It’s one thing to tell a loudmouth in Texas he’s “all hat and no cattle.” And it’s altogether another to ask some fellow in an Abilene beer hall “where do you let you wife graze?” Throughout the history of the Lone Star State, there have been many gun fights, differences settled at the OK Corral or The Alamo, but the most heinous scoundrel of all is one who’ll kill another man’s dog.
They were joy riders, evil trash riding through the sparse pasture country, ‘likkered up,’ and shooting dogs. They came upon this one place and spied a friendly golden retriever. Bam! Bam! But the rancher happened to be awake. He jumped into his truck and lit out behind the hombres.
“We’re both going about a hundred,” the rancher with the surprisingly calm voice told the 9-1-1 dispatcher. “You be careful. Are you armed?” she asked as the car chase entered the next county.
“Don’t worry about me. I am a Navy SEAL and I have two 9 mm Berettas beside me on the seat… You ought to be worried about them if I get ‘em before the sheriff does.”
Carefully giving instruction so the deputies could set up a roadblock ahead, the dispatcher asked his name and just as calm as you might suspect, the toughest man in Texas told her, “I’m Marcus Luttrell … yes ma’am … The Lone Survivor.”
Luttrell will say the same thing in Chattanooga on Friday, July 16, when the famed soldier will be the guest speaker at the American Hero’s Dinner. The seventh annual event will be held at the Chattanooga Convention Center and will benefit the nationally renowned ‘Honoring the Sacrifice’ Foundation.
The Chattanooga-based foundation honors, assists, and supports military veterans who have lost their limbs in combat-related attacks, mostly due to improvised explosive devices. It was a hidden IED that cost Chattanooga Christian graduate Andrew Smith both of his legs on his first-ever patrol in Afghanistan. “God turned a tragedy into a miracle,” Andrew claims and the famous SEAL, Luttrell, knows a lot about that.
The miracle is that Smith has now helped countless amputee soldiers regain their dignity, their purpose … their life. Tickets for the Seventh Annual dinner featuring Marcus Luttrell are now available on the ‘Honoring the Sacrifice’ site and – obviously -- table reservations are filling fast. Those who wish to make individual reservations or corporate arrangements should contact
www.honoringthesacrifice.org
A graduate of BUD/S Class 228, Luttrell was the only survivor of the fateful events of June 28, 2005, in Afghanistan, according to one account. Luttrell and three teammates from SEAL Team TEN were assigned to a reconnaissance mission, operation RED WING, in the Hindu-Kush mountain region of Afghanistan. Their objective was to gather intelligence on Taliban movement in the area. Luttrell’s team was eventually discovered and outnumbered by over 200 Taliban fighters.
Petty Officer Luttrell was the only one to survive enemy contact. In the rescue mission that ensued, 16 Special Forces personnel, including 8 SEALs, died when their helicopter was shot down by Taliban fighters. It was the largest single-day loss of life in the SEALs’ history.
Luttrell’s account of the epic ordeal became a best seller before it was made into a blockbuster movie of the same name. His in-person recollection is even better. Click
HERE for a clip from Lone Survivor.