Serving as a Navy SEAL is widely seen as one of the most demanding and high-risk roles in the military.
The path to joining is notoriously brutal. Even the entry tests are intimidating, and around 75 percent of those who start reportedly quit during the physically punishing “Hell Week,” designed to push endurance, cold tolerance, and performance under intense stress to the limit.
The SEALs’ global profile was cemented when an elite unit carried out the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, 15 years ago.
Now, one of the men involved in that operation has described what happened during the short mission—and shared a major regret he still carries from that night.
Robert O’Neill, now 50, was part of SEAL Team Six during Operation Neptune Spear, the mission tasked with capturing or killing bin Laden.
He has said the team had only weeks to prepare, and that the full weight of what they were about to do didn’t truly sink in until senior leaders arrived for the “read in,” the meeting where the operation’s details are formally disclosed.
According to O’Neill, seeing the Vice President, the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of the Navy attend that briefing made it clear how significant the target was.
From there, the unit repeatedly drilled their assignments, understanding that mistakes could be fatal.
In an interview with the New York Post, O’Neill said he immediately recognized bin Laden when he entered the compound and noted how thin he looked.
O’Neill has described shooting him twice in the head and seeing him collapse at the foot of a bed.
He added he had to take a minute, saying: “I just shot Bin Laden – like what the f***?
“Everything I had ever known, everything I planned, just changed drastically.”
He said he was quickly told to move on and locate computers and other materials, and recalled another team member putting it bluntly: “You just killed Osama Bin Laden, your life is about to f***ing change, now get back to work.”
O’Neill also said there’s one part of that day he wishes had unfolded differently—specifically, what happened after bin Laden was killed.
Bin Laden was buried at sea on May 2, 2011. Officials said the decision was made to reduce the risk of a gravesite becoming a shrine or rallying point for extremists, and also because finding a country to accept the remains within the timeframe required by Islamic tradition was difficult—something the U.S. said it intended to respect.
But O’Neill said that, if it were up to him, he would have chosen a far more public end for the al-Qaeda leader. He said: “I would have hung him from a bridge in New York City, and let the locals deal with him.”
He also emphasized that, in his view, the team was not driven by celebrity or recognition, but by the memory of those killed on 9/11.
He said: “We were going for the single mom who dropped her kids off at school on a Tuesday morning, then an hour later, jumped out of the World Trade Center, pressing down her skirt as her last act of human decency.”