The flight back from Abbottabad to Jalalabad was in some ways the most dangerous part of the mission. We were in hostile airspace, lumbering along in a giant flying school bus—an easy target for any of the Pakistani fighter jets that might have been dispatched once word of the mission got out. But I don’t remember feeling particularly worried. I hadn’t expected to return from Operation Neptune Spear, and now that safety was within reach … well, maybe it just hadn’t sunken in.
We landed first at J-Bad, around three o’clock in the morning. Admiral McRaven was there to greet us, along with some other navy brass and intelligence experts from the CIA and FBI. They pored over the materials we had brought back and conducted interviews with just about everyone involved in the raid as they attempted to construct, a coherent narrative. I know from experience that sometimes it can take days or weeks to cut through the fog of war—memory and stress and differing points of view combine to create a complicated story.
But this was the body of Osama bin Laden on the floor of an airplane hangar in Afghanistan, and the world would want to know what happened. At one point, Admiral McRaven stood over the body for a personal examination. There, just a few feet away from me, I could see bin Laden’s blood-splattered face, practically split in half. McRaven walked around the body and gave it a good look. At first, I wasn’t sure what he was doing. Turned out, he wanted to measure the corpse to see if it corresponded to what we knew about bin Laden—specifically, that he was a tall man, approximately six feet four inches in height. Unfortunately, no one had a tape measure, so McRaven asked a bystander, one of the taller guys in attendance, to stretch out on the floor next to the body. The dead man was slightly taller, but not by much.
McRaven nodded. DNA evaluation would soon officially confirm bin Laden’s identity, but for now …
Close enough!
The next stop was Bagram, where there were more intelligence reps and navy officials, and more evaluation of evidence and gathering of reports. We all hung out together in the hangar, eating a big breakfast and telling jokes and generally celebrating the biggest operation of our lives—hell, maybe the biggest operation in the history of Special Operations. A large-screen TV had been brought into the building so that we could watch as the event was reported back in the States.
At 11:35 in the evening, local time, President Obama walked to a podium in the White House and addressed the world:
Good evening. Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Queda, and a terrorist who’s responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.
It was nearly ten years ago that a bright September day was darkened by the worst attack on the American people in our history. The images of 9/11 are seared into our national memory—hijacked planes cutting through a cloudless September sky; the Twin Towers collapsing to the ground; black smoke billowing up from the Pentagon; the wreckage of Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where the actions of heroic citizens saved even more heartbreak and destruction.
And yet we know that the worst images are those that were unseen to the world. The empty seat at the dinner table. Children who were forced to grow up without their mother or their father. Parents who would never know the feeling of their child’s embrace. Nearly three thousand citizens taken from us, leaving a gaping hole in our hearts …
Then, last August, after years of painstaking work by our intelligence community, I was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden. It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground. I met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside of Pakistan. And finally, last week, I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action, and authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice.
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. 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.
Damn straight we did!
On a night filled with extraordinary events, this was perhaps the strangest: to be sitting in an airplane hangar at Bagram, eating breakfast, watching the president of the United States announce to the world the outcome of a top-secret mission to take down Osama bin Laden … just a couple of hours after we had completed that mission … and (this is the best part) while bin Laden’s body was just a few feet away from us.
Full disclosure: I was not the biggest fan of Obama. Nothing personal, but during his time in office, the tightening rules of engagement made our job harder and sometimes more dangerous. But he was still the president, and he did have the balls to pull the trigger on this mission. I took a bite out of a sandwich and looked at the TV screen. I looked around the room, at the greatest group of guys I’d ever get to work with. And then I looked to my left at bin Laden’s broken face.
Just a surreal moment.
Within thirty-six hours, we were back in Virginia, where, of course, we were treated like conquering heroes. Robert Gates, the secretary of defense, paid a visit just to shake everyone’s hand in person. Everyone on the mission was awarded the Silver Star for “gallantry in action against an enemy of the United States.” It was a disappointment to me that Cairo did not receive a Silver Star; he was every bit as important a part of the mission as anyone else. He risked just as much.
But at least he wasn’t overlooked entirely. A few days later, we all were summoned to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where the 160th Airborne is based. There, we met with President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. The president delivered a short speech, a chance for him to “say on behalf of all Americans and people around the globe, job well done.” He seemed legitimately moved and proud.
We were presented with a Presidential Unit Citation. In return, we presented to the president an American flag that had accompanied us on the mission and which we’d framed after returning home. The front of the frame had been inscribed with the words: From the Joint Task Force Operation Neptune Spear, 01 May 2011: For God and country. Geronimo.
Before the talk, the president had been briefed by our commander about some of the details of the mission, including the fact that Cairo had been an integral part of the of the raid. And that he was, in fact, with us right now.
Obama’s reaction?
“I want to meet this dog.”
Someone jokingly advised the president that if he wanted to say hello to Cairo, it might be wise to bring some treats, just to soften him up. He was, after all, a lethal attack dog. Both the president and vice president walked into a separate room, where I was waiting with Cairo.
“So this is the famous Cairo,” President Obama said.
“Yes, sir,” I replied.
Obama nodded and said some nice things about Cairo and me and everyone on the team, and then we shook hands and took some pictures. Both Biden and Obama gave Cairo a gentle little pat on the back. Good dog that he was, he didn’t even flinch. As usual, he seemed to be having a pretty good time.
Of course, Cairo was wearing his muzzle the entire time. I wasn’t about to take a chance in a situation like that. Can you imagine if Cairo took a nip at the president? Now that would have been a lousy footnote to the biggest mission in SEAL history: me standing next to the president of the United States, asking, “Am I fired?”