance element insertion and the first twenty-four hours of the mission. In a cold, driving rain, Turbine 21 continued up Sawtalo Sar on its seven-minute trip to an altitude of nine thousand feet in search of its landing zone (LZ). The engines struggled in the thinning atmosphere and driving rain, and the helo lurched to the left and right, shuddered, and vibrated. As they gained altitude and headed away from the lights of J-bad, Easter, Bradley, and Swartz noticed the ominous campfires and lights of local villagers and ACM.

“Ten minutes!” yelled Oster as he turned toward the SEALs. Murphy acknowledged and gave a thumbs-up. The SEALs reviewed their plan of operation, equipment, and communications. Murphy and his team mentally prepared for their insertion. Bradley heard a radio communication from an AC-130 gunship circling overhead stating that it was “breaking station”—leaving its assigned area due to low fuel. Although another AC-130 was on its way, it had not arrived, thereby depriving the helo of air support, one of the all-important abort criteria. As the air mission commander, Bradley had a decision to make: abort the mission, or continue on and hope the relieving AC-130 arrived quickly. Aware of the critical importance of the mission to CJSOTF-A commanders, Bradley requested a status report on the primary helicopter landing zone, Nez Perce, and the alternate, Neka. Bradley was informed that LZ Nez Perce was clear but infrared sensors placed four individuals at LZ Neka. The two LZs were about 3.2 miles (5 kilometers) apart. Bradley informed the flight crew and the SEALs of the situation and his decision to continue with the mission. Murphy nodded affirmatively.

“Six minutes!” Murphy again acknowledged as Oster opened the rear ramp and both he and the crew chiefs prepared the aircraft for landing. “Three minutes!” Murphy again acknowledged, then he and the SEALs got on their feet and checked their equipment to ensure it was secure. Oster noticed Murphy communicate with each of his teammates, who all responded with an affirmative nod. As the helo approached, LZ Nez Perce was covered with fifteen-to-twenty-foot-tall trees, large tree stumps, thick brush, and large boulders. Easter tried repeatedly to find a safe “sweet spot” to set the helo down but was unsuccessful, which necessitated a fast-rope insertion. Oster immediately pulled the 1¾-inch-diameter nylon fast rope down from the fast rope insertion/extraction system (FRIES), secured it to the helo’s frame, and kicked it out the door. He then turned to Murphy and said, “One minute.”

Easter handed off the visual control to Oster, who obtained a direct visual of the LZ. Oster acknowledged visual contact: “Roger, Budweiser!” Oster gave Murphy a thumbs-up, which he returned.

Easter performed a flare maneuver by pitching the nose up, which would normally cause the helicopter to gain altitude, while at the same time reducing power to prevent a climb from occurring. This allowed the aircraft to hover over a suitable site. With the rear ramp down, Oster monitored the fast rope dangling from the back of the aircraft to the landing zone some thirty feet below and ensured that the rope reached the ground. Two crew chiefs manned the helo’s Miniguns and kept an eye on the LZ for enemy activity and fire. Oster gave Murphy another thumbs-up, which he again returned. The SEALs walked toward the rope with their hands over their heads, hanging onto the overhead FRIES support bar. Murphy and his men were dressed in full combat gear—knee and elbow pads, weapons, helmet, goggles, a rucksack containing about eighty-five pounds of food, ammunition, communications, and other supplies—and were wearing their all-important Kevlar Cobra tactical gloves, which prevented friction from burning their hands as they rapidly descended the rope. As the cold driving rain continued, the first one down was Dietz, followed by Luttrell, Murphy, and Axelson.