Lone Survivor realistic or not? What was your favorite part?

I would say it's pretty accurate.  As a communicator, I really focused on the terminology and how they were passing traffic.  The comm problems is a reality.  One thing that bugged me was the continuous calling of the Marine Staff Sergeant, a Sergeant, that is not militarily incorrect.  For the most part, I think they did a damn good job representing the men of Operation Red Wings.

It's a very easy situation, and although very unfortunate, it was handled incorrectly.
There was no need to kill the people who stumbled upon the team, compromising the mission. You simply zip tie them and attempt to make Comms. If you are unable to make comms, you continue moving to higher ground maintaining full control of the detainees.
When Comms are established, you coordinate for an exfil location and maintain custody of the detainees. Once the exfil platform has arrived, and every team member is aboard and ready to exfil, you cut the detainees loose, and take off RTB.

If you are compromised the mission is over. Comms with higher is a must, and an extraction point must be designated. Maintain control of detainees until clean and clear.

I know when we were in Afghanistan and conducting OP/Ambush missions the SOP for a soft compromise was to call for exfil and exit the area. I was on a mission in which we were "discovered by goat herder" but when we spoke to him he indicated he wanted to show us a weapons cache. We called higher up, assessed the situation, and took the risk. It turned out that it paid off because he led us to the rocket-launch site we had been trying to find for several weeks. So based on the book/movie "Lone Survivor" and my personal experience I say if you are compromised you exfil and leave the area. Often times a secondary team is in the area or you can reinsert later.

Tough choice to have to make, however as an NCO in charge of a platoon during OIF, I would have erred on the side of my mission and the safety of my Soldiers and NOTHING would compromise either of those, sorry for the goat herder but at the least they would have been bound and gagged until the mission was completed. Mission and Safety to me trumps even the RoE in certain situations like that, but that is my opinion.

<p>Personally, I think they made the wrong call... How many more people died as a result of that decision that wouldn't have otherwise? </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I know it's a popular philosophical discussion, "if you could ensure happiness, safety, and prosperity&nbsp;for all of humanity at the expense of one life, is it justified?". Personally, my answer has always been "heck yeah" but I supose I'm a bit less "hippie-tastic" than most...</p>

Why not sedate with drugs that will render unconsciousness for a reliable period of time and disrupt consolidation of short term memory into long term memory so that there is nothing to report in the mind of the observer on his / her emergence from the anesthetic effects?Disclosure: I have not seen Lone Survivor, but I have heard positive reviews of the film.

I read the book, which was fantastic, and saw the movie last weekend. While the movie isn't as great as the book, it stands by itself as an honor to the Service-members who lost their lives that day. I have to agree with the knife scene but the best scenes were when they went down the mountain. Won't say anything else for those who haven't seen it. I saw part of a "shooting-of" clip on HBO the other day on how they did the filming to include the mountain scenes.

You have to go back to the source of the movie and verify that for accuracy. I have yet to see the movie, but the book itself has received some criticism for it's accuracy compared to what actually happened during Operation Red Wings. There are many other books that don't take the same personal account of the events that give a truer view of what actually happened like Victory Point by Ed Darack, and Operation Red Wings by Peter Nealen. So in any good story there is a bit of playing with the truth not that it takes away any from the actual sacrifice and valor of the men involved, but many times the truth is more impressive than any changes made to "improve" the story for film. I plan on watching the film, but I also am going in knowing that a lot of the events were changed from the book, created for the movie, or differ from the official accounts of the events.

It was a good idea at the time. That used to be my favorite phrase. Ten minutes later, my good idea might change, but at the time that I had to make a decision, it was a good idea.

So instead of letting them go or shooting them just take them with you. The phone on them was enough reason to detain them