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

There is no honor in sending men to die for something you won't even fight for yourself

Don't just live, but live for a purpose bigger than yourself. Be an asset to your family, community, and country.

Just get to lunch,” I muttered to myself. It was the only way I could control my anxiety. In 1998, I’d made it through Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL, or BUD/S, by focusing on just making it to the next meal. It didn’t matter if I couldn’t feel my arms as we hoisted logs over our heads or if the cold surf soaked me to the core. It wasn’t going to last forever. There is a saying: “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer is simple: “One bite at a time.” Only my bites were separated by meals: Make it to breakfast, train hard until lunch, and focus until dinner. Repeat.

[to Navy SEALs] Quite frankly, I didn't even want to use you guys, with your dip and velcro and all your gear bullshit. I wanted to drop a bomb. But people didn't believe in this lead enough to drop a bomb. So they're using you guys as canaries. And, in theory, if bin Laden isn't there, you can sneak away and no one will be the wiser. But bin Laden is there. And you're going to kill him for me.

The rule is, “When in doubt, load it out.” Of course the more you carry, the greater a toll it takes on your body, the slower you move, the harder it is to react quickly to a threat.

We were tools in their toolbox, and when things go well they promote it. They inflate their roles.

The higher up the food chain the targeted individual was, the bigger a pussy he was.

The leaders were less willing to fight. It is always the young and impressionable who strap on the explosives and blow themselves up.

There is no honor in sending people to die for something you won’t even fight for yourself.

Politics are for the Washington, D.C., policy makers who safely watched the action on a video monitor from thousands of miles away.

I had no idea if the photos [of Osama bin Laden's dead body] would ever be made public, and I didn't care.

One of the guys screening had been a Naval Academy swimmer and was well ahead of me, but I was in second place. I kept pulling,

The only easy day was yesterday.

None of us were huge fans of Obama. We

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

I knew he was ready, and we entered the hallway. I shouldered my rifle and squeezed off several rounds to make sure he was down. The

ordered two crispy tacos, a bean burrito, and a medium Pepsi. At

can still remember watching the guys drag his body down the stairs. I

the food chain the targeted individual was, the bigger a pussy he was.

did his yard the other day,” the mulch guy said between loads. “There is something big going on, and he’s been up in D.C.” “What?

Before I left, I noticed a shelf that ran above the door. It was just above where he [bin Laden] was standing when we got to the third deck. I slid my hand up and felt two guns, which urned out to be an AK-47 and a Makarov pistol in a holster. I took each weapon down and pulled out the magazine and checked the chamber. They were both empty. He hadn't even prepared a defense. He had no intention of fighting. He asked his followers for decades to wear suicide vests or fly planes into buildings, but didn't even pick up his weapon [...] Bin Laden knew we were coming when he heard the helicopter. I had more respect for Ahmed al-Kuwaiti in the guesthouse because at least he tried to defend himself and his family. Bin Laden had more time to prepare than the the others, and yet he still didn't do anything. Did he believe his own message? Was he willing to fight the war he asked for? I don't think so. Otherwise, he would have at least gotten his gun and stood up for what he believed. There is no honor in sending people to die for something you won't even fight for yourself.

Then I’d eat breakfast and work out in the gym or run. I tried to get to the range as many times a week as possible. By dusk, missions would start spinning up and we’d knock out one operation, two if we were lucky. I