Welcome back to American Heroes. I’m your host, Nathan Weiss. Today, we are recounting a story of unimaginable grit, a story that defines the very limits of human endurance and the unbreakable bond of brotherhood. This is the story of Marcus Luttrell and the men of Operation Red Wings.

It was June 2005. The setting was the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan—a landscape of jagged peaks, thin air, and unforgiving terrain. Luttrell, a Navy SEAL, was part of a four-man reconnaissance team. Their mission: to track a high-ranking Taliban leader.

The team—Luttrell, Michael Murphy, Danny Dietz, and Matthew Axelson—had successfully inserted into the mountains. But their position was soon compromised by a group of local goat herders. Faced with an impossible choice between executing civilians or releasing them and risking their  ...