Marcus Luttrell
Narrator and protagonist, Marcus Luttrell is a Navy SEAL with combat experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is a central player in doomed Operation Redwing which was intended to either kill or, if possible, capture a top Taliban operative. It is the infamous operation in which a helicopter downed by enemy fire, killing several of Luttrell’s fellow SEAL members.
Lt. Michael “Mikey” Murphy
A fellow SEAL and best friend of Luttrell, Murphy is doomed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time becoming both a hero and victim as a result of his role in the ill-fated Operation Redwing. He is also something of a tragic figure as the circumstances which lead to Murphy’s becoming one of the casualties of the operation involved his own ultimately ill-conceived decision to spare some Afghan civilians.
Sarawa
Sarawa is a village doctor who discovers the wounded Luttrell in the wake of the failed operation. Although he could easily have surrendered Luttrell to the Taliban, Sarawa instead makes the humanitarian choice of treating his wounds and then conveying him safely back to his village. Despite Sarawa having saved his life, a fundamental disagreement on the motivation of that decision pervades the narrative as Luttrell fundamentally opposes most arguments that Afghans as a whole were not essentially collaborators with the Taliban. Instead, he forwards an alternative opinion that Sarawa’s acts were less humanitarian than simply allegiance to ancient cultural traditions.
Pres. George W. Bush
Luttrell unintentionally forwards himself as a prime representative example of the blind devotion to the idea that Pres. George W. Bush was acting entirely on principle and without engaging in deception and propaganda to promote the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. So oblivious is Luttrell to the reality of the complexity of Bush and his leadership that he steadfastly portrays him as the living, breathing embodiment of something he describes simply as being a "Texan” even though Bush is not a native Texan and attended elite east coast private schools and universities.
Ben Sharmak
Ben Sharmak is an alias used in the book by Luttrell in place of naming the actual high-ranking Taliban official targeted by Operation Redwing. He is actually Ahmad Shah Dara-i-Nur and though he would survive the attempt to capture or assassinate him, he would eventually be killed in 2008 by Pakistani law enforcement. From the perspective of Luttrell, Ben Sharmak (or Ahmad Shah) is a highly intelligent and very skilled terrorist tactician who also happens to be a brutal murderer.
