While his tagging buddies typically sprayed angular letters, Dietz, a talented artist, painted pictures of characters, alien creatures. The Danny Dietz Leadership and Training Foundation works to help kids like Dietz through physical training, tutoring, and personalized counseling. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the San Diego Union-Tribune. As Murphy staggered back to his men, bullets rained down on him. Raised in Littleton, Colo., Dietz had recently married his wife, Maria. The Pech River runs across the end of the ridge to the north, with the Korengal and Shuryek rivers running into it. The screenplay. I have the book and ive watched this movie almost 1,000 times and i love it so much. As night fell, the SEALs planned another rescue mission for their comrades. Gloating, Ahmed Shah phoned The News, a daily in Islamabad, Pakistan. The team was on its own. In June 2005, it was home to the U.S. Marines of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd regiment. Dietz maxed out his schedule, taking seven classes every semester; at night he plowed through correspondence class work to make up the missing credits. Privacy Policy. Sawtalo Sar is the highest point on a ridgeline running between the Korengal and Shuryek valleys, roughly in the center of Kunar province, a mountainous area in the northeast of Afghanistan. "I lived the real thing," he explained to the News. Inside the public information center, an elderly gentleman, a veteran, peers closely at the number on a scrap of paper: 6537-D. Dietz? he asks. As the team began another retreat, Dietz was shot again, this time in the shoulder. Lone Survivor, the story of an injured Navy SEAL's escape from the Taliban, is one of the most powerful action movies in years. Onboard trucks heading for the airfield, sergeants divided men into "chalks," and Healy counted heads. As a result of the sacrifice made by the SEALs, Night Stalkers, Rangers and Marines, the people of Konar province were able to vote in that September's parliamentary elections - the first elections in decades. As the teams communications specialist, Dietz worked the radio, but its signal struggled to penetrate Sawtalo Sars walls. The enemy also had terrain advantage and the bad guys launched a well-organized, three-sided attack on the SEALs. "Lone Survivor" director Peter Berg went into battle with a very specific strategic plan. That resolve came to define Dietz. The 29-year-old officer died June 28, 2005, during combat operations in Afghanistan. Hour after hour, his father, Dan Sr., pushed his sons bike, watching him fall, dust himself off, get back on, and shout, Again, Daddy! He didnt tell his parents. Initial intelligence had Shah leading between 100 and 300 fighters and boasting that he had a weapon that could bring down helicopters. Lone Survivor: What Really Happened During Operation Red Wings - Esquire Thank you for contacting us. He proposed to his fiance, Heather Duggan, under the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in 2003. U-T San Diego has a publishing partnership with SOFREP, or Special Operations Forces Situation Report, which is composed of military, government and intelligence experts who report on defense, domestic and foreign affairs. They scrambled and stumbled down the hills, stopping only to fire back at their pursuers. No one will likely ever know. Dietz traded his boots and hat for baggy jeans and tees. The Navy's Official Account of Operation Red Wings, ( The firefight continued relentlessly as the enemy militia forced the team deeper into a ravine, according to the U.S. Navys summary of action detailing the events of Operation Red Wings. Friends say it was typical Healy. Their mission, code-named Operation Red Wings, was compromised when three unarmed goat herders, including a young teen, stumbled on their location. Only the Texan's thumb prevented the explosion. Wearing his dress blues, Lieutenant Jon Schaffner explained that Dietz was missing in action. The 18-day campaign of mountain battles drove the last of Shah's men into Pakistan. Rare footage of the disastrous Operation Red Wings from the - reddit Undaunted, the man helped Luttrell to his feet. The posse was coming. Could he? The 4 SEALS members that were inserted and the Quick Reaction Force that were killed in the helicopter attack were from SEAL TEAM 10. Severely wounded, Murphy returned to his cover position with his men and continued the battle, which is different than what was portrayed in the 2013 movie, Lone Survivor which has Murphy dying atop the ridge he ascended to in order to communicate with his headquarters. No names were released. I was a journalist and former paratrooper who saw combat with Task Unit Bruiser, SEAL Team 3 in Ramadi in 2006. By his selfless leadership, courageous actions, and extraordinary devotion to duty, Lieutenant Murphy reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.". The news reached the United States the morning of June 29. Luttrell began firing, followed quickly by Axelson and Dietz. He ran up a parallel steep slope as bullets made the dirt jump behind his steps. Cindy and Dan spent several difficult years tracking down their eldest after hed once again snuck out of his bedroom or his classroom. Lone Survivor (35,362) 7.5 2 h 1 min 2014 X-Ray HDR UHD R. A four-man Navy SEAL team desperately tries to survive an attack by heavily armed Taliban insurgents in this fact-based drama. The Dietz family also honors the SEALs legacy through two organizations that bear his name. It had been two days since they learned there was a survivor. As Dietz rushed in late for duty, he impressed everyone with his abject apology and even volunteered his own punishment. There were about five villages on their target list, most of them clinging to the steep sides of the mountains. Luttrell, the team medic, had lost all of his gear in his tumble down the mountain; he could do nothing to help Dietz. Scan this QR code to download the app now. The aircraft turned southwest for Jalalabad, while the SEALs aboard Turbine 32 fumed at losing a chance to rescue their brothers. Forces death toll since Operation Enduring Freedom began at that point with 19 dead and one injured. The men sprang into action, grabbing gear and guns while running for the door. On July 2, word came that theyd found movement on the ground from a military tracking device. If he showed himself, the Taliban would shoot him before they could land. Less than 30 percent of the sailors who start BUD/S complete the grueling six-month program. Overhead, Navy and Air Force planes filled the sky, searching for the missing Americans and pounding enemy positions. He walked at nine months, he could swim at two years old, and when he was three, the toddler with a penchant for cowboy boots and Wranglers determined he would learn to ride a bike without training wheels. Tucked in the northeastern corner of Afghanistan, the snowcapped Hindu Kush mountains rise steeply between the terraced fields of the Korengal and Shuryek valleys. The valleys are dotted with small stone villages, surrounded by terraced fields. He looked up at a bearded shepherd. Contact with the trapped SEAL team had been lost. In reality, according to a 2006 interview Luttrell did with Miniter and cited in, The movie all but ignores the contributions of SEAL team leader Dan Healy (who appears only in the ending photo collage of the dead). It was about 4:10 p.m. June 28. That scene was also especially tough for Berg, who had family members of many of the 19 fallen heroes attend a special private screening weeks before the movie's release. It will go by quick. Eventually, Dietzs truancy became such a problem the courts threatened to take action if Cindy and Dan couldnt control their son. He stirred as a shadow covered him. The autopsy report suggests that none of the kill shots received by Dietz were at close range. His heart never stopped. Afghan Special Forces provided translators and guides. "Axe," as the team called him, was a quiet high achiever whose family lived off an equally quiet cul-de-sac in suburban Cupertino, Calif. His plan was to serve his country until he turned 25 and then become a schoolteacher in Chico. The four menPetty Officer Second Class Dietz, a gunners mate from Littleton; Petty Officer Second Class Marcus Luttrell, a hospital corpsman; Petty Officer Second Class Matthew Axelson, a sonar technician; and Lieutenant Michael Murphy, the teams commanding officerconstituted the reconnaissance team for Operation Red Wings, a mission to locate and kill an insurgent named Ahmad Shah. In the kitchen, he and Patsy had spent hours meticulously retiling the counters. It was later reported that Turbine 33 was struck by an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) that went through the open ramp and impacted the main drive shaft, thus downing the bird. Bleeding and dying, he had given his men a chance. Everyone aboard died. Their decision set forward a chain of events that culminated in the deaths of 19 American troops after a rocket-propelled grenade slammed into a U.S. Chinook helicopter during a rescue attempt. What the movie doesn't reveal is that Shah was killed shortly thereafter in a gunfight with a Pakistani villager over a chicken. New look at ill-fated '05 Afghan mission - San Diego Union-Tribune The Taliban were not long in coming. Once they identified him, a force of Marine Scouts, Army Rangers, and Navy SEALs would move in to attack Shah and his men. Matthew Axelson was the sniper. The radio only spoke static. The projectile impacted the MH-47s exhaust duct and detonated. The men aboard the helos, SEALs from both SEAL Team 10 out of Virginia Beach and SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 1 out of Pearl Harbor, had been preparing to go in the next night, clear the target villages where Ahmad Shah was believed to be, and then blow landing zones for the Marines of 2/3 to come in and do a more thorough sweep of the entire area. They slid and crashed down Sawtalo Sar, severely injuring themselves along the way. They had been hunting a particular anti-coalition militia leader, known as either Ahmad Shah or Sharmak, who had killed a number of the Marines of 2nd Battalion, 3rd Regiment, who were moving into Kunar province in the Korengal and Pech valleys and had set up in a forward operating base named Camp Blessing, after Jay Blessing, a Special Forces soldier killed by an improvised explosive device strike in the area in 2003. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. To view it, confirm your age. Luttrell's initial reports in his debriefs state that the enemy force was around 20 to 35 fighters. He started hanging out with kids who drank, smoked weed, and tagged buildings.