Lone Survivor: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

On their last afternoon of Indoc, Instructor Reno Alberto reports that 111 men are left in training; more than 50 have reached a breaking point and left.

Instructor Reno Alberto announces that the recruits are about to enter Phase One of BUD/S. Reno tells the recruits that he wants to shake hands with every one of them at their graduation. Even though Reno works his men hard, the recruits love him—they sense that he wants the best for them.

The recruits’ new Instructor is a man named Sean Mruk. Mruk is a tough Instructor, and from the very beginning he works his men harder than Reno did. He forces the men to run along the beach and “get wet and sandy”—i.e., lie down in the surf. Luttrell wakes up at dawn every day, and before seven am he’s done hundreds of pushups. Every muscle in his body aches.

The recruits proceed with “log PT.” For this torturous task, the recruits have to move enormous logs while they’re “wet and sandy.” After the recruits’ first soul-crushing morning with log PT, the instructor tells them they’ve done a “damn nice job” and orders them to go eat. This sudden bit of praise surprises Luttrell. The next day, however, the instructors discipline the recruits for keeping their barracks sloppy.

During his time in training, Luttrell meets Captain Joe Maguire, a legendary commanding officer on SEAL Team 2. Maguire later becomes deputy commander of the U.S. Special Operations in Pacific Command. During Luttrell’s training, he gives Luttrell and the other recruits some valuable advice: “Don’t let your thoughts run away with you, don’t start planning to bail out because you’re worried about the future and how much you can take … Just get through the day.”

By the end of the first week, more than twenty men have quit, some in tears. Every time someone quits, the instructors ring a bell. Luttrell often wonders if the bell will ring for him.

In the third week of training, the recruits learn how to paddle and land a boat on rock outcrops. In order to do so, one man on Luttrell’s team has to act as “a human capstan” and make sure the boat doesn’t drift back into the water. After their first attempt, Luttrell and his teammates succeed in landing their boat on the rocks, but the Instructor tells them they’re too slow and orders them to do it again.

By the end of the first month of BUD/S, many recruits have left. They’ve spent their entire lives wanting to become SEALs, but they don’t have what it takes. Luttrell later speaks to instructors who tell him how hard it is for them to break the news to ambitious young recruits that they’re not tough enough. After the first month, there are only fifty-four recruits left.

The recruits assemble to listen to Captain Maguire, who tells them that they’re about to embark on Hell Week, the hardest part of BUD/S training. Maguire says he hopes to shake hands with every one of the recruits at the end. Maguire also tells the men to eat as much as they can leading up to Hell Week. In the days leading up to Hell Week, the recruits are quiet. They know they’re about to begin the hardest week of their lives.

Hell Week begins late at night with a ritual called Breakout. An instructor rushes into the recruits’ barracks, firing a machine gun (hopefully with blanks, Luttrell notes). Luttrell wakes up to Instructor Mruk’s voice saying, “Welcome to hell, gentlemen.”

Right away, the recruits are informed of the rules of Hell Week: at any time, they can opt out of training by ringing a bell. Hour after hour, men ring the bell and leave Hell Week. The recruits proceed with log PT, rock portage, and other backbreaking challenges. During breakfast on the first day of Hell Week, the men look shell-shocked. Luttrell, however, is just hungry. After a couple minutes of eating, the instructors burst into the room and order the men back outside for more training. Hell Week, Luttrell now knows, is every bit as tough as it’s supposed to be.