BOOKS & MORE: Home visit with Osama bin Laden

Actually, the individual usually steps back behind the team and disappears into anonymity. But in times of copyright and authorship, everyone wants their name mentioned when something important happens. Robert O'Neill shot Osama bin Laden.

He was the first to turn the corner in Abbottabad and fired at a man he recognized through his night vision goggles. "Do good and talk about it" – that's how it goes. The U.S. Navy was not very happy that information about the operation became known, and that Navy SEALs are so eager for publicity. Equally childish, however, is that the names of the elite teams – SEAL Team 6 or DEVGRU – are blacked out in the book, as if one didn't know what that is.

Regardless: those expecting a modest book by a U.S. soldier with silly patriotic enthusiasm will be disappointed. The whole book is very well written, with a good dose of self-reflection and humor. O'Neill only describes his meeting with Osama bin Laden as a highlight, but tells his entire SEAL career from school and youth to BUD/S, the super tough selection process, through the regular teams and then to the "team without a name" (DEVGRU).

An exciting book that certainly doesn't tell everything, but reveals a lot of detailed knowledge. And it also reflects on his own fame. Because the author recounts how difficult it is to be the one who has done something. Not just because of admiration, but also because of envy and the difficulty of dealing with both.

"The Operator: How I Killed Osama bin Laden. My Life as a Navy SEAL Sniper" by Robert O'Neill, Riva Verlag, Munich 2017, Euro 19.90