No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden

children.”
    We all listened quietly.
    Obama went on to thank the military for hunting al Qaeda and protecting American citizens.
    “We’ve disrupted terrorist attacks and strengthened our homeland defense. In Afghanistan, we removed the Taliban government, which had given Bin Laden and al Qaeda safe haven and support. And around the globe, we worked with our friends and allies to capture or kill scores of al Qaeda terrorists, including several who were a part of the 9/11 plot,” Obama said.
    The president stressed that soon after being elected, he told Leon Panetta to make killing or capturing Bin Laden a priority and outlined how we found him. That part of the speech was deftly crafted and didn’t reveal any harmful details.
    “Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability,” Obama said. “No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.”
    None of us were huge fans of Obama. We respected him as the commander in chief of the military and for giving us the green light on the mission.
    “You know we just put admiral’s stars on Jay,” Walt said during the speech. “And we just got this guy reelected.”
    “Well, would you rather not have done this?” I said.
    We all knew the deal.
    We were tools in their toolbox, and when things go well they promote it. They inflate their roles. But we should have done it. It was the right call to make. Regardless of the politics that would come along with it, the end result was what we all wanted.
    “McRaven will be running SOCOM in a year and will probably be CNO someday,” I said.
    Obama called the mission the “most significant achievement to date in our nation’s effort to defeat al Qaeda” and thanked us for our sacrifice.
    “The American people do not see their work, nor know their names,” he said.
    We’d expected him to give away details. If he had, we could have talked some smack. But I didn’t think his speech was bad at all. If anything, it was kind of anticlimactic.
    “OK, enough of this,” I said to Walt. “Let’s go find some food or at least a hot shower.”
    Word went out we had a flight home in a few hours. I found my backpack with my civilian clothes and boarded a bus for the JSOC compound. The team decided to try and squeeze in showers before heading back to Virginia Beach.
    The compound had a handful of shower trailers. Standing under the scalding water, I could feel my body slowly starting to unwind.
    Plus, I was hungry.
    DEVGRU has a small section of the JSOC compound. It was our ground mobility shop. Basically, they kept all of our trucks, motorcycles, four-wheelers, and Humvees working. A SEAL headed it up and worked with a bunch of Seabees and mechanics.
    The flight home got delayed a few hours, so we made ourselves at home. Inside the work area, the garage was littered with parts, tools, and vehicles in all phases of repair. We gathered in a small office area with a sitting room and lounge. The SEAL who ran the shop welcomed us with open arms.
    “What do you need?” he said.
    Comprised of a few modular buildings and a covered motor pool, they had carved out a small patio with a brick pizza oven and a large gas grill. Walt walked around the patio passing around a box of cigars the NRA had sent him weeks before to welcome him home from deployment. They had no idea we’d smoke them to celebrate the mission that killed Bin Laden.
    Everybody was there except Jay, Mike, and Tom. The head shed were still over at the airfield briefing Admiral McRaven.
    We spent most of the time on the patio soaking up the warm spring sun. The Seabees who lived at the compound were firing up the grill to cook steaks and lobster tail they had liberated from the chow hall. I could smell popcorn in the office and pizza cooking in the brick oven.
    I was half asleep on the patio getting some sun when I heard someone yell out.
    “You guys aren’t going to believe this shit. It’s already out.”
    At one of the computer terminals, the team leader of the perimeter security team was reading the news sites. It took less than four hours before the news was reporting that it was SEALs who had carried out the mission. Then it was SEALs from DEVGRU based in Virginia Beach.
    The mission had been secret