ONeill - The Operator

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Scribner

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Copyright 2017 by Robert J. ONeill LLC

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Scribner Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Scribner hardcover edition April 2017

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Cover design by Jaya Miceli and Greg Mollica

Cover photograph by McTeams Photography

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: ONeill, Robert, 1976 author.

Title: The operator : firing the shots that killed Osama bin Laden and my years as a SEAL Team warrior / Robert ONeill.

Other titles: Firing the shots that killed Osama bin Laden and my years as a SEAL Team warrior

Description: First Scribner hardcover edition. | New York : Scribner, [2017]

Identifiers: LCCN 2017007867| ISBN 9781501145032 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781501145049 (trade paper)

Subjects: LCSH: ONeill, Robert, 1976 | United States. Navy. SEALsBiography. | United States. Navy. SEALsHistory21st century. | Bin Laden, Osama, 19572011Assassination. | Special operations (Military science)United StatesHistory21st century. | Special operations (Military science)Pakistan. | War on Terrorism, 20012009Personal narratives, American. | Afghan War, 2001Commando operationsUnited States. | Afghan War, 2001Personal narratives, American. | Butte (Mont.)Biography.

Classification: LCC V63.O43 A3 2017 | DDC 359.9/84 [B] dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017007867

ISBN 978-1-5011-4503-2

ISBN 978-1-5011-4505-6 (ebook)

To the victims of 9/11 and their families who never asked to be in the fight, but were and are.

It was in memory of you that I fought.

To the reader: The author has blacked out selected text in this book to comply with the Department of Defense Prepublication and Security Review.

O ver the past forty years, Ive had much to be grateful for, including the support of two wonderful parents and the gift of my special daughters. But it was as a member of SEAL Team **** that I learned how deep friendships can be. With the ************** Squadrons, I found a level of trust that, I believe, far exceeds anything that is possible in civilian life. When in the middle of a pitch-black night on the other side of the world youre about to breach a building jammed with AK-47-wielding terrorists, you have your SEAL brothersand no one else.

For a long time, I wrestled with whether to write about my four hundred missions as a SEAL . I didnt want the book to be just about me. If thats all the story was, I wouldnt write it. Could I capture the incredible refusal to quit of my SEAL brothers? Describe what its like to be part of a team that functions as a single organism, trained by thousands of repetitions to act as one? Explain that when any of us succeed we all succeed?

Those are the questions that kept me awake at night.

When SEALs put their lives on the line for their country, sometimes its in obscurity and sometimes its in the media spotlight. When the latter happens, the media often get it wrong. One SEAL never returns a hostage to her loved ones. One SEAL never liberates a town from torturers. One SEAL never rescues a man behind enemy lines. One SEAL never kills the bad guy everyone has been searching for.

When the gun fires, its as if we all fire it. I decided, finally, to write this book to bring that truth to readers.

There are those who believe that what SEALs do should remain in the shadows. But part of what drove me as a young, in-over-his-head kid in BUD/S training were the books Id read about this awesome military organization. My humble hope is that more than a few young men and women (its going to happen eventually!)will put down The Operator with a renewed determination to do the hard things that will get them their SEAL trident. And I also hope that the rest of you who read this book will honor the service of SEALs around the worldguys who, even now, are risking everything to keep our country safe.

In telling this story, I relied on memory to reconstruct words of courage, frustration, and, yes, outrageously profane humor that I heard over the course of hundreds of missions. Ive tried my best to render dialogue and events with absolute accuracy, but of course any errors are entirely my own. For security and privacy reasons, the following names in this book are pseudonyms: Kris, Nicole, Cole Sterling, Jonny Savio, Tracy Longmire, Matthew Parris, Mack, Eric Roth, Cruz, Leo, Ralph, Decker, Adam, Harp, and Karen.

I owe my career as a Navy SEAL to a girl. Im not the first, and I doubt Ill be the last.