The Secret Team That Killed bin Laden

[Casino67]

National Journal:

From Ghazi Air Base in Pakistan, the modified MH-60 helicopters made their way to the garrison suburb of Abbottabad, about 70 miles from the center of Islamabad. Aboard were Navy SEALs, flown across the border from Afghanistan, along with tactical signals, intelligence collectors, and navigators using highly classified hyperspectral imagers.

After bursts of fire over 40 minutes, 22 people were counted, and five were killed. One of the dead was Osama bin Laden, done in by a double tap -- boom, boom -- to the left side of his face. His body was aboard the choppers that made the trip back. One had experienced mechanical failure and was destroyed by U.S. forces, military and White House officials tell National Journal.

Were it not for this high-value target, it might have been a routine mission for the specially trained and highly mythologized SEAL Team Six, officially called the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, but known even to the locals at their home base Dam Neck in Virginia as just DevGru.

This HVT was special, and the raids required practice, so they replicated the one-acre compound. Trial runs were held in early April.


DevGru belongs to the Joint Special Operations Command, an extraordinary and unusual collection of classified standing task forces and special-missions units. They report to the president and operate worldwide based on the legal (or extra-legal) premises of classified presidential directives. Though the general public knows about the special SEALs and their brothers in Delta Force, most JSOC missions never leak. We only hear about JSOC when something goes bad (a British aid worker is accidentally killed) or when something really big happens (a merchant marine captain is rescued at sea), and even then, the military remains especially sensitive about their existence. Several dozen JSOC operatives have died in Pakistan over the past several years. Their names are released by the Defense Department in the usual manner, but with a cover story -- generally, they were killed in training accidents in eastern Afghanistan. That’s the code.

[Sabre86]

SEAL Team Six and Delta Force are the best in the world. I would only put the SAS in the same category.

 

A story I remember hearing from a former professor was about the day after September 11th.

 

Around Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, everyone knows who are military and who aren't; if by nothing else than by appearance (haircut, clean shaven, etc). However, there is a small group that don't conform to these standards, often have beards and longer hair, but hang out with the other military guys, mostly the Airborne and Special Forces members.

 

On September 12, 2001 not one of these guys was around. No one ever said officially where they went, but everyone who lives around Ft. Bragg knows these guys were Delta Force and were already on their way to Afghanistan only a day after Sept. 11th.

[Ghost]

SEAL Team Six and Delta Force are the best in the world. I would only put the SAS in the same category.

 

A story I remember hearing from a former professor was about the day after September 11th.

 

Around Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, everyone knows who are military and who aren't; if by nothing else than by appearance (haircut, clean shaven, etc). However, there is a small group that don't conform to these standards, often have beards and longer hair, but hang out with the other military guys, mostly the Airborne and Special Forces members.

 

On September 12, 2001 not one of these guys was around. No one ever said officially where they went, but everyone who lives around Ft. Bragg knows these guys were Delta Force and were already on their way to Afghanistan only a day after Sept. 11th.

 

 

interesting story