Love
Like You’ve
Never Been
Hurt
By JentEzen FrankLin
Marcus Luttrell was an elite Navy
SEAL who survived a fierce battle in
Afghanistan in 2005 and earned a
Navy Cross for combat heroism. His
bestselling memoir, Lone Survivor,
documents his harrowing experience.
He and four other Navy SEALs were
tasked with observing a village and
capturing or killing a Taliban leader
who had links to Osama bin Laden.
While hiding out, this team noticed
three shepherds. They thought about
killing these men but opted not to.
A short time later, the team was
surrounded by more than a hundred
Taliban warriors. Luttrell writes that
their decision not to pull the trigger on
the shepherds may have signed their
death warrant. A helicopter carrying
sixteen special-operation soldiers
about to rescue the encircled SEAL
team was shot down; every single
person on board was killed. Luttrell
was the only survivor on his team. He
was ultimately rescued by a group of
Afghan villagers, who helped bring him
to safety.
Early in the book, Luttrell narrates his
experience working toward becoming
a Navy SEAL, an elite soldier in the
U.S. Navy’s primary special-operations
force. Many who attempt the more-
than-yearlong period of vigorous
formal training quit