Marcus Lutrell Great Quotes: the Lone Survivor

Leading Petty Officer Marcus Lutrell and four teammates from SEAL Team Four went on a covert operation  into the mountains of Afghanistan where they encountered two adult men and a teenage boy. Rather than kill them–and prevent any chance the villagers would betray their presence to the local Taliban–Lutrell opted to let them go.

An hour later, that turned out to be a deadly mistake. The Team was attacked by 150 Taliban. They killed one hundred, but at the cost of every SEAL save Lutrell. He was left injured and far from American rescuers.

Now retired from the SEALs, he is an in-demand motivational speaker. I came across an amazing video of one of his speeches to the National Rifle Association. Not sure you want to invest 13 minutes in the ramblings of an under-dressed ex-Special Forces redneck? Start with these quotes, taken directly from his presentation:

In my short ten year career, I’ve been shot, stabbed, blown up, helicopter crashed, drowned three times, had a stroke underwater, captured by the enemy, and buried 45 of my closest friends

You can’t negotiate with someone who is trying to cut your head off

I was paralyzed from the waist down (he and 3 SEALs had fought off 150 Taliban for hours—he was the Lone Survivor) and I thought, What am I going to do now?

We aren’t heroes out their in the military. We’re just Patriots.

I sat there and felt sorry for myself for one minute, then I had to keep going

Any government that thinks war is somehow fair and subject to rules like a baseball game probably should not get into one. Because nothing’s fair in war, and occasionally the wrong people do get killed. (I confess–this is from the book)

Once you send me over there, take the leash off of me, I’m going to create so much hell, do everything I can to annihilate everything in front of me so that they are never going to attack us again

We’re getting it done.

Click here to go to the source.