July History Minute

  • Published
  • By 920th Rescue Wing History Office

Fourteen years ago this month, four Navy SEALS dropped from a helicopter into the mountains of Afghanistan
near the Pakistan border. Their mission — dubbed Operation Red Wings — was to capture or kill a notorious
militia fighter believed to be hiding in the region.
But the team came under attack shortly afterward, and three of the men were killed. Another 16, including eight
more Navy SEALs, died during a rescue operation when their helicopter was shot down.
By the end, only one man, SEAL Marcus Luttrell, was left alive. He was the lone survivor and he was rescued
by Reserve Citizen Airmen from the 920th Rescue Wing.
The movie “Lone Survivor,” tells the story of that operation. Former wing commander, Col. Jeffrey Macrander
along with current and former wing members were part of one of the largest searches, some say, since Vietnam.
They flew a two-ship and Macrander circled a northern Afghanistan village in his HH-60 Pave Hawk as the
second helicopter landed for the pickup.
Recounting an almost impossible fight of the four Navy SEALs against some 150 al-Qaida and Taliban mountain
fighters. In the end only one of the four-man SEAL team —Luttrell — survived. Macrander and others in his
unit were on the next-to-last day of their deployment to Afghanistan when the call for the rescue came. Luttrell
said in an earlier interview with FLORIDA TODAY that he owed a lot to the men who rescued him. “They saved
my life,” he said. “I will forever be in their debt.”
Lt. Michael Murphy, Petty Officers Matthew Axelson and Danny Diets were killed. The current wing commander,
Col. Kurt Matthews, was part of the crew that went back for the fallen after the previous team redeployed.