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The Sole Survivor
The service members who helped rescue Navy Seal Marcus Luttrell, below, in Afghanistan in 2005 were, from left, Master Sgt. Mike Cusick, Staff Sgt. Chris Piercecchi, Staff Sgt. Ben Peterson, Staff Sgt. Joshua Donnelley, Master Sgt. Josh Appel, Tech. Sgt. John Davis, Tech. Sgt. Jason Burger, Lt. David Gonzales, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Macrander, Master Sgt. Brett Konczal, Maj. Jeff "Spanky" Peterson and Maj. John Phalon. The other members of Luttrell's four-man team were killed by Taliban fighters.
(Courtesy Of Josh Appel)
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"American!" the villager said, flashing two thumbs-up. "Okay! Okay!"
"You Taliban?" Luttrell asked.
"No Taliban!"
The villager's friends arrived, carrying AK-47s. They began to argue, apparently determining Luttrell's fate. "I kept saying to myself, 'Quit being a little bitch. Stand up and be a man.' "
But he couldn't stand. Three men lifted 240 pounds of dead weight and carried Luttrell to the 15-hut village of Sabray. They took his rifle.
What happened next baffled him. Mohammed Gulab, 33, father of six, fed Luttrell warm goat's milk, washed his wounds and clothed him in what Luttrell called "man jammies."
"I didn't trust them," Luttrell said. "I was confused. They'd reassure me, but hell, it wasn't in English."
Hours after his arrival, Taliban fighters appeared and demanded that the villagers surrender the American. They threatened Gulab, Luttrell said, and tried to bribe him. "I was waiting for a good deal to come along and for Gulab to turn me over.
"I'd been in so many villages. I'd be like, 'Up against the wall, and shut the hell up!' So I'm like, why would these people be kind to me?" Luttrell said. "I probably killed one of their cousins. And now I'm shot up, and they're using all the village medical supplies to help me."
What Luttrell did not understand, he said, was that the people of Sabray were following their own rules of engagement -- tribal law. Once they had carried the invalid Seal into their huts, they were committed to defend him. The Taliban fighters seemed to respect that custom, even as they lurked in the hills nearby.
During the day, children would gather around Luttrell's cot. He touched their noses and said "nose"; the children taught him words in Pashtun. At prayer time, he kneeled as best he could, wincing from shrapnel wounds. A boy said in Arabic, "There is no god but Allah." Marcus repeated: "La ilaha illa Allah."
"Once you say that, you become a Muslim -- you're good to go," he said. Luttrell offered his own unspoken prayer to Jesus: "Get me out of here."
