SEAL who shot bin Laden speaks out

[SajeevJino]

SEAL who shot bin Laden speaks out​

The U.S. Navy SEAL who shot and killed Osama bin Laden is speaking out for the first time since the May 1, 2011, raid on the al-Qaida leader's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

In an interview with Esquire, the former SEAL—identified as "The Shooter" due to what the magazine described as "safety" reasons—said he's been largely abandoned by the U.S. government since leaving the military last fall.

He told Esquire he decided to speak out to both correct the record of the bin Laden mission and to put a spotlight on how some of the U.S. military's highly trained and accomplished soldiers are treated by the government once they return to civilian life.

Despite killing the world's most-wanted terrorist, he said, he was not given a pension, health care or protection for himself or his family.

"[SEAL command] told me they could get me a job driving a beer truck in Milwaukee," he told Esquire.

Plus, he said, "my health care for me and my family stopped. I asked if there was some transition from my Tricare to Blue Cross Blue Shield. They said no. You're out of the service, your coverage is over. Thanks for your 16 years. Go f--- yourself."

The problem seems to be that "The Shooter" left the military well before the 20-year requirement for retirement benefits.

According to the magazine, the government provides 180 days of transitional health care benefits, but the Shooter was ineligible because he did not agree to remain on active duty in a support role or become a "reservist." Instead, the magazine noted, he will "have to wait at least eight months to have his disability claims adjudicated."

The SEAL also gave his account of the historic raid, including the moment he pulled the trigger and shot bin Laden.

"In that second, I shot him, two times in the forehead," he told Esquire. "Bap! Bap! The second time as he's going down. He crumpled onto the floor in front of his bed. He was dead. I watched him take his last breaths. And I remember as I watched him breathe out the last part of air, I thought: Is this the best thing I've ever done, or the worst thing I've ever done?

"I'm not religious," he added. "But I always felt I was put on the earth to do something specific. After that mission, I knew what it was."

He also recalled watching CNN's coverage of the first anniversary of bin Laden's death.

"They were saying, 'So now we're taking viewer e-mails. Do you remember where you were when you found out Osama bin Laden was dead?' And I was thinking: Of course I remember. I was in his bedroom looking down at his body."

In September 2012, fellow former SEAL Team 6 member Matt Bissonnette published a controversial book, "No Easy Day," under a pen name about the raid, drawing the ire of both his fellow SEALs and the Pentagon.

SEAL who shot bin Laden speaks out | The Lookout - Yahoo! News

 

[SajeevJino]

The Man Who Killed Osama bin Laden... Is Screwed​

For the first time, the Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden tells his story — speaking not just about the raid and the three shots that changed history, but about the personal aftermath for himself and his family. And the startling failure of the United States government to help its most experienced and skilled warriors carry on with their lives.


The man who shot and killed Osama bin Laden sat in a wicker chair in my backyard, wondering how he was going to feed his wife and kids or pay for their medical care.

It was a mild spring day, April 2012, and our small group, including a few of his friends and family, was shielded from the sun by the patchwork shadows of maple trees. But the Shooter was sweating as he talked about his uncertain future, his plans to leave the Navy and SEAL Team 6.

He stood up several times with an apologetic gripe about the heat, leaving a perspiration stain on the seat-back cushion. He paced. I didn't know him well enough then to tell whether a glass of his favorite single malt, Lagavulin, was making him less or more edgy.

We would end up intimately familiar with each other's lives. We'd have dinners, lots of Scotch. He's played with my kids and my dogs and been a hilarious, engaging gentleman around my wife.

In my yard, the Shooter told his story about joining the Navy at nineteen, after a girl broke his heart. To escape, he almost by accident found himself in a Navy recruiter's office. "He asked me what I was going to do with my life. I told him I wanted to be a sniper.

"He said, 'Hey, we have snipers.'

"I said, 'Seriously, dude. You do not have snipers in the Navy.' But he brought me into his office and it was a pretty sweet deal. I signed up on a whim."

"That's the reason Al Qaeda has been decimated," he joked, "because she broke my ----ing heart."

I would come to know about the Shooter's hundreds of combat missions, his twelve long-term SEAL-team deployments, his thirty-plus kills of enemy combatants, often eyeball to eyeball. And we would talk for hours about the mission to get bin Laden and about how, over the celebrated corpse in front of them on a tarp in a hangar in Jalalabad, he had given the magazine from his rifle with all but three lethally spent bullets left in it to the female CIA analyst whose dogged intel work and intuition led the fighters into that night.


Man Who Killed Osama Bin Laden - Treatment of Veteran Who Shot bin Laden - Esquire


the full Story in the website

 

[SajeevJino]

SEAL who killed Bin Laden blasts government, says he's been abandoned​

The Navy SEAL who says he put three bullets in the head of Usama bin Laden is out of work, separated from his wife and believes he's been abandoned by his government, according to a new report.



The hero frogman is bitter as he waits for disability benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to an exclusive story for Esquire by the Center for Investigative Reporting. After quitting just three years short of retirement, he has no health care or pension, he said.

"I left SEALs on Friday," the unnamed SEAL told author Phil Bronstein last September. "My health care for me and my family stopped at midnight Friday night.

"I asked if there was some transition from my Tricare to Blue Cross Blue Shield. They said no," the SEAL told Bronstein, executive chairman of the Center for Investigative Reporting. "You're out of the service, your coverage is over. Thanks for your sixteen years. Go f--- yourself."

The former SEAL gives a detailed account of the dramatic May 2011 takedown of the Al Qaeda mastermind.

"Instead of counting, for some reason I said to myself the George Bush 9/11 quote: Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward, and freedom will be defended," he said, recalling the moments before he dropped into Bin Laden's Abbottabad compound. "I could just hear his voice, and that was neat. I started saying it again and again to myself. Then I started to get pumped up. I'm like: 'This is so on.'"

Once inside, he raced up a staircase and he saw bin Laden inside a darkened room.The terrorist pushed his youngest wife, Amal, in front of him, and the SEAL, wearing night-vision goggles, raised his gun and pumped three bullets into bin Laden's forehead at close range.

"He looked confused. And way taller than I was expecting," the SEAL recalled.

"And I remember as I watched him breathe out the last part of air, I thought: Is this the best thing I've ever done, or the worst thing I've ever done? This is real and that's him. Holy s---," the SEAL recalled. "Everybody wanted him dead, but nobody wanted to say, Hey, you're going to kill this guy. It was just sort of understood that's what we wanted to do. His forehead was gruesome. It was split open in the shape of a V. I could see his brains spilling out over his face. The American public doesn't want to know what that looks like."

But six months after leaving the military, because "I wanted to see my children graduate and get married," he is physically and psychologically wrecked. He left the military a few years short of retirement eligibility and now has no job and is not qualified for a pension. He is awaiting a VA disability ruling for neck, back and eye injuries.

Of "Zero Dark Thirty," the Oscar-nominated film about the raid, the SEAL says director Kathryn Bigelow "Hollywooded it up some," but most of his criticisms were minor.


SEAL who killed Bin Laden blasts government, says he's been abandoned | Fox News

 

[spikey360]

Really, sympathies for this Marine.
How can this be possible in the States. Maybe in India, but in USA? Why?

 

[SajeevJino]

Seriously I'm confused over these Articles ...

There is only one interview ..but similar 3 stories of Different News Sources .Media Propaganda

 

[SajeevJino]

Really, sympathies for this Marine.
How can this be possible in the States. Maybe in India, but in USA? Why?

USA now addicted to Conspiracies and Federal Reserve Sec5rets

 

[spikey360]

USA now addicted to Conspiracies and Federal Reserve Sec5rets

Sad. The saddest part of it all is the human story behind this marine.
Saddening.

 

[SajeevJino]

Sad. The saddest part of it all is the human story behind this marine.
Saddening.

SEAL Ready to gives their Lives at any time..But Govt use these guys Like Tissue Paper

 

[sayareakd]

so this stupidity exits even in US...................
i remember how NSG guys were given treatment by GOI.

 

[farhan_9909]

He killed a CIA Agent

 

[SajeevJino]

He killed a CIA Agent

I think you are the Eye Witness

 

[rock127]

wtf... US not paying a hero who killed #1 enemy of US but happily giving billions to terrorists state of Pakistan??? :shocked:

 

[Ray]

It is not possible for any Govt to abandon its operatives in uniform!

 

[average american]

The military has certain rules and regulaitons as far as retirment is concerned,,,,,they apply to everyone.

 

[rock127]

The military has certain rules and regulaitons as far as retirment is concerned,,,,,they apply to everyone.

Is there any rule where a soldier has done something extra-ordinary and treated same?

Or Osama was just another terrorist for US and killing him was part of normal duty?

 

[average american]

Is there any rule where a soldier has done something extra-ordinary and treated same?

Or Osama was just another terrorist for US and killing him was part of normal duty?

They are recognised for their courage and bravery,,, but it would take congress to give him a special award. Obama is not a God or a King.
Is it different in India for a special act of bravery is an exception made for the individual soldier.

 

[sayareakd]

Dont you guys have special schemes/recruitment for ex service men, in our country they are given special treatment in other services (like in banks, etc). Plus they are paid handsome salary in private security companies.

BTW he can always go to private security firms like blackwater.

 

[rock127]

They are recognised for their courage and bravery,,, but it would take congress to give him a special award. Obama is not a God or a King.
Is it different in India for a special act of bravery is an exception made for the individual soldier.

I guess all countries does have bravery awards or special recognition... some of the soldiers are not posted in war fronts and some perform special operations behind the enemy lines.When there are special remuneration in serving war fronts then why not some special funds for special operations like this which is perhaps the biggest of its kind in US history since Osama killed 3000 Americans in one go which is same as Pearl Harbour.

btw in India there are enough stories of soldiers doing bravery and not able to sustain even a common man life and after getting martyed the family suffers.But hearing such stories from US is kinda shocking :shocked:

 

[rock127]

Dont you guys have special schemes/recruitment for ex service men, in our country they are given special treatment in other services (like in banks, etc). Plus they are paid handsome salary in private security companies.

BTW he can always go to private security firms like blackwater.

Yeah and I think there are some schemes of alloting Petrol Pumps to the families of martyed.

 

[Sam2012]

He killed a CIA Agent

Here comes the pain Zaid hamid