After Operation Red Wings ended, Marcus submitted a post-operation report detailing the events and claimed that his team came under intense attack from 35 to 40 Taliban fighters. However, in his book, Lone Survivor, he mentioned that the team was attacked by a larger group of 80 to 200 Taliban fighters and that the team was able to neutralize more than a dozen of them. In January 2011, the Marine Corps Gazette reported that, according to military intelligence, members of SEAL Team 10 engaged in a firefight with around 10 to 20 Taliban fighters. The United States Navy's Medal of Honor citation for Lt. Michael P. Murphy, who was commander of the SEAL Team 10, stated that his team was ambushed by 30 to 40 enemy fighters. Ed Darack disagreed with Luttrell's claims and wrote in his book Victory Point: Operations Red Wings and Whalers that the Taliban group had around 8 to 10 members. Darack's estimate was formed after gathering information from intelligence reports, aerial and ground observations, accounts from rescuers, and Afghan intelligence, all collected after the events occurred. A former Colonel in the US Marine Corps who was part of the planning for Operation Red Wings, Andrew MacMannis, refuted Luttrell's claims of killing more than a dozen of Talibani terrorists and said that the soldiers searching the mountains after the ambush did not find any dead Taliban terrorists.
Criticized for making false claims in his book
Luttrell's book, Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10, mentions that Lieutenant Murphy contemplated shooting the Afghan herders who unexpectedly crossed paths with the SEAL reconnaissance team in June 2005. Nevertheless, his assertion has received strong backlash and has been widely discredited as a fictionalized account. Lieutenant Steve Ruh, a spokesperson for the Navy Special Warfare Command, emphasized that the highest-ranking individual holds the ultimate authority to make decisions in the field. He further stated that he had never encountered or heard of a situation where a decision was subjected to a vote during his 14 years of experience in the Navy. Lt Murphy's father also voiced his disapproval of Luttrell's claims. Murphy's father, while giving an interview, said,
"That directly contradicts what he told Maureen, myself and Michael’s brother John in my kitchen. He said that Michael was adamant that the civilians were going to be released, that he wasn’t going to kill innocent people … Michael would not put that up for a committee. People who knew Michael know that he was decisive and that he makes decisions.”
Luttrell's book mentioned that he ran out of ammunition during the ambush. However, Mohammad Gulab contradicted this statement by saying that when he found Marcus, he still had plenty of ammunition. Gulab also disputed Marcus' assertion that the goat herders had informed the Taliban about the SEALs' location and said,
"The militants, like many others in the area, heard the helicopter drop the Americans on the mountain, Gulab claims. The next morning, they began searching for the SEAL’s distinctive footprints. When the militants finally found them, the Americans were deliberating about what to do with the goat herders. The insurgents held back. After Marcus Luttrell and the company freed the locals, the gunmen waited for the right moment to strike."
Gulab revealed additional information that during a televised interview, a translator advised him not to express his own viewpoint and encouraged him to endorse all of Marcus' statements.
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