Hero #8 Michael P Murphy

In June 28, 2005, Navy Lt. Michael P. Murphy led a four-man SEAL operation in Afghanistan. When the team came under attack by a force of about fifty men, they attempted to extricate themselves from a three-sided assault.

When this proved impossible, the team's communication petty officer, Danny Dietz attempted to place a call back to headquarters. Before he was able, he was shot in the hand, and later killed.

Realizing that their only chance of getting out alive depended on reinforcements, Murphy then took out his mobile phone and, in the words of the only surviving team member Marcus Luttrell,

"... walked to open ground. He walked until he was more or less in the center, gunfire all around him, and he sat on a small rock and began punching in the numbers to HQ... I could hear him talking. 'My men are taking heavy fire ... we’re getting picked apart. My guys are dying out here ... we need help.'

And right then Mikey took a bullet straight in the back. I saw the blood spurt from his chest. He slumped forward, dropping his phone and his rifle. But then he braced himself, grabbed them both, sat upright again, and once more put the phone to his ear."

According to Luttrell, Murphy then said, “Roger that, sir. Thank you.” The lieutenant continued to train fire on the enemy fighters until he was mortally wounded. Source

For his gallantry in the face of death, Michael P. Murphy was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President George W. Bush in a ceremony on October 22, 2007. He is, thus far, the only recipient of the Medal of Honor for actions the Afghanistan theater.

The story continues, in an even greater tragedy. Though the cavalry was sent, it never arrived, so to speak. In the biggest loss of life for special warfare since World War II, the MH-47 Chinook helicopter sent to relieve Murphy's team was shot down by a rocket propelled grenade, killing all 16 men aboard.

Luttrell survived the engagement, but with a bullet wound to one leg, shrapnel embedded in both legs, and three vertebrae cracked, the situation was grim. Though dehydrated, he travelled seven miles on foot and evaded the enemy for nearly a day.

Surprisingly, local nationals came to his aid, carrying him to a nearby village where they kept him for three days. Source. He documented the events in his book "Lone Survivor."