I walk into the briefing room as the President screams at the fighter pilot “FIRE!” I shudder as I know the thoughts of the innocent parents that hadn’t done anything wrong. The man we wanted dead, Osama-Bin Laden was our aim but many, many more lives would be taken to no expense of the US Government. It would not matter in the slightest to him. The fighter pilot replies a few seconds later “Missile attempt 4738 Hit Ak Toba at 7:18:22. Anyone who was within a 10km radius would’ve been certain death, I am circling the perimeter currently to ensure anyone alive is killed.” We waited for the next directions from the President. Only the fighter pilot could confirm the sighting of Osama. We would have to wait over two days for that news to arrive. No one would sleep.
If the fighter pilot has failed, I will be flying over to Iraq in a mission to capture Osama Bin Laden. Operation Neptune Spear, some called it Operation Geronimo, was the name of my mission and the name for my target is Jackpot ( the code name for Osama Bin Laden). I had read my mission manuscript over a thousand times. It was to capture Jackpot with my squadron of 22 of the highest trained seals, privates, and black ops soldiers. We had an estimated 4000 kilometres to travel in under 47 days before extraction. It was now two days until our initial flight to the US Support air force base in Ak Toba Iraq, just 30 kilometres from the fighter pilot’s missile.
I spent the 2 nights before my flight preparing my kit and saying goodbye to my loved ones. As 3 am drew closer I departed my humble Washington apartment for what could’ve been the last time ever. I stepped onto the tarmac with my fellow soldiers beside and behind me. As we walked onto the huge Jet we did our final salute to the President.
When we arrived at Ak Toba Military base, we were given our packs and began the first day. We had a 60km trip to get around all of our station lookouts. When we arrived at the first station outlook we stormed into all of the houses. As I stormed past young children I could see the fear in their eyes seeing 23 built men with numerous guns on them, although I knew that we were only doing the work that we had been assigned and were only trying to make things better for their lives in the future I still thought in the back of my head that the way that the US military was still incredibly harmful to the innocent lives that would still be mentally scarred for the rest of their lives. I looked into the eyes of one child and I saw the sadness and anger in his eyes as he launched forward and attempted to put me into a headlock. I followed my protocol. The same protocol I had never agreed with and shot him dead with 3 shots to the skull.
Weeks went past with the same memory going through my head. I couldn’t get it through my head why he jumped at me. It was the morning of the last three days until our extraction when I heard on the radio “Suspected Jackpot Village name Yakhak”. Checking the map I realised we were less than a 17 minute drive away even in the rought terrain. As I told Jack Evans, a fellow soldier, the whole group geared up and got ready.
We drove into the village and following protocol stormed into all of the houses. The entire village was abandoned except for one central building where we could hear about 10 men talking. As we stormed the building we found the men but quickly realised it was not who we wanted. As we heard noises we ran back downstairs. We saw nothing but ground but heard a noise from underneath. Jack took a grenade out of his bag and buried it into the sand. We hit the floor as the grenade exploded. When the sand and smoke cleared we saw him, Jackpot, the man who had ruined so many lives, sitting there grinning at my squadron of 22 and myself. We tied Osama up as another member of my squadron made the call on the radio “Jackpot has been captured in village Yakhak”. As we waited for extraction we said our goodbyes to each other.
When I arrived back in Washington life went back to normal, if there could ever be a normal again after the memory of shooting a child haunting me. Because it was a secret mission, nobody was to know where we had been for the past 40 days. There were no parades or interviews. We were not celebrities as we were not allowed to be known as the men who caught Osama. We just knew that we had made our country safer and better for the future. But it came at a price.
