When 4 Navy SEALs SMOKED 35 Insurgents... (*ACTUAL FOOTAGE*)

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I respect you for listing everyone that lost their lives in this operation. Not just the 3 seals

I was a machine gunner in 2/3 on that deployment. That’s actually me on the .50 in that short clip at the end. This is the best short documentary I’ve seen on Red Wings. Most of what I’ve seen including the books and movies get a lot of the facts wrong. The lead up with the difficulties of being the only Marine grunt unit in country at the time being at the whim of SOCOM was very accurate. After Redwings we tried to work on our own as much as possible. RIP to everyone who passed that day, I’ll never forget it.

Analyst here. The bit about the goat herders always struck me as BS - for one thing, a lot of guys who knew Murphy, his father and colleagues included, say it would have been completely out of character for him to even consider murdering them. For another, it wouldn't even make sense to do so. If they were already going to extract, why not just take them with them and then let them go when extraction arrived? If you just shoot them and leave them, you're giving the enemy a propaganda gift from god. Murphy was a thoroughly professional officer, so he'd have known that very well. The truth, I'm afraid to say, is that they were probably compromised the moment SOCOM decided to use a helicopter. I've been up in mountains and let me tell you, you can hear restaurant chatter from two miles away down the valley. The Taliban included men who fought the Soviets for ten years. The Soviets were very fond of helicopter insertion. Those bastards would have been intimately familiar both with the sound of a helicopter, and how to tell what direction it was coming from. This was a botch up. SOCOM ignored the advice of the Marines on the ground, took a bunch of SEALS with no prior combat experience or knowledge of the terrain, and sent them right into a trap.

Having served myself, the controversy surrounding these events tells me one thing: No one with officers rank wants to accept the personal responsibility that they let 15 men die due to poor mission planning and refusal to provide AO organic unit availability. They put those men in a trap, and its no wonder that these four men were under such duress and strain that the only option they had was to attempt to flee due to the rapacious ferocity the Taliban had to offer that day, regardless their numbers. Everyone in charge is culpable because they didn't stick to their guns and use their heads. They let hubris and the idea of "invincibility" get in the way of tactical and strategic planning. The long term effects of this operation would be felt all the way to our withdrawal in 2021. All these different conflicting perspectives is just memoirs of people who don't want to admit they were part of this grand mistake. You will never read a memoir where someone says "I was wrong". Same as combat reports.

It's a shame that the role of Mohammad Gulab - the man who rescued Luttrell - is being talked small, as well as his accounts of the events. And Luttrell's accounts of the events were highly dubious, including the initially cited number of 200 insurgents that attacked them.

I live in the area where Lt. Michael Murphy is from and we have monuments for him all over the place including a lake side park named after him. Our local fire department even has a mural with his photo on the side of one their brand new fire trucks.

35? Come on now, the footage shows half a dozen dudes involved...

Evidently the USMC were building this huge intricate mission that had contingencies and QRF, but the SEALs sniped the mission and totally botched it. One mistake being that they misunderstood how shitty the mountains were for their COMs, to which the Marines had warned them to take more powerful sets, though the SEALs figured they knew better. Also a week before insertion, the SEALs kept doing fake inserts all over the nearby mountain range to hopefully confused the ACM and Shaw forces. Unfortunately this only alerted them to a possible incursion of some coalition force. The 4 man team also didn't hide the ropes after they were inserted.

My dad is in the credits at the end of the movie. He was a chaplain that got deployed to Bagram 2 weeks before the events. The picture of the ramp processional at the end shows him leading the processional with a Catholic chaplain on his right. The Catholic guy has a white and gold stohl, my dad is wearing the other one. One of his good friends at Bagram was a SEAL who died on the chinook sent in for backup. I forget his name, but Dad saw him in his field service almost every Sunday. He was a regular attendee as a Protestant himself. RW happened the next day on Monday, where he died in the chinook. His deployment was hours away from ending, and his C-130 flight home to his wife and two daughters was slated for that Tuesday. Fricken sucks man. edit: to the brovet who's boxers are in a knot for me not remembering the name of someone I never met, in addition to me being 4 when this happened, screw off or turn your comment replies back on. I reiterated the story of my dad's experience in a YouTube comment section, which he told me when the movie was released. I'm in the process of entering the Air Force as a med student. I owe no one anything here. Get off your high horse because my dad was there unlike you and still deals with the effects of what happened that day because he lost his close friend and helped comfort his wife and daughter when he finished his deployment.

Of course respect to all the fallen, including the Nightstalkers. Respect also to the honourable truck driver and his village.

Obviously many have heard this story several times but this is so good & heartfelt that it almost feels like the first. So amazing & thankful you're able to get this footage & put these together for us. I look forward to every single piece of your work dropping & always try to share with friends & on social. You're the man Popo, can't wait for more! LFG USA!!

I was at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, CO. In the Navy at the time, we had to do a bit more than 'just our job' and I ended up volunteering and signing up and hand-picked for the Navy color guard and the base honor guard (all branches). We were trained incredibly well and made absolutely sure our uniforms were squared-away. Our first class Petty Officer in charge of us, while he was laid back, he made absolutely sure we were ready to go for any event requested either from the community or the navy and the air force (base command), constant inspections, back-up uniforms, last-minute items in case of scuffs and pre-made neckerchiefs, just in case. You were given a blue parachord at our base to signify that you were a color guard. We got a call about doing a memorial event at Heritage High School at Littleton, CO. We knew that it was going to honor a seal that died in afghanistan. It was about a little over 20 minutes that I can remember, our first class made us practice the night before of a ceremony that was 'unofficial' but it was presented so well that our base used it and it was one of our cornerstones of a performance our CO absolutely loved. We were going to perform this at the High School. The ceremony is known as "The thirteen folds of Old Glory." You fold the American Flag and each fold means and represents something and is a long but, wonderful ceremony. We were told we would do that in front of Danny Dietz widow and family and high school auditorium and above all else to keep military bearing. By the time we were done, I learned more about that man as if I just read a biography or even an autobiography from him. It was that well done by the school. After we were done in the auditorium of the ceremony, there wasn't a dry eye and I cannot tell you how hard that is as Color Guard when you need to perform and keep absolute military bearing while there is a memorial at his highschool. Everytime I hear about the man or the operation it always takes me back that I and a few others were given the Honor to perform at his highschool and present a perfectly folded american flag to his family right there at the auditorium.

I knew Michael Murphy. He was a singer at a church band I played guitar in. My friend died tragically the night before we had practice. He consoled me with a particular kindness. This world needs more people like him. Thanks to all.

This is the most emotional video you've released yet. Bravo. And a random thank you to the local who saved Luttrell. If there were an example of a guardian angel, that guy was it.

Was sad to learn that Marcus made up a lot of what happened. Especially the part about him having all his ammo on his when Mohammed found him.

Now do the one where a SEAL team abandoned their attached Air Force Combat Controller John Chapman on the side of a mountain to fend for himself

The Marines of 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines, who had planned OP RED WINGS, were going after a relatively low level target named Ahmed Shaw, as their previous operations, and the unit they'd replaced, had nabbed all the known high and medium value targets successfully. Unfortunately, they were not part of a Marine Air Ground Task Force, and didn't possess organic lift assets needed to conduct it. So they asked for helo support from 160th SOAR (the famed Night Stalkers) who were assigned to Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Afghanistan (CJSOTF-A). The region SOTF command was run by SEALs who only agreed as long as they were to run the recon, and act as the main effort assault element to conduct the air assault raid against the target buildings thought to house the HVTs, while the rest of the Marine infantry company tasked with supporting missions, specifically the outer cordon. Because they had no options, and they wanted the mission to go ahead to nab the bad guy, the Marines agreed. This is not uncommon, its actually the norm. SOCOM are often on the lookout for good missions and they often get them from "poaching" intel or fully developed ops from conventional units. Per the planning of Red Wings, the recon element was was going to be inserting the day before on the high ground nearby to three named areas of interest (NAI) that were supposed to be under observation to spot the targets. They were supposed to not only confirm the presence of Shaw, but also provide additional intel. 2/3 had planned to conduct the recon using a Scout Sniper six man team, headed by a very experienced team leader. They had worked in that area often before, knew the relative ground, knew the limitations of radios, etc. Their plan was to get helo lifted miles away from the objective, land, then infiltrate by foot. When the SEALs poached the recon mission, the new recon element was a four man team who had never worked recon in Afghanistan before, weren't trained in recon, only one individual ever having deployed to a combat zone before. They ignored advice to bring more powerful radios, as the Marines knew from experience that the one the SEALs brought couldn't push out far enough, it didn't have enough power. Additionally, the SEAL recon team didn't have a Primary, Alternate, Contingency, Emergency (PACE) plan for comms, only having the weak MBITR and a sat phone as backup. Neither were adequate, and they were warned. More so, their plan was significantly flawed. Not wanting to spent the time and energy walking to the objective, they decided to get helo inserted a few hundred meters away. They attempted to mitigate the risk of landing near directly on the Observation Point (OP) by having numerous false insertions done all over the valley area over the previous week, to keep the locals guessing, which only ended up tipping them off that an operation was in the works. But in recon, its an outright sin to ever airlift onto the OP. Every measure must be taken to keep it hidden, to keep the presence of the recon team hidden. After they fast roped down on the landing zone, per norm, the fast ropes were disconnected from the helicopter, but the SEAL recon team did not hide them, they left them in the open. Locals, sent out when they'd heard the choppers, found them pretty quickly, and using their own comms, reported it back. At that time the SEAL team had made it to the high ground and beyond, were trying to find a good OP to overwatch the NAIs, which proved difficult as the position they initially chose at night proved poor when light came at dawn. After daybreak they moved OPs. The locals, knowing ISAF rules of engagement, sent up some unarmed individuals, with radios, with some sheep, into the hills to scout them out. This is a common TTP in COIN ops to find snipers and recon element hide sites. In Iraq, they'd sent kids or unarmed adults to check on certain buildings, knowing we wouldn't kill them if we found them. If they found us, they'd report back. It worked during Red Wings. The SEAL recon team was spotted. Compromised, they detained the sheepherders. At that point the operation was blown. They have just been soft compromised, though without knowing it they'd also been hard compromised as those herders were part of a deliberate counter-recon element so Shaw and the enemy fighters in the village knew they'd been caught when they didn't report back. But because the SEAL recon team never established a formal plan for being compromised they had to make the decision on the spot of what to do. Instead of executing the actions of a pre-made drill for compromise, (depending on the story version) they got into a debate about what to do and even possibly held a vote. Confusion was also on what to do with the detainees. AT NO TIME WAS KILLING THEM ACTUALLY A LEGAL OPTION. Or realistic. The easiest thing to do would have been to gag them and flex cuff them to a tree. Instead they let them go (where they instantly ran off to warn everyone), while the SEALs picked up and moved, but not far. So after being compromised, the SEALs moved to high ground to make the call on their radio to alert the command element what had happened. Note, they didn't vacate the area, they moved maybe a hundred meters away from where they'd been spotted. Meanwhile, their comms weren't working, so the radio traffic was broken taking far longer than it should have without any real benefit of transmitting information. Meanwhile, the local enemy, realistically numbering about 12 fighters, having been briefed by the returning herders on the location of the SEALs, their size, their weapons, created a plan, climbed the hills to reach a position where they could ambush the infidels on their way back up to the high ground which was on the way back to the LZ (which they sent RPG gunners to overwatch in case a helicopter showed up). Finally, the SEAL recon team moving back toward the high ground through a draw (the NE Gulch), but got ambushed at relatively close range by roughly a squad sized element in strength, with machine guns. Possibly RPG and mortar, though in the video the insurgents made I never saw evidence of explosive weaponry. Map of ambush, blue arrow is SEAL retreat The fight was brief, and the SEALs that weren't hit immediately tried to break contact downhill. Luttrell effectively fell down the mountain, while the patrol leader, Mike Murphy, made a call on the sat phone before dying. The other two died during this time too. They didn't kill any of the locals, it was an entirely one sided fight. The Quick Reaction Force 10 SEALs in a 160th SOAR Chinook, escorted by two Apaches. The SEAL mission commander aboard the Chinook ordered the pilots to reach the LZ ASAP, and because the Chinook flies faster than the Apaches they arrived first. Because the Apaches weren't present, despite them having the thermal optics that would have been able to visually clear the landing zone, and the weaponry to physically clear it, the Chinook flared and started its landing, in broad daylight, under the observation of RPG gunner stationed there, and was targeted and hit, crashing, killing all onboard. Map of area of operations, with original RT insertion LZ and QRF LZ/Shootdown pos marked Another SOCOM QRF element, of primarily Rangers, were sent in the next day, they landed elsewhere and walked in, they are the ones who found Luttrell, who had been rescued by a villager in a local village, who apparently still had all his mags, loaded. They also recovered the bodies and secured the helicopter crash site. Besides recovering all weapons and equipment belonging to the SEALs, and having video footage of the fight, the local leader and target of the raid, Ahmed Shaw, also got a computer they'd brought that once broken into possessed the schematics of the US embassy in Kabul, as well as other sensitive information. He took that intel, and the videos, and cobbled together an effective propaganda video that earned him major credibility, which led to increased funding, recruitment, etc., causing him to turn into a legitimate High Value Target.

I really wish you would have told the actual story. The story that was put together using the ACTUAL facts, and not just regurgitating all of Luttrell's propaganda and lies.

It's crazy how bad ass you can sound when you're the only one left who can tell the story.