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While I was traveling, I picked up a paperback copy of Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 by Marcus Luttrell.
I had heard about this book by listening to Glenn Beck, who has had Marcus on his show several times before. As a fan of almost anything military, I thought this would make for a good read, and if I say so myself, I was right.
In Lone Survivor Marcus tells his story–this is a non-fiction book–and the story of SEAL team 10. The first half of the book involves Marcus’s account of his Navy SEAL training at BUD/S. Now, having watched a documentary on BUD/S on the Military Channel, I think I had a much better understanding of some of the things he talked about (and could certainly visualize things much better).
The second half of the book discusses his role in Operation Redwing, an operation where Marcus was the only survivor of the worst massacre in the history of the Navy SEALs. Marcus tells what happened, and how he survived and returned home to tell the tale.
Telling this story is something that Marcus had to do. He honors the men he served with by remembering them, and their incredible heroism in the worst of circumstances.
After reading this book, I feel like I know Marcus. The storytelling is fantastic, and the book reads like an action novel, but it is all too real. I laughed many times, and I cried like a baby a few times. I can now have some semblance of understanding as to why Marcus says he can no longer sleep at night. He hears his friends calling out to him in the quiet moments, but now he will never be alone in remembering them. He has told their story, and I am grateful.
I give this book the highest recommendation to those who love stories of our military (and can stomach or overlook the violence and langauge). What a great read!
Kelly and I got back this week from an amazing trip to Europe with a group from Liberty University. It was great to see some old friends, make new ones, and to see some amazing new places.
I may get the chance to put a few pictures up, but for now I’ll just tell you how the trip went.
- we began the trip with a weekend in DC, where the airport for our group’s departure was. It was fantastic to visit our nation’s capital again, to see the monuments and museums, and to meet some friends who live around there.
- We made our overnight flight to Austria from DC, and it was challenging with unhappy babies on our 7 hour flight, but the service provided by the Luftansa crew was superb. After changing planes in Frankfurt, we continued on to Vienna and got to tour that amazing city.
- In Vienna we saw one of the palaces of the Hapsburgs, some spectacular churches, and we also sampled some great local cuisine.
- Our next stop was Budapest. This was truly a unique experience, being my first visit to eastern Europe. We saw some great sights in the city and cruised on the Danube. Budapest was one of the unique places we visited, with such a different language and currency (theirs was almost 200 to our 1, so it was like 450 for a coke). Still, I was amazed at the dominance of our American culture even in eastern Europe. They had American clothes, music, and food.
- From Budapest we stopped in Bratislava, Slovakia for the afternoon. This was one of my favorite stops because we got to see a great part of town, and talk to some fantastic people. After the brief stop there we continued on to Prague.
- Prague was a very historic city. We visited Prague castle, the St Charles Bridge, and toured much of the old city. Here we saw some very old churches, an historic clock in the city square, and even took a ghost tour in the evening to learn more about the city.
- From Prague we traveled to Berlin, stopping for lunch in Dresden. Dresden was an amazing city, and I would love to return again to see the palaces and museums. I was happy this time just to try a local brat and learning to order ice cream in German.
- Berlin was one of my favorite places on our trip. We saw checkpoint Charlie at the Berlin Wall, visited some historic buildings including one bombed out church, the Reichstag (the home of the German parliament), the Brandenburg Gate, and several other places. We missed out on the Pergamon Museum and a few others (Berlin is known for their many museums). There was much to see and not enough time.
-From Berlin, we took a night train to Paris. It was great to wake up to the French countryside, and views of little villages with old churches at their center. I didn’t get pictures of these because it was one of those things cameras can’t capture (especially from a train traveling about 100 mph). In Paris we briefly visited the Louvre. We also saw Notre Dame Cathedral, we cruised on the river Seine at night after visiting the Eiffel Tower. Amazing. There were many new tastes, sights, and sounds there. Paris was another great place, though perhaps my favorite part was our visit to Montmartre (our guide pronounced it “Mamatra”) and seeing the Sacre Couer (the Basilica of the Sacred Heart).
- After Paris, we traveled to Calais, where we crossed the English channel into England. From there we went immediately to Canterbury.
- On our way from Canterbury to London, the bus broke down –not fun–but we managed to make it to our hotel in London in time to go to bed before midnight. The one day in London was not nearly enough, but we did get to see several sights, including touring the British Museum and St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Sadly, after that it was time to return home.
We arrived back home and were able to recover from our vacation on sunday and monday.
Kelly and I have been planning for about a year now and, as of this weekend, we will be heading to Europe!
About a year ago a friend of ours who serves on faculty at Liberty University, our Alma Mater told us about a trip he was taking. We found out that this tour would take us to Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Berlin, Paris, and London. Knowing, that this was too great an opportunity to pass up, we registered and began saving for this trip. Now, we’re on the verge of embarking on our journey across Europe!
We’re very excited, and look forward to putting up some pictures when we return. This will be my second trip with EF Tours, the company that has arranged our trip.
So I will be out of communication for the next couple of weeks (although I’ve been pretty scarce on the blog recently anyway). If you think of us keep us in your prayers as we travel. And let us know if you have any recommendations for things we should see/do on our trip.
It’s exciting to see a man like Mr Harvey using his influence to point to Jesus. Here Steve Harvey introduces Jesus:
