Fifth anniversary of Operation Redwing

On June 27, 2005, a four-man Navy SEAL sniper watch team set out to conduct a mission in some of the harshest terrain on earth – about 10,000 feet above sea level in the Hindu Kush Mountains of Afghanistan. Their mission was to locate and gather intelligence on a certain high-ranking Taliban official with known ties to Osama bin-Laden. Once they had eyes on the target, a larger force would then attack, capturing or killing the target. According to their intelligence, the SEALs would be operating amongst as many as 200 enemy fighters.

In the fighting that followed, 11 Navy SEALs and eight Army Task Force 160 aircrew died in the battle. Operation Redwing was the highest loss of life for the Naval Special Warfare Command since the D-Day invasion of Normandy in World War II.

One man survived. Unto the Breach recalls his incredible story.

The team was inserted at night by helicopter into the heavily-forested and mountainous terrain east of Asadabad, a village in the Afghanistan province of Kunar. Intelligence reported that a large group of armed men slipped through a pass in the mountains from Pakistan. The size of the force suggested that there was a valuable target in the area. This area was considered a “hornet’s nest,” a Taliban stronghold that Coalition Forces rarely ventured into. The inhabitants were goat herders and wood cutters, and the Taliban rewarded them for shooting U.S. forces or reporting on their locations.

The clouds were low and heavy rains poured down on the team. They had set up and began observing the area, but could not manage a clear line of sight on the target area. They moved in closer, taking a position about one mile from the village.

Continue reading about the mission here, and buy Marcus Luttrell’s book – I guarantee it will be one of the best you will ever read. Just don’t make the mistake of loaning it out as I did – you won’t get it back. (fortunately it wasn’t signed).