Longreads

SEAL Who Killed Bin Laden Struggling

Unemployed and waiting for disability.

A lot of veterans are struggling to adjust to civilian life, even the man who killed Osama bin Laden. In a lengthy interview with Esquire, the SEAL Team 6 member who shot the terrorist leader recounts stories of brutal missions from his 16 years in the Navy, but life in the U.S. is turning out to be scary in its own way: retiring 36 months before the official date, he's without a pension, stuck paying $500 a month for private health insurance and waiting months for his disability claims to be adjudicated. The article is full of other details about the mission and the SEAL’s life afterward. He gave his rifle magazine to the female CIA analyst who helped find bin Laden, the Navy offered him a witness protection-style job driving a beer truck under an assumed identity, and his kids, after he told them not to use bin Laden’s name in public, have opted for “Poopyface.”