captioning funded by cbs and ford >> simon: tonight, you will not hear from world leaders about the greatness of nelson mandela, but from the people closest to him-- from the people who called him by his clan name, "madiba." what they saw and admired more than anything else was his power of forgiveness, how he forgave the people who had stolen his life from him. you will see him tonight not as nelson the man who liberated a nation, but as madiba-- father, husband, cellmate, friend. >> you know, most people of my generation, they ask the question, you know, do you remember when kennedy was shot? well, i remember that as well, but a much more moving day for me, and one that's more defining is the 28th of june, 2005, when that helicopter was shot down and three of my men were killed

on the ground. >> it was unbelievable. >> cooper: marcus luttrel was on the ground, part of a four-man seal team that was heavily outmanned and outgunned against a dangerous militia aligned with the taliban. >> you know, they say every man has his breaking point. i never thought i'd find mine. the only way you break a navy seabzzs you have to kill us. but i broke right there. i quit right there. >> cooper: he's also the sole survivor, the only one alive to tell the story of the bravery shown by his seal team brothers on that day. >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesley stahl >> i'm morley safer. >> i'm bob simon. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight on "60 minutes." ♪ ♪ ♪ i wanna spread a little love this year ♪ ♪ i wanna spread a little love and cheer ♪

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>> simon: the last time we did a story on nelson mandela, we described him as the most admired human being alive. we can't say that anymore today. the great man died on thursday. he was 95 years old. the most remarkable thing about mandela was not just that he liberated a nation from racial oppression, but that he forgave the men who stole his life from him, who kept him in jail for 27

years. that's why he is viewed by so many as nothing less than a saint, a view which he always found dreadfully embarrassing. we thought it would be appropriate today to glance at the life, not of mandela the man of history-- that's pretty well known-- but at nelson, the human being-- father, husband, cellmate, friend. for the last few years, he'd hardly ever been seen in public. he left home only for very special occasions, like a visit to the school of his great- granddaughter zenani. >> nelson mandela: and where do you come from? >> um, i come from london. >> mandela: from london? oh! have you met with the queen there? >> um, no, not yet. >> simon: that's the mandela who spent 27 years without seeing a single child. it's the mandela revealed in a book published in 2010, "conversations with myself," a collection of his letters, prison diaries, scribblings.

it was compiled with his permission by verne harris, chief archivist at the mandela foundation. >> verne harris: he said, "i don't want you to ask me, 'is this too personal? is this too potentially embarrassing?'" >> simon: he wants to see the mandela, as they say, "warts and all"? >> harris: he said, "you don't have to protect me." >> simon: mandela kept records of everything, in desk calendars, memo pads, every scrap of paper he could lay his hands on. hmm! that writing is incredible, it's tiny! the most revealing are two notebooks with drafts of letters he wrote from robben island, the apartheid regime's alcatraz, where he was serving a life sentence for sabotage. this is the only footage we have of mandela, the prisoner. he was allowed to send and receive one letter every six months. and the letters reveal that his passion for his wife winnie never waned.

"what a masterpiece," he wrote after she sent him a picture of herself. "the picture has aroused all the tender feelings in me and softened the grimness that is all around. it has sharpened my longing for you and our sweet and peaceful home." >> winnie mandela: amandla! >> simon: winnie had become mandela's voice on the outside, and the apartheid regime came down on her with a vengeance. she was repeatedly thrown into jail and tortured. the struggle was now not only devastating their lives; their two young daughters had been effectively abandoned. mandela was incredibly blunt about what awaited them. "my darlings," he wrote, "once again, our beloved mommy has been arrested, and now she and daddy are away in jail. you may live like orphans, without your own home and parents. you will get no birthday or christmas parties, no presents

or new dresses, no shoes or toys." what does it feel like reading it today? >> zindzi mandela: it takes me back to very difficult times. and, again, it's... it's still not easy to talk about those times. >> simon: mandela's youngest daughter zindzi was a toddler when he was taken away. she didn't see him again until she was 15 and traveled to visit him on the island. they were separated by a glass partition; guards listened to every word. >> zindzi mandela: he was so protective and so charming, and he tried to make me imagine sitting at home on his lap in front of the fireplace and him reading me a story. >> simon: did you cry? >> zindzi mandela: yes, i did. >> simon: did he cry? >> zindzi mandela: no, he didn't. i've very rarely seen my father, like, even close to tears. >> simon: but mandela wrote with tears of what he went through when his mother died, and when his eldest son thembi was killed in a car crash.

"the news was broken to me at 2:30 p.m.," he wrote. "suddenly, my heart had seemed to stop beating, and the warm blood that had freely flowed in my veins for the last 51 years froze into ice." mandela asked for permission to leave the island and attend their funerals. the authorities said no. mac maharaj, a fellow prisoner, says mandela didn't even wince. >> mac maharaj: he had to hold his emotions tightly to himself. he could not divulge to the authorities and let them feel that this was a weakness in his armor. >> simon: reveal nothing-- that was mandela's strategy-- and organize the prisoners into a government in waiting. he never doubted that the racist regime would be overthrown, so even back then, he started preparing. first move-- learn the language of the oppressor, afrikaans. the language of the enemy?

>> maharaj: the language of the enemy, and i was totally opposed to it. and he said to me, "mac, do you agree that we are now in a protracted war?" i said, "yes." he says, "you've got to understand the general on the other side." i said, "yes." he says, "to understand him, you've got to know his language." >> simon: the book contains defiant letters mandela wrote to the authorities, reminding them that, as political prisoners, they had rights and should be treated with dignity. in response, he got a visit from a general who was intent on putting mandela in his place. >> maharaj: and he says to mandela, "mandela? you better remember you are a prisoner." and in a very polite way, he says to him, "general, you and i may be generals on the opposite side of this war. at some point, even if it is to accept the surrender from the other, we'll have to meet. and how we treat each other now

will determine how we interact at that moment." >> simon: the regime was then forced to change its strategy. it tried to undermine mandela in the most insidious way. he was moved to a private house in a prison on the mainland, equipped with a chef and a swimming pool. officials came to see him, brought along a case of wine and tempted him to sell out. >> harris: this was the key moment, for me, in nelson mandela's life. this was when he was most at risk, because he starts negotiating from prison on his own. he's incredibly vulnerable. >> simon: what could have happened to him? >> harris: he could have been played into making concessions. he could have been played into compromising himself in ways that would have been irredeemable. and he didn't make one mistake. >> simon: so when he walked out of prison, he knew, the world knew, that he was walking to the presidency, taking over the country that had been run by white racists for more than 40 years.

how do you explain that incredible confidence? >> harris: you know, i think, from very early on, he had a very strong sense of destiny. >> simon: but the country was on the brink of a civil war. he ruled with the exact same strategy he had employed as a prisoner. don't go for revenge; go for reconciliation. ( cheers and applause ) he showed up at the finals of rugby's world cup. this was the white sport in south africa, and here was a black president wearing the team jersey, waving the team cap. spectators, the team were stunned. >> and nelson mandela is cheering along with the whole of the stadium. >> simon: mandela had won again. he brought afrikaners into his government, including zelda la grange. this is zelda back then. zelda was a typist in the presidential office building

when mandela took over. one day, she literally bumped into him in a corridor. >> zelda la grange: and he stopped me and he started speaking in afrikaans with me. >> simon: in afrikaans? >> la grange: that's right. and i didn't understand a word he was saying because i was so shocked. there was a feeling of guilt immediately over... overtaking my emotions, that i felt responsible for taking away so many years of his life. >> simon: you broke down? >> la grange: yes, yes, i started crying. >> simon: mandela hired zelda, brought her into his office. >> mandela: zelda la grange? >> simon: he wanted his old oppressors to know they'd be okay in the new south africa. zelda la grange had a role to play. so it was a political decision, you think. >> la grange: yes, definitely. there was some political thinking behind it for sure, some strategy, absolutely. >> simon: it wasn't long before zelda became his most trusted assistant. for the last 19 years, every pop star, politician, president, or pope who wanted to see the great

man knew enough to cozy up to zelda la grange. we asked her about their relationship when we interviewed her back in 2010. and you became his granddaughter, didn't you? >> la grange: no, i mean, i love him like my, you know, my own family. >> simon: "love" is the word? >> la grange: definitely-- "adore", "love", "admire". >> simon: it wasn't just zelda. mandela was winning the love and admiration of, well, just about everyone. but he couldn't hold on to the woman he had adored for 40 years, his wife winnie. they were divorced in 1996. and his daughter zindzi? whenever he had to choose, your father chose the struggle over his family. did that make you angry? >> zindzi mandela: oh, yes, it did. of course, it did. i would get hurt. i would get angry, especially when i was younger. i mean, i grew up wanting my

father to come back home, wanting to be an ordinary family. i don't know what that was like to have a father, you know, to tuck me in at night. >> simon: on his 80th birthday, mandela married graca machel, and finally found happiness. they had a lot in common. she had also been a political activist, a freedom fighter. when we interviewed graca in 2010, we asked her what her husband was like before he got ill. does he ever get angry? >> graca machel: very. oh, don't want to be next to him when he is angry. >> simon: and it's not just anger. graca, who called her husband "madiba", says he was stubborn, too trusting, and excessively loyal to people who did not deserve it. >> machel: i am one of those who says he is not a saint. madiba is a normal human being. >> simon: a normal human being. >> machel: absolutely normal.

>> simon: excuse me. he spent 27 years in jail. and when he got out, he forgave the people who put him in jail and who stole his life from him. this is not normal. >> machel: let me try to explain. madiba understood the importance of suppressing his own feelings against those who had jailed him. so, even when he would be angry, even when he would be very hurt, but he will always try to put up a face which they wouldn't read through it. >> simon: he kept wearing that stone face for the rest of his life, even when his eldest son died of aids in 2005; and five years later, when his favorite great-granddaughter zenani, who you saw at the beginning of this story, was killed in a car crash. this happened on the eve of the world cup in south africa in

2010 and mandela had been expected to attend. no one knew if he would make it, he was so sad, so frail. but then, there he was, once again. for the last time, nelson mandela lit up the world with his smile. >> glor: good evening. american airline and u.s. air officially mastering -- mecklenburg tomorrow before the market opens. protesters topple a statue of lenin in kiev today and congress has until friday to extend benefits for the long-term unemprod. i'm jeff glor, cbs news. will: 'twas the bazillionth winter for the johnsons' tv.

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to emerge from the war in afghanistan began when a four- man navy seal team found themselves badly outnumbered in a long and vicious firefight. only one of the seals survived. his name is marcus luttrell, and tonight, you'll hear his account of a mission that went horribly wrong after he says his unit was surprised by, of all things, some goat herders and their goats. marcus luttrell's three seal teammates weren't the only american casualties in the battle. a chopper with 16 other special operations forces that had rushed to help luttrell and his team was shot out of the sky. everyone on board was killed. at the time, in june 2005, it was the largest loss of life in one day for naval special warfare since world war ii. a former commander of marcus luttrell's, retired vice admiral joe maguire, told us no seal will ever forget that terrible day. was that the toughest day for you as a special forces commander?

>> joe maguire: yes. you know, most people of my generation, they ask the question, you know, do you remember when kennedy was shot? well, i remember that as well, but a much more moving day for me and one that's more defining is the 28th of june, 2005, when that helicopter was shot down and three of my men were killed on the ground. >> cooper: 19 men lost their lives. vice admiral joe maguire was head of seal training at the time. >> maguire: you would have to go back to world war ii to have had one day where we experienced that many casualties at one time. >> cooper: maguire says the entire seal community was devastated. it's a community marcus luttrell and his twin brother decided they wanted to be part of when they were still teenagers. >> marcus luttrell: he had it in his head that he was... this is what we were going to do. he was like, "it's going to be great, man. we get to jump out of airplanes, we can shoot guns and blow stuff up. we get to scuba dive. and there's an 80% chance we're going to die." and i was like, "well, sign me up, man." ( laughs ) >> cooper: marcus luttrell became a seal at the age of 25, and says receiving the special

warfare insignia was the proudest accomplishment of his life. do you remember when you got the trident put on your chest? >> luttrell: absolutely. february 2, 2001. >> cooper: you remember the date. >> luttrell: like it was my birthday. >> cooper: out of 86 people who started out in his seal training class, only 20 graduated. it's that sort of rigorous training that vice admiral maguire says prepares seals for the kind of firefight marcus luttrell found himself facing in the mountains of northeastern afghanistan. >> maguire: these are just, you know, unremarkable men who do absolutely remarkable things. they're warriors. it's a warrior class. it's a warrior spirit. and they are extremely talented individuals, and, you know, there's this story that's come to light because marcus survived, and marcus feels like he survived in order to tell the story. >> cooper: on june 28, 2005, petty officer marcus luttrell, a sniper and team medic, wasn't

sure he was going to survive. he was badly wounded and didn't know anyone was trying to rescue him. >> luttrell: my back was broke, i had a frag laying everywhere. i just crawled into this rock embankment, started taking dirt and putting it in all my wounds so i wouldn't bleed to death. >> cooper: so, you had no... no medical gear? >> luttrell: uh-uh. >> cooper: did you have a map? >> luttrell: it was all gone. >> cooper: did you have a compass? >> luttrell: gone. >> cooper: did you have... >> luttrell: i didn't even have pants on. >> cooper: you had no pants? >> luttrell: no, that was completely ripped off me. >> cooper: luttrell had been fighting for hours. his three seal brothers were all dead or near death. petty officer danny dietz from littleton, colorado, had been in charge of communications. matt axelson-- "axe," for short- - was from cupertino, california. like luttrell, he was a petty officer and a sniper. lieutenant mike murphy was the team leader. they were part of a larger mission called "operation red wings." their job was to locate this man, whom the four seals had only seen in grainy photographs. he was an elusive militia leader aligned with the taliban named ahmad shah.

who was ahmad shah? >> luttrell: he had a group that he ran called the mountain tigers. he was creating all kinds of havoc out there in that particular region that he was in, killing marines, army-- i mean, you name it. >> cooper: luttrell was based at bagram air base outside kabul, and says his team had no idea exactly how many fighters ahmad shah had with him. >> luttrell: so i remember telling the guys, you know, "grab some extra rounds, we might need them." >> cooper: it was pitch black when marcus luttrell, danny dietz, matt axelson, and the team leader, mike murphy, were dropped by chopper a couple miles from where ahmad shah was believed to be located. luttrell says they hiked for hours through snowy, steep and treacherous terrain. as daylight came, the four seals lay down and concealed themselves on the mountainside so they wouldn't be detected. that's when everything went wrong. suddenly, they were surprised-- not by gunmen, but by a goat herder. >> luttrell: i was laying next to a tree, probably 60 feet long.

and he had come walking down it. and then, when we jumped off of it, he jumped right off of it, right over the top of my gun. >> cooper: he didn't see you at all? >> luttrell: he had no idea i was there. and i had no idea he was above me. >> cooper: did he say anything? >> luttrell: nothing, not one word. just a look, that's all-- that's all he would do was just look at us. and i know that sounds funny, but there's a way some... somebody's going to look at you when you cut them off in traffic or something like that, and they're mad at you or whatnot. and then, there's a way someone's going to look at you when they want to kill you. and when it happens to you, you'll never forget it. >> cooper: two more herders showed up along with about 70 goats. the seals' mission was compromised. >> luttrell: you hear the bells jingling and they just come up over every side of it. >> cooper: goats? >> luttrell: goats, yeah. >> cooper: danny dietz tried to call back to base for instructions, but couldn't get through on their radio. the team had to decide on their own what to do with the goat herders. >> cooper: run through the options that you... that you talked about. >> luttrell: we talked about zip-tying them, zip-tying the goats, zip-tying them and taking them with us or zip-tying them

and leaving them. zip-tying the goats or just executing the goats. we talked about zip-tying and eliminating the threat, the human threat. >> cooper: you talked about killing them. >> luttrell: yes. and then, the last one was "turn them loose." >> cooper: u.s. military personnel are required to operate under formal rules of engagement that specify when deadly force can be used. "a commander has the authority and obligation to use all necessary means available," the rules say, "to defend his unit from a hostile act or demonstration of hostile intent." but the goat herders who'd surprised the team were unarmed. >> luttrell: we knew that they hated us and that they weren't on our side, and if they had the chance that they would like to see us dead. that's the feeling we were getting. >> cooper: and you had every reason to believe if you let these guys go, they're going to run down the mountain and tell... >> luttrell: right, but you can't justify that feeling to our superiors in a court of law. >> cooper: the seals knew that other u.s. military personnel

had been court-martialed and imprisoned for violating the rules of engagement. >> cooper: so you were concerned that, if you killed them, you would be charged with murder. >> luttrell: yes, absolutely. >> cooper: that's something you talked about that. >> luttrell: absolutely. >> maguire: killing them was really not an option because they were noncombatants and they were unarmed. >> cooper: retired vice admiral joe maguire says the only options the seals really had were to take the goat herders captive and try to get evacuated by helicopter, or let them go. >> maguire: you don't shoot innocent people, you don't shoot unarmed people unless, of course, they pose a threat. >> cooper: even if those goat- herders are going to run down to the village and compromise your location? >> maguire: that's correct. you know, you don't... you don't kill innocent people. >> cooper: luttrell told us the unit discussed what to do and were divided. in the past ,he's been criticized for saying they took a vote, something that's not supposed to happen in seal teams because it's up to the team leader to make a decision. what did mike finally decide to do?

>> cooper: what was the feeling you had when you let them go? >> luttrell: i got that sinking feeling in my stomach. i'm like, "this is bad," everybody did. >> cooper: a couple times, you said, looking back on it, you wished you had made a different decision, you wished you'd killed them. do you still believe that? >> luttrell: sure, if it got my friends back. i mean, who knows what the outcome would of been. you can't.... yes, i wish i would have is the answer to your question. >> cooper: luttrell says it was only about an hour after they freed the goat herders that the first enemy fighters appeared. they were on a ridge on this mountainside above where the seals had dug in. >> luttrell: we had to break out our shovels and use our boots and actually build these little shelves to stand in. and when we were done, we'd lean back against the mountain like this. the first guy i saw had an r.p.g. over each shoulder and an ak-47, and then there was about 30 or 40 guys in line with him. >> cooper: had they seen you? >> luttrell: not yet.

and my rifle was right here, i just cradled it, i rolled up my head like this and i shot him in the head. the game was on right then. >> cooper: according to luttrell, ahmad shah's forces moved in to outflank the seals. we obtained this video, recorded by enemy forces, from an american writer and photographer with military sources. the date stamp and other scenes that are too gruesome to show you indicate it was recorded the day of the fighting. this is how the firefight is portrayed in a new film called "lone survivor," which opens later this month. it's based on a book marcus luttrell wrote. it's a hollywood movie, not a documentary, but luttrell and other former seals consulted on the film, and luttrell says it captures the intensity of the battle. the enemy fire was continuous-- ak-47s, rocket-propelled grenades. luttrell says, when the rounds starting coming in from both sides, it broke the seals' position.

>> luttrell: and that shelf that i had made crumbled and fell apart and just... it was like somebody opened up a trapdoor underneath me. i just fell. and i started tumbling, and then i hit mikey, and i busted him right off of his little perch he was on. and we just both started pinballing in those trees. >> cooper: you're basically tumbling down the mountain. >> luttrell: yes, sir. yeah, i landed on my back and broke my back, and mikey landed on his face and crushed his face. >> cooper: luttrell says the four seals continued to fire on the advancing fighters, but repeatedly fell or were forced to jump down the mountain. >> luttrell: every time you fell, you broke something. i mean, about an hour and a half into this, danny's been shot three times that i know of. i was dragging him, sit him up, we'd fight for a little while, we'd got shot out of there, i'd drag him somewhere else. >> cooper: even after danny was shot multiple times and you're dragging him, he was still firing? >> luttrell: yes, sir, as best as he could. we got to an area where i was telling him there was another way we could fall, and when i

put my arms underneath him, i put them underneath his shoulders, and when i spun him around to take the fall, i spun him into a bullet. and it hit him in the back of the head and killed him. >> cooper: danny dietz was the first seal to die. now it was just luttrell, matt axelson, and mike murphy left alive. >> luttrell: i caught up with mikey. and he asked me where danny was and i was like, "he's dead." well, we tried to go get him. but once you fell a certain distance, you couldn't get back up the way you came, it was too steep. it just wasn't working. >> cooper: what happened then? >> luttrell: axe walked out from behind the rock i was firing on. i almost shot him. he sat down indian style, against my left hip and leaned against my right leg. he goes "i'm sorry, bro, i can't help you because i'm blind." he goes, "they shot me in the face." >> cooper: luttrell says the seals were surrounded. they hadn't gotten through on the radio, so he says lieutenant mike murphy decided to move to a completely exposed position so he could get a signal on his satellite phone and call for back up. >> luttrell: mikey was out, had

pushed out onto this boulder out in the middle of the draw. it's wide open, no cover, no nothing. he was on our satellite phone. >> cooper: luttrell saw his lieutenant make the call, a call mike murphy knew would likely cost him his life. >> luttrell: he took two rounds to the chest, because he spun like a top and it dropped him. and i... i tried to wait, i made my way up to him. and he's my best friend. and i'd already lost danny, and i knew that axe was dying, and i didn't want to lose him. and then he started to crawl left. and i was out in the open, waving my hands. i was like, "just come down to me." that's all i wanted him to do was just come down to me. and i heard his gun go off. and a lot of gunfire in his area. i was trying with everything i had to get to him, and he... he started screaming my name. he was like, "marcus, man, you got to help me. i need help, marcus." that it got so intense that i actually put my weapon down and covered my ears, because i

couldn't stand to hear him die. all i wanted him to do was stop screaming my name. and they killed him. and i... and i put my weapon down in a gunfight while my best friend was getting killed, so that pretty much makes me a coward. >> cooper: how can you say that? >> luttrell: say what? >> cooper: why do you... why do you think that? >> luttrell: why do i think what? >> cooper: that putting your weapon down makes you a coward? >> luttrell: because that is a cowardice act, if you put your weapon down in a gunfight. you know, they... they say every man has his breaking point. i never thought i'd find mine. the only way you break a navy seal is you have to kill us. but i broke right there. i quit right there. >> cooper: still, marcus luttrell says he managed to pick up his weapon and found matt axelson, the only other seal left alive. >> luttrell: he was below me. and he crawled underneath this rock overhang, and i crawled in there. i was looking, i was like, "we're going to die, man. we're going to die right now."

>> cooper: you said that to axe? >> luttrell: mm-hmm. and i... you know, i made peace with god a long time ago about dying. but most of the time, we don't know when we're going to die, they just shut our light off. and it's a weird feeling when you know the reaper's at the door. >> cooper: matt axelson was badly wounded, but luttrell, the team medic, said there was nothing he could do. >> luttrell: and a r.p.g. hit behind him and blew him on top of me. i just remember how loud it was and how white it went, and when i pushed him off of me, another one hit and blew us out of there, and blew him one way and blew me another. i never saw him again for the rest of my life. >> cooper: marcus luttrell says he isn't sure how many hours they'd been fighting, but as darkness fell, he was all alone. how'd you get through that night? >> luttrell: it was rough. that was the longest night of my life because the sun had gone down. it was dark, it was pitch black. i was... i... you know, i'd fall. i'd knock myself out. i'd come to, i'd keep crawling. that's just what i kept doing. >> cooper: the next day, he was desperate.

still pursued by enemy fighters, he had been shot twice in his legs. he had three cracked vertebrae and was bleeding profusely, but he says his biggest concern was finding water to drink. people wouldn't consider thirst as being a big deal. but it... it becomes all you can think about after awhile. >> luttrell: that's it-- it was the only thing i could concentrate on, it was the only thing i could think about. and not... not even my wounds, any... all the wounds i had sustained, my back, my broken... all the... nothing. all i cared about was the thirst. that was it. i was willing to kill anybody or anything or do whatever i had to do to get water. >> cooper: he says when he finally found water, he didn't get to drink for long. he was suddenly surrounded by a small group of afghan men. >> luttrell: and i found a waterfall. and i managed to get to the top of it. i took my gloves off, washed my face. i leaned into the water fountain and got two sips out of it before some guy was screaming at me again. and two guys with guns were maneuvering around on me. i have my gun at my hip, tension

out of my trigger, my safety was off. >> cooper: you had a grenade, too. >> luttrell: mm-hmm. when he was walking towards me, i pulled it and i pulled the pin out and i said, you know, "if you try anything, i'll kill all of us. i don't care. i've had enough." >> cooper: it was the second time in the mission marcus luttrell had to decide were the men in front of him civilians or enemy fighters? luttrell also didn't know that an american rescue operation had already been mounted and had gone terribly wrong. both those stories when we come back. >> welcome to the cbs sports update presented by pacific life. i'm james brown with scores from around the nfl today. denver clinches playoff berth. the patriots score twice in the last minute to win. colts clinch the a.f.c. south with a titans' loss. joe flacco throws the game winner with four seconds left. the 49ers prevent the seahawks from clinching the a.f.c. west. mccoy rushes for a record and

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>> cooper: some 36 hours after his four-man navy seal team was dropped into enemy territory in the mountains of northeastern afghanistan, marcus luttrell says he was all alone. he didn't know that special operations forces had attempted a rescue operation, but that mission had ended in tragedy, when one of the choppers was blown up with 16 people on board. luttrell was badly wounded. he had been shot twice, several vertebrae were cracked, and he had shrapnel wounds in his legs. at least two of his seal teammates were dead, the third had been shot multiple times and was missing. desperately thirsty, pursued by enemy fighters, marcus luttrell says he had just found some water to drink when he was surprised by several afghan men, who he at first thought were members of the taliban. >> luttrell: when i got to that waterfall and got those two sips out of there, i looked around, i was actually thinking, "this is a pretty good place to lay down and die." >> cooper: you were ready to die? >> luttrell: i wasn't ready to die, i just knew i was dying.

>> cooper: that's when an afghan man appeared. luttrell later learned his name was mohammad gulab. >> luttrell: he came up over this rock ledge and started screaming at me "american, american." and i swung around on him, i mean, i had my finger on the trigger, tension out, safety off. and he started walking at me, and he was like "okay, okay," and he lifted up his shirt to show me that he didn't have a weapon. he was like, "okay, okay." i lowered my weapon and i pulled a grenade and pulled the pin, and i was saying, "i'll kill all of us." >> cooper: you were prepared to blow yourself up along with everybody else. >> luttrell: yes, i wasn't going to get taken. >> cooper: why do you think you didn't kill him? >> luttrell: i can't tell you. i don't know why. >> cooper: luckily for luttrell, mohammad gulab, who lived in a nearby village, was not a member of the taliban. >> luttrell: he gave me water, and then he rolled me over and he had seen where i had been shot, and i was bleeding real bad. three other guys plus him picked me up and started carrying me down to their village. >> cooper: seal commanders didn't know what had happened to

marcus luttrell and his three teammates. petty officer danny dietz was dead, petty officer matt axelson had been gravely wounded and was separated from luttrell. lieutenant mike murphy had been killed after making a satellite phone call for help. retired vice admiral joe maguire told us how much he admires murphy for making that call. >> maguire: they are in a life and death situation. he's been shot, matt's been shot, danny's been shot. he finished the call. and at the end, he said, "we could really use your help." we said, "help is on the way." mike finished the call with "thank you." >> cooper: even though, i mean... >> maguire: "thank you," yeah. he went out there and he gave above and beyond to do that. >> cooper: and he knew, going out on that rock, what that meant. >> maguire: he probably wouldn't have come back. >> cooper: as a result of the call, two chinook helicopters like these with special operations forces on board raced to the mountainside where the four seal's had been fighting. the chinooks went in without the apache gunships that usually provide cover.

>> maguire: it was the pilots and the task unit commander that made a conscious decision that "okay, were going to press and we're going to get there because we have to make a difference." to me, when people ask what would you say would be would sum up you know the greatest mistake in military operations, to me it's just a simple two words, "too late." >> cooper: as portrayed in the new movie "lone survivor," one of the chinooks was hovering to offload special forces. that's when a rocket propelled grenade was fired into it. all special operations forces on board-- eight seals and eight army night stalkers-- were killed. >> maguire: it hit hard and, you know, we lost all souls on board. >> cooper: marcus luttrell likely wouldn't have made it if it weren't for mohammad gulab. he ended up in his village for four days, being moved between different houses and even a cave to prevent him from being captured. he was finally rescued by u.s. forces who had been scouring the mountains. they'd been looking for you? >> luttrell: right, for as long as i'd been missing, so they were beat to hell.

>> cooper: what was that feeling when you saw the first american in the village? >> luttrell: i was out of it pretty hard. my head was down and they were carrying me. i remember lifting my head because they were screaming my name. he was like "marcus, is that you?" and i was like, "yeah, right here, bro." >> cooper: marcus luttrell, the lone survivor, was finally going home. but returning to regular life in america hasn't been easy. you've spent time with marcus. what was it like for him coming home? >> pete berg: rough, very rough. go! action! >> cooper: pete berg, who directed the movie "lone survivor," first met luttrell after he'd read his book. berg was shocked by luttrell's condition when he went to visit him in his house in texas. >> berg: i went in there and it was... it was almost like living in a shrine. it was nothing but pictures of his... his dead brothers, and flags and helmets and mementos and pieces of uniform from his dead brothers. and on the... in the middle of the living room floor was

basically a tombstone with the names of the... all of his brothers that have died in that operation. and marcus would... would sit in that house... in that moment, in that experience, in that gunfight. he was almost living inside of it when i first met him. >> cooper: marcus luttrell has suffered both emotionally and physically, but his family and friends say he is getting better. he has a service dog, mr. rigby, who never leaves his side. he's also gotten married. he and his wife melanie have two children. luttrell has also had time to piece together what happened to him when he was badly wounded on the mountain in afghanistan, including details of gulab's role in saving his life. now, eight years later, the two men have become close friends, and gulab occasionally flies from afghanistan to luttrell's family's ranch in texas to visit. >> mohammad gulab: i love you. >> luttrell: he says, "i love you, too. that's why i came for you," he says, "my brother."

>> cooper: we wanted to know why gulab was willing to risk his life to help a complete stranger. he told us it was because of a tribal code of honor called pashtunwali. explain pashtunwali. >> gulab ( translated ): pashtunwali is a respect, a respect for a guest that comes knocking at your door. and even if he is in need, or if he is imminent danger, we must protect him. i knew i had to help him, to do the right thing, because he was in a lot of danger. >> cooper: you knew that they would come for him. >> gulab: they did. the taliban came and sat down with me. i said, "no, i will not hand him over to you." >> cooper: what did they threaten? >> gulab: they told me that, "you will die. your brother will die. your cousins will die. your whole family will die. it is not worth it. give us the american." and i said, "no, i will protect him till the end." >> cooper: gulab has suffered for protecting luttrell.

he says his house was burned down and a cousin killed. in afghanistan, he's had to go into hiding with his wife and ten children. luttrell is hoping to get him a green card, so he can settle at least part time in the united states. >> luttrell: we're family. >> cooper: you consider him family. >> luttrell: absolutely. i mean, we're... we're brothers in blood. we bled together. he very well could have just left me laying there on the side of the waterfall and let me die, but he didn't. >> cooper: for his bravery, marcus luttrell was awarded the navy cross in a white house ceremony. matt axelson and danny dietz were also awarded the navy cross posthumously. for sacrificing his life to make that telephone call, lieutenant mike murphy was given the medal of honor. his parents accepted it. it was the first time the country's highest military honor was awarded for service in afghanistan. ahmad shah, the man murphy's team was looking for, was killed in a separate operation in 2008. after retiring, vice admiral joe

maguire runs the special operations warrior foundation, which provides support for veterans and their families. marcus luttrell created and raises money for a similar group, the lone survivor foundation. luttrell has also visited families of his fallen seal brothers. you traveled around the country to do that. >> luttrell: yes, sir. >> cooper: what was that like? >> luttrell: that sucked. think about it like this. if you had a son that was out on that mountain with me, if one guy had to live, who would you be praying for, your son or would you be praying for me? and every time they look at me, i am the one who made it out and delivered the news on how hard their son fought. but i am also the one who lived and their son died. why? "why did you live and why did my son die?" i don't have the answer for that. [ male announcer ] this is the age of knowing what you're made of.

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>> stahl: in the mail this week: comments on charlie rose's look inside retail giant amazon with its founder, jeff bezos. "that was the most one-sided puff piece you have ever broadcast." "how could you produce what can only be described as an infomercial for amazon on the eve of cyber-monday?" and then there was this on amazon's unveiling of its plan for drone deliveries: "someone should have asked amazon what having thousands of small drones flying the sky will do to birds and planes." we also heard from jeff bezos, who tells us that, since last sunday, he's had several offers from serious aerospace companies to help develop his drones. i'm lesley stahl. we'll be back next week with another edition of "60 minutes." captioning funded by cbs and ford captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org through allergies.

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phil: previously on "the amazing teams began an epic adventure. go! sorlede over, they chile. chile. par gliding in ahhh! hil: batted in portugal. >> yeah! phil: lunged into the arctic. through abu dhabi. the express pass was leveraged. do wrong?d we >> we have an express pass, help us. >> i'll tell you where you can express pass. phil: and u-turns were served. sorry, guys. >> we have to give ourselves a cushion. were seven teams