Hometown boy: Rob O'Neill is a native
of Butte, Montana, and joined up after he was jilted by a sweetheart. He
remains proud of his roots in the West
New role: O'Neill is now a regular
motivational speaker and spells out a message about planning and
training meaning it is possible to execute
He
is one of the most distinguished members ever of the elite force - but
now faces being frozen out of its circles for revealing its most
closely-held secrets.
O'Neill
was personally congratulated for killing bin Laden - in his account at
close range with three shots to his forehead - during the SEAL raid on
Abbottobad, in Pakistan, on 2 May 2011.
Questions
have previously been raised over the exact narrative of how bin laden
came to die, although the dispute centers on an alternative account
which claims O'Neill shot him once, leaving him mortally-wounded and the
terrorist was killed by two other SEALs with further shots to the chest
rather than forehead.
O'Neill's
decision to speak out was prompted by losing some of his military
benefits by quitting the SEALs after 16 years rather than staying for a
full 20 years of service.
Today details of his extraordinary military record can be disclosed.
O'Neill grew up in Butte, Montana, a former copper mining boomtown that has now fallen on hard times.
Tom
O'Neill lives in a single story home with a garage full of stuffed
animals — including a bear, moose, caribou, big horn sheep and several
deer — shot by the two men. A full stuffed kodiak bear has place of
pride in his living room.
O'Neill
has said the basic reason he became a SEAL was a teenage romance gone
wrong. At 19 he went to a Navy recruiter's office in an attempt to get
over his lost love.
But
his father gave a different story in his exclusive interview with
MailOnline. 'We were going hunting and a friend asked us to take a guy
who was a Navy SEAL with us,' said Tom O'Neill, 65. 'We were expecting
someone who was 6 ft. 8 in. who could lift a house with his bare hands,
but he was this normal guy. And Rob said if this guy could be a SEAL,
then so could he.'
In
total he was deployed on more than a dozen tours of duty in active
combat, in four different warzones, including Iraq and Afghanistan.
In the course of those tours he undertook more than 400 separate combat missions.
He was
decorated 52 times, leaving as senior chief petty officer. His
decorations include two Silver Stars, four Bronze Stars with Valor, a
Joint Service Commendation Medal with Valor, three Presidential Unit
citations, and two Navy/Marine Corps Commendations with Valor.
Silver
Stars, the military's third highest honor, are awarded for
extraordinary gallantry in action against an enemy of the United
States.
Bronze Stars with Valor are awarded for merit, signifying a heroic act and direct participation in combat operations.
It is the fourth-highest combat award of the U.S. Armed Forces and the ninth highest military award overall.
Joint
Service Commendation Medals are given for senior service on a joint
military staff and is the most senior of the commendation medals.
But
his father marvels that the one award his son never won was the Purple
Heart. 'That's because he was never in action where a colleague was
killed or injured.
Details of three of his missions have been turned into Hollywood action hits.
Hollywood version: Zero Dark Thirty
portrayed the struggle to find bin Laden and the extraordinary final
raid on his hideout in Abbottabad,
Lone survivor: O'Neill's SEAL team was
featured in the Donnie Wahlberg movie about the only serviceman to
return from a mission to kill a Taliban target in Afghanistan
At sea: O'Neill was the first SEAL to
land on the Maersk Alabama and led to the successful rescue form Somali
pirates of Captain Richard Phillips, who was played in the Hollywood hit
by Tom Hanks
Real life: Footage of the actual rescue of Captain Phillips from Somali pirates, which was led by O'Neill
He
was the lead jumper on the Maersk Alabama, the ship taken over by
Somali pirates, whose rescue turned into the Oscar-winning movie Captain
Phillips.
'He was the first man out of the bird,' his father remembered proudly.
He
helped save SEAL Marcus Luttrell, the one man who lived to tell of a
failed mission to capture a Taliban leader in Afghanistan. That made it
to the big screen as 'Lone Survivor.'
'He is still friendly with Marcus, they had dinner together just the other day,' said his father.
And then there was 'Zero Dark Thirty,' the Oscar-nominated story of bin Laden's killing.
He will speak fully of his role in that action later in November in the first part of a two-part Fox News interview.
However his decision to speak is at the center of huge controversy.
In
a letter to past and present SEALs, Force Master Chief Michael.
Magaraci and commander Rear Adm. Brian Losey, made it clear that the vow
of silence remains one of the most important tenets of SEAL life.
'A
critical tenant (sic) of our Ethos is 'I do not advertise the nature of
my work, nor seek recognition for my actions.' Magaraci and Losey
wrote.
People
are asking if we are worried that ISIS will come and get us because Rob
is going public. I say I'll paint a big target on my front door and say
come and get us.'My ex-wife gave birth to a man. We shouldn't be
cowering in fear
Tom O'Neill, Rob's father
'Violators of our Ethos are neither Teammates in good standing, nor Teammates who represent Naval Special Warfare.
'We
do not abide willful or selfish disregard for our core values in return
for public notoriety and financial gain, which only diminishes
otherwise honorable service, courage and sacrifice.'
The
two leaders made it clear that O'Neill's decision to go public
translates into shame among former SEALs, and that he could even face
legal action.
'Classified information is protected by law,' they wrote.
'All
members exposed to classified information have a duty obligation to
protect this information, regardless of what may be reflected in the
media, accurately or otherwise.
'We
will actively seek judicial consequence for members who willfully
violate the law, and place our Teammates, our Families, and potential
future operations at risk.'
O'Neill's
father says he cannot understand the fuss. 'He is not allowed to talk,
yet they are using this big bullhorn to shut him up,' he said.
'I support him in everything he is doing,' said the twice-divorced older man.
'What are you supposed to do when you come out of the military after such service — become a greeter at Walmart?'
He
added: 'People are asking if we are worried that ISIS will come and get
us because Rob is going public. I say I'll paint a big target on my
front door and say come and get us.
'My ex-wife gave birth to a man. We shouldn't be cowering in fear.'
For O'Neill, the threat is a devastating fall from a position as a national — if unknown — hero.
Although he had previously been interviewed about the shooting of bin Laden, he remained entirely discreet about his role.
However
being an unsung hero was not enough. He showed that in a biography
prepared for a course in hostage rescue he was instructing in his home
state of Montana.
'With
most of his career shrouded in a classified cloak. O'Neill was the man
on the ground we have never heard of but know exists,' it read.
Lair: Bin Laden in his hide-out before
SEAL Team Six were sent in to kill him. The al Qaeda leader was
discovered by years of careful CIA work and three helicopters were
scrambled to deploy the servicemen
Aftermath: Crowds gathered outside the
Abottabad compound after the daring mission to kill bin Laden, which
took place under the cloak of darkness. O'Neill saw it all through night
vision goggles
Bloodied: the aftermath of the raid
showed some suggestion of what had happened as O'Neill and his team
stormed the compound. His three shots to bin Laden's head killed the
terror chief dead instantly and the SEALs then took his body with them.
He was buried at sea to avoid creating a place of pilgrimage for other
fanatics
Close to death: One of the three
helicopters crashed on landing as the 23 SEALS began the raid, and an
air strike was called in to destroy it
Mission: Senior White House figures
including vice-president Joe Biden (far left) and then Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton, joining President Obama to watch the mission in
Pakistan unfold. O'Neill fired three bullets into bin Laden's head,
killing him instantly
'He
was one of the quiet professionals performing the most difficult tasks
in the most difficult circumstances, serving his remarkable career in
the shadows and keeping America safe in the process.'
He
agreed to be interviewed on a Fox News special next week called 'The
Man Who Killed Osama bin Laden. In it he will talk of his training, and
detail the mission to take out the al Qaeda leader.
It
follows last year's Esquire magazine interview —by Sharon Stone's
ex-husband Phil Bronstein — in which his identity was kept secret. He
was referred to only as 'The Shooter.'
He
used the interview to raise concerns about how veterans - including
himself - were treated. The interview, which was published in March
2013, began with a meeting in April 2012 as he prepared to leave the
Navy.
He was especially worried about losing healthcare and pension benefits because he was leaving the service early.
But
deciding to speak publicly may surprise some. In the Esquire interview
his wife spoke about her concerns over a retaliatory attack.
'Personally
I feel more threatened by a potential retaliatory terror attack on our
community than I did eight years ago,' his wife said in 2013.
At the time the couple were estranged. Their marital status is now unclear.
'We're actually looking into changing my name,' his wife.
'Changing
the kids' names, taking my husband's name off the house, paying off our
cars. Essentially deleting him from our lives, but for safety reasons.
We still love each other.'
O'Neill
also described how he had instructed his wife in how to protect their
children, and jep a 'blot bag' ready in case they had to flee at any
time.
Despite
his 16 years of service, O'Neill told the magazine that the SEALs had
offered to get him a job delivering beer in Michigan, which he compared
to witness protection for Mafia turncoats.
Instead he has become a motivational speaker with an official biography which details a very generic version of his exploits.
He has fulfilled a series of engagements across the United States since leaving the military.
Organizations he has addressed have praised him for the quality of his speech.
One
noted that he was speaking to them on 2 May 2013 - the second
anniversary of the death of bin Laden, and not knowing his involvement
in the most famous of all SEAL operations said: 'God Bless America.'
Life lessons: O'Neill now specializes
in passing on what he has learned from his missions to audiences which
have included the American Supply Association, a conference on
composites, and a wealth management conference at which he said: 'Fear
is healthy- panic will kill you.'
Success: O'Neill has had a series of
speaking engagements, all of them about applying the lessons of his time
in the SEALs to business decision making with tops including:
'Preparation comes from planning, repetition and communication'
O'Neill is now the second SEAL of the 23 involved in the raid to make his identity public.
The
other is Matthew Bisonnette, who wrote an inside account of the mission
that killed Osama bin Laden.Bissonnette released his controversial book
No Easy Day in 2012 - under the pen-name Mark Owen - and immediately
faced the ire of the Pentagon and fellow SEALs.
This week he told CBS that hings have been so bad him that he'd rather personally take on the Islamic State.
'I
would go back overseas today and deal with fighting ISIS face-to-face
rather than deal with the last two years again,' he said on Sunday.
Bissonnette's
surprising statement came as he continued to defend himself against
claims he somehow knowingly endangered his fellow SEALs, and even
America's safety as a whole, by divulging classified information.
'That's absolutely not what I intended to do. These are my brothers that I served beside for years,' he said.
Bissonnette told CBS he believed at the time of his book's publication that he was acting totally within the law.
However,
now Bissonnette says he was following the advice of his attorney at the
time when he chose to forego submitting his manuscript to the Pentagon
before it went to print.
'I
[wanted] to reach out to my former command and say, "Hey, look, sir,
let's discuss. I have nothing to hide,"' he said. 'I got a text message
back just simply saying, you know, "Delete me."'
With
so much venom flying his way, the former soldier says he's had to
change his habits in hopes of calling as little attention to himself as
possible.
'I
fly a little further underneath the radar than I ever have before. I
don't want anybody to know where I live,' he said. 'I want to be very
cautious - security wise.'
Now,
as he prepares to publish a sequel to his dangerous tome, his lawyer
has revealed a vast proportion of the profits could be soaked up by
extensive fines leveled by the Pentagon.
Bissonnette, right, says even his former commander has washed his hands of him in the wake of his book controversey
The
latest probe centers on the speeches Bissonnette has made since
publishing his tell-all book under the pseudonym Mark Owen, The New York
Times revealed.
It
comes after Bissonnette submitted a draft of his second book - No Hero:
The Evolution Of A Navy SEAL - for approval from the Department of
Defense, including slides and notes from his speeches.
He
has already apologized for failing to seek approval for his revelations
in No Easy Day, and allegedly agreed to forfeit a portion of his
royalties in a dispute settlement.
However, another probe has been launched to investigate details disclosed at speeches across the U.S.
Last
year, he spoke at a golf club in Atlanta where visitors were instructed
to deposit their phones at the door and were barred from taking notes.
His
lawyer Robert D Luskin insists the speeches were not controversial and
says he expects the investigation to be resolved 'favorably'.
Bissonnette
was disciplined in November 2012 for sharing classified information
with the makers of the popular video game Medal of Honor: Warfighter.
According
to senior Navy officials, Bissonnette recruited his fellow SEALs to
spend two days as paid consultants for Electronic Arts.
It
was the investigation the military launched into Bissonnette's book
that led the authorities to discover that he had allegedly 'recruited'
the 11 Navy SEALS into the video game deal.
His
second piece of work is a reaction to the Oscar-nominated film Zero
Dark Thirty, which consulted former CIA director Leon E Panetta.
The narrative conflicted with many elements of Bissonnette's telling, and in his opinion it is the SEALs' story to tell.
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