The mystery of the Navy SEAL who shot Osama bin Laden is being answered as the man reveals his identity. INSIDE EDITION has the details.
It's a question the whole world has been asking since the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Who was the Navy SEAL who killed America’s most wanted terrorist? Now we know.
“My name is Robert O’Neill. I've been a Navy SEAL for almost 17 years,” he said in a video.
Now get this, he's been in plain sight all this time giving motivational speeches about his years with the legendary SEAL Team Six.
The 38-year-old O’Neill is depicted in the movie Zero Dark Thirty, but not by name. O’Neill is planning to go public in a Fox News interview that airs on Veteran's Day, November 11th, but a military website published his name this week.
Here's what we know about Rob O’Neill. He grew up in Butte, Montana, and undertook a staggering 400 missions. He was decorated 52 times, including two Silver Stars and four Bronze Stars for bravery.
O’Neill has retired from the SEALs. He now gives motivational speeches around the country without ever revealing his role as the hero who shot bin Laden.
INSIDE EDITION obtained a video of O’Neill explaining why he joined the Navy SEALs. In it, he said, “I was 19 years old and I was in a horrible relationship with a girl named Hillary and I was convinced one of us was crazy and I had to get away from her."
O’Neill has been front and center at the most fabled moments in recent military adventures. He led the rescue mission dramatized in the Tom Hanks movie Captain Phillips. He also helped save a Navy SEAL who was played by Mark Wahlberg in the movie, Lone Survivor.
But O’Neill could be in big trouble for revealing the secret that he killed bin Laden.
Another former Navy SEAL, Mark Bissonnette, told 60 Minutes that the Pentagon has launched a criminal probe into his best-selling book about the raid, No Easy Day, that he wrote under the pseudonym Mark Owen.
In a 60 Minutes interview, Bissonnette said, "I would go back overseas today and deal with fighting ISIS face-to-face rather than deal with the last two years again."
Former Navy SEAL Jonathan Gilliam spoke to INSIDE EDITION. He said, "We are secretive by nature. We are not in the limelight. If you want to be a limelight, go be a rock star."
There's also concern that O’Neill could be putting his life in danger, but his father says, “Bring it on.” "People are asking if we are worried that ISIS will come and get us because Rob is going public. I say I'll paint a big target on my front door and say come and get us." [Source: Daily Mail]
See What Former Navy Seal Howard Wasdin Told INSIDE EDITION
