Learning survival the hard way!

[Sarge47]

Just bought the DVD "Lone Survivor" that just came out today. Great film and a great story! You can learn a lot about the Navy Seals from it. Those guys are tough! I highly recommend it!...

[Great Dane]

Lone Survivor is a movie?? I thought it was an ad campaign for Under Armour.
Just kidding, I liked it.

[Adventure Wolf]

I saw that movie in the theater with my older brother. I didn't like the lesson the main character took away at the end. That was my only problem with it. I would explain why I think that way, but I don't want to spoil the movie.

[crashdive123]

The book and the movie are a first hand account of what happened. I don't know that I would call what happened at the end to Marcus Luttrell a lesson that he took away.

[Rick]

The whole situation could have been avoided and that's the conundrum isn't it? If you do the savage thing then everyone comes out fine (one assumes...except the goat herders). If you do the humane thing then a lot of good men die, which of course is what happened. I don't know that I would have made a different decision in the moment only that it was a brutal decision to make and because we know the outcome probably the wrong one.

[hunter63]

You know....it's too bad most of the rentals have gone away....I don't watch movies more than once mostly except Jeremiah Johnson maybe so I don't buy them....so it's gonna be awhile before I will see it I guess.....
I'm put it on my "look for list."

[Sarge47]

You know....it's too bad most of the rentals have gone away....I don't watch movies more than once mostly except Jeremiah Johnson maybe so I don't buy them....so it's gonna be awhile before I will see it I guess.....
I'm put it on my "look for list."

http://www.amazon.com/Lone-Survivor-...+survivor+rent

[hunter63]

Thanks Sarge......That for a DVD or Down load?

[Adventure Wolf]

The whole situation could have been avoided and that's the conundrum isn't it? If you do the savage thing then everyone comes out fine (one assumes...except the goat herders). If you do the humane thing then a lot of good men die, which of course is what happened. I don't know that I would have made a different decision in the moment only that it was a brutal decision to make and because we know the outcome probably the wrong one.

At the end, his take away lesson was that he survived because of his brothers died, and that he was a Seal.

It was crap. The reason he survived was because a few members of the native population came to the conclusion to spare his life like he spared the life of the goat herder.

[Rick]

Hunter - Here is Mr. Luttrell's web site.

https://marcusluttrell.com/

[hunter63]

Hunter - Here is Mr. Luttrell's web site.

https://marcusluttrell.com/

Thanks.....

[Great Dane]

The whole situation could have been avoided and that's the conundrum isn't it? If you do the savage thing then everyone comes out fine (one assumes...except the goat herders). If you do the humane thing then a lot of good men die, which of course is what happened. I don't know that I would have made a different decision in the moment only that it was a brutal decision to make and because we know the outcome probably the wrong one.

Well, there are often other options. The thing is that you don't know if the locals are friendly or if they're loyal to the Taleban.

There are lots of people in those regions that are not friendly towards the Taleban, as the movie also show. If you decide to either tie them up (essentially a death sentence), or even just shoot them, perhaps you'll avoid them running to the insurgents and telling on you. But there is also the very real chance you'll just be killing innocent people. Killing innocent people, is not helpful in the big picture. You can probably immagine how you would feel about foreign soldiers killing innocent people in your neck of the woods...
It is very much a catch 22 decision. Damned if you do, and very likely damned if you don't.

[finallyME]

You know....it's too bad most of the rentals have gone away....I don't watch movies more than once mostly except Jeremiah Johnson maybe so I don't buy them....so it's gonna be awhile before I will see it I guess.....
I'm put it on my "look for list."

Redbox.....$1.99 for a day.

[Rick]

Exactly my point. It is my understanding that protocol was to release non-combatants and so they did. Protocol for the very reasons you stated. However, they had to know what the most likely outcome would be and that is the goatherders would reveal the Seals' location at the earliest possible opportunity, which they did. I'm not sure what other options they had at the moment. Be a savage and kill them or be a humanitarian and let them go. We are, after all, the good guys.

[Batch]

I don't think anyone expected the herders to get to the locals as quickly as they did. In hindsight, I would have them walk down the mountain a good ways and then release them. Maybe make sure that you had an evacuation in route before you let them go.

[Rick]

And which direction is AWAY from the locals? Great Dane summed it up pretty well. Damned if you do and damned if you don't. And just to clarify, I was not passing judgement on their decision or critiquing them in any way. In my book Seals are way up here and I'm way down here. I was just trying to relate my opinion that it would be a hard decision to have made given the importance of the mission and the rules of engagement they had to work with.

[Great Dane]

And which direction is AWAY from the locals?

Precisely. You will most likely know the direction of their village, but in those regions you can stumble upon local herders anywhere.
The thing is that there is absolutely no way of knowing if they will tell on you or not. They might despise the foreign troops and at the same time despise the Taleban even more. They made a call that turned out to be "wrong", and that's why there's now a book and a movie.
Given the number of Taleban fighters that they encountered, they might very well have "run into them" anyway.
At the end of the day, it only serves to show that no matter how hard you train, how well equipped you are and how meticulous your planning is, there is no way to plan for everything. It's like chaos theory, to many unknowns. You can't plan for communications to fail, you can't plan for some goat herders or a goat, stumbling upon you, even if you're hidden, weather can change unexpectedly and so on..

[Sarge47]

Thanks Sarge......That for a DVD or Down load?

The $5.99 is for the download I believe.....

[Sarge47]

How many of you spotted the real Marcus in the film?....

[Seniorman]

I have a good friend who is a former SEAL, Vietnam service, among other areas. He and I were talking about Lone Survivor. He'd read the book and had seen the flick. He said that from what he'd read, given the terrain, the changing situation and conditions, plus the Rules of Engagement, the SEALs were screwed from the moment they were discovered by the goat herders.

FWIW.

S.M.