Former Navy SEAL Team Six Sniper on Bin Laden Mission

The Takeaway

In his new memoir, former Navy SEAL sniper Howard Wasdin writes, “When the U.S. Navy sends their elite, they send the SEALs. When the SEALs send their elite, they send SEAL Team Six.” And that was certainly the case on Sunday, when a team of highly trained men overtook a a secure compound in Pakistan to eliminate the world’s most wanted terrorist figure. They accomplished this mission, in the midst of crossfire, in under 40 minutes. We talk with Howard Wasdin, a former member of this clandestine unit, about what Team Six must have gone through to get face-to-face with Osama bin Laden. “I can tell you for a fact that if these guys shot bin Laden, he either had a weapon, was going for a weapon, or was doing something offensive that they felt would harm part of the team or somebody else in the room. Justifiable use of deadly force,” says Wadsin.

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