Today is the 15th anniversary of Operation Red Wings.
Most every CrossFitter and other people in our orbit have heard of the Hero workout Murph. It's legendary and we're doing it tomorrow. What many folks don't know, is the story of Murph and why we honor him. Today is the 15th anniversary of Operation Red Wings, this the Navy SEAL operation that took Lt. Murphy's life and the lives of 20 of his fellow sailors and soldiers. It is the deadliest day in Navy SEAL history. Murph's SEAL team were scouting Ahmad Shah – a terrorist in his mid-30s who grew up in the mountains of Afghanistan. A fierce firefight erupted between the four SEALs and a much larger enemy force of more than 50 anti-coalition militia. The enemy had the SEALs outnumbered. They also had terrain advantage. They launched a well-organized, three-sided attack on the SEALs. The firefight continued relentlessly as the overwhelming militia forced the team deeper into a ravine. Despite the intensity of the firefight and suffering grave gunshot wounds himself, Murphy is credited with risking his own life to save the lives of his teammates. Murphy, intent on making contact with headquarters, but realizing this would be impossible in the extreme terrain where they were fighting, unhesitatingly and with complete disregard for his own life moved into the open, where he could gain a better position to transmit a call to get help for his men. An MH-47 Chinook helicopter, with eight additional SEALs and eight Army Night Stalkers aboard, was sent is as part of an extraction mission to pull out the four embattled SEALs. As the Chinook raced to the battle, a rocket-propelled grenade struck the helicopter, killing all 16 men aboard. On 22 October, 2007, President George W. Bush presented the parents of Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy the Medal of Honor for his actions on 28 June, 2005. Tomorrow we honor him and the rest of the brave men who gave their lives for our country.
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