Via WACH:
Rob O’Neill, the Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, said the tragedies that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001 helped spark the courage he needed as he engaged in the famous raid that left one of America’s top enemies dead.
O’Neill, in an exclusive interview with DailyMailTV, also warned the now-deceased terrorist mastermind’s son, “You will die next.”
A member of SEAL Team 6, which raided bin Laden’s Abbottabad, Pakistan compound in a stealth mission, O’Neill describes the 9/11 memorial in Manhattan, N.Y. as “very humbling.”
“I go down there once in a while just to realize what’s important,” O’Neill told DailyMailTV, adding that New York has become such an important aspect of his life. “To relive the moment and to see the incredible job that the 9/11 memorial staff has done.”
O’Neill recalls where he was on the fateful day of the terrorist attacks: Germany, just returned from a peace-keeping mission in Kosovo.
“I was in the operation center and the TV went to breaking news,” O’Neill said. “As a group of Navy SEALs, we realized that we were just attacked, and it was seconds before someone said al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden.”
That information was enough to ensure O’Neill and his comrades that America was going to war.
O’Neill soon volunteered to undergo the arguably hardest training in the larger U.S. military as a member of the Tier 1 units, which is an elite group within the already-elite special ops.
“You learn close quarters combat and more advanced tactics to a point where you can’t be taught anymore,” O’Neill explained. “There’s a selection course and about half of the guys don’t make it through.”
In his storied career, O’Neill has been a key component of some of the most famous missions, including the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips, who had been kidnapped by Somali pirates.[…]
Upon arrival at the compound, the helicopter carrying the men grazed a wall of the structure, causing a slight change of plans.
“We were supposed to let off the snipers, a dog and an interpreter, then my team of eight was going to jump down from the roof to the third-floor balcony to shoot through the window at bin Laden,” O’Neill said.
Instead, SEAL Team 6 detonated the car port door, and made their way to the second floor.
“We knew bin Laden was up there and we assumed suicide bombers but I squeezed him on the shoulder and we went up,” O’Neill detailed, according to DailyMailTV, referring to the fellow SEAL just ahead of him.
After reaching the third floor, a SEAL jumped on multiple women believing they were wearing suicide vests.
“He was sacrificing himself so someone else could get the shot,” O’Neill said. “Thankfully the grenade didn’t go off.”
Soon, the SEAL went one direction, while O’Neill went the other to scan the premises for their target.
After turning the corner, bin Laden appeared.
“He was standing three feet away and right away, I knew it was him,” O’Neill, who signed a book deal in Jan. 2017, recalled. “I remember how skinny he was and taller than I thought, about 6’4. His beard was short and grey. I shot him in the head twice as he was standing up and then once more on the ground.”