The Operator

April 15, 2017
A war memoir from a highly decorated Navy SEAL.The news flash from this book by retired SEAL O'Neill is that he fired the bullets that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. However, the shooting does not occur until more than 300 pages in; the narrative consists of much more than the sensational account of what happened on the top-secret mission to bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Some passages are redacted due to review of the manuscript by U.S. Department of Defense Prepublication and Security Review personnel. In addition, O'Neill disguises the identities of more than a dozen individuals. As a result, judging the accuracy of the sensitive, war-related information presents difficulties, especially in light of previously published information about the bin Laden mission. (The author does not mention the controversial book No Easy Day by fellow SEAL Matt Bissonnette, who wrote using the pen name Mark Owen.) Whatever controversy might ensue, most of the memoir is enlightening about military special forces, especially the SEAL component. Born in 1976 and reared in Butte, Montana, O'Neill enlisted in the Navy in 1995 with the goal of becoming a SEAL. He understood the rigorous training, and he knew the washout rate was high, but he persisted, overcoming months of physical and mental rigor. The author had his first deployment in 1998 and went on to participate in top-secret assignments in Afghanistan and Iraq in addition to battling Somali pirates. Zealously patriotic, O'Neill seems to have never seriously questioned the motivations or consequences of his missions. During his time as a SEAL, O'Neill married and became a father, and he discusses the havoc caused by his military assignments regarding his family life. A fast-paced account quite likely to engender strong reactions among readers concerned with the U.S. military's roles in foreign conflicts.

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May 15, 2017

When O'Neill retired from the U.S. Navy in 2012, after 16 years of distinguished service as a Navy SEAL, he had participated in more than 400 missions, including what was likely the SEAL's most important one to date: killing terrorist and al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden. Here, O'Neill absorbingly relates the 2011 attack on bin Laden's Pakistan compound. The author received a Silver Star for this action and for his service in Afghanistan. In this lively account, he describes his childhood in Butte, MT, along with his rigorous SEAL training and stories of building-to-building fighting in search of well-armed al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. These fascinating stories include his role in the successful 2009 mission to free Capt. Richard Phillips from Somali pirates, and those of too many fellow SEALs who were killed in battle. The author concludes with his take on the downside of heroism, as some fellow SEALS claimed O'Neill was trading on his new-found fame as the man who killed bin Laden, which unfortunately hastened O'Neill's decision to resign. VERDICT Fans of battlefield narratives, such as Michael Golembesky's Level Zero Heroes, will relish this gripping perspective on 21st-century warfare.--Karl Helicher, formerly with Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

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