What kind of intelligence did we get off the target? I said, good, come here and. And the answer was, millions of men and women, and particularly after 9/11. And you know what? Now, in the case of Saddam Hussein, it was pretty obvious. They could see fine out of just one eye. What were you seeing? He was arrogant. An unnerving silence descended as the camera stayed on the admiral's empty chair, his habitual yellow can of Rip It energy drink in the foreground. I mean, he was, to me, the gold standard in Navy SEALs. He previously served as Deputy Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command from 2003 to July 2007. The New American Commandos Well, he pulls his parachute, and I collide with his parachute - little bit like getting hit by an air bag. ), "The President was at all times presidential," he says. Firing Line with Margaret Hoover is made possible in part by and by Corporate funding is provided by william mcraven on his time in the military and his criticism of president trump. Every particular of his missions remains classified. On the night of the bin Laden raid, there were 13 simultaneous operations in Afghanistan by clandestine "special-mission units" under JSOC, according to McRaven and Petraeus. Hes done more from a wheelchair than any men standing erect. Operation Neptune Spear stripped al-Qaeda of its iconic leader and offered a kind of recompense for the traumas of 9/11. I'm not exactly sure what's happened. And so the president asked me, he says, Well, Bill, do you know whether or not its bin Laden? I said, Sir, I dont. And so I proudly have the opportunity to display that tape measure at the Special Operations Command. The New York Times reports that Vice Adm McRaven was asked in February by Mr Panetta to come up with various proposals for a military strike on the compound where Bin Laden was believed to be . SEAL training was a great equalizer. MCRAVEN: No, I dont think that contributed to his decline. In a new book from TIME, Special Ops: The Hidden World of America's Toughest Warriors, international editor Jim Frederick reports on the secret world of the U.S. military units. Shortly after jumping out, McCraven says something was clearly wrong. And just something said, hey, we got to turn around, weve got to get back, because, you know, tonights going to be the night. You know, he ate as well if not better than a lot of the soldiers that we had. HOOVER: In April 2011, while you were serving as the commander of Joint Special Operations Command, you were gearing up to take down Osama bin Laden. With her father by her side, she laughed off the injury . Dazed at the impact, he pulled his cord only to find himself tangled up in the parachute's lines. Retired Admiral William McRaven speaks Wednesday January 10, 2018 at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. William McRaven: We were doing a freefall. They are concerned about these things. And sure enough, by the time we got back, the great Army Special Operations unit had gotten the lead. And the reason that I am so impressed with this generation, because the 9/11 generation, these young men and women that signed up after September 11th, that raised their hand and said, Im going to join the military, knew that they were taking on the risks, knew that they would probably go to war. We fly in by helicopters, we assault compounds, we, you know, we grab the bad guy or whatever is required, and we get out. McRaven: Basic SEAL training was a lifetime of challenges crammed into six months. In April, a month before the bin Laden raid, Obama tapped McRaven for his fourth star and nominated him to lead the U.S. Special Operations Command. He said, well sir Im six two. None had the full . Unsure of his altitude or even where he was, he still had the frame of mind to reach for his ripcord, and pulled it. Saddam Hussein became your prisoner when he remained at your camp longer than originally expected, about 30 days. Do you mind recounting it? The most recent internal tally counted more than 2,500 such commando missions in and around Afghanistan over 12 months. But I'm stunned. Never once did he say, why me? Seconds later, his canopy slammed into McRaven at well over 100 m.p.h., throwing him into a violent spin. And the SEALs entering the room did absolutely the right thing and shot him, not knowing whether or not he was wearing a suicide vest or what was happening at that instant. Good evening. Four-star Admiral William McRaven shares stories of heroism from his service to America. In 2001, he became a counterrorism advisor for the National Security Council and soon was fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq. Yeah, well, having done thousands of missions before, you know, this was not an overly complicated mission. And then. You wrote in your book. To be a good leader, you have to be a good communicator. There were some things I didn't think were exactly right and he relieved me." By the time I landed back in Baghdad, the force was moving towards the target and within, you know, within an hours time, the Armys special operations guys that were working for me had had, in fact, captured Saddam Hussein. . They were children of World War One. We always find heroes in the next generation that are more than willing to serve and sacrifice. Along the way, McRaven sketches the qualities required to pull off something very much like the bin Laden raid, 18 years in advance: "a simple plan, carefully concealed, realistically rehearsed and executed with surprise, speed and purpose." Thomas O'Connell, then Assistant Secretary of Defense, paid him a visit, and the two shared cigars just outside the former Iraqi President's prison cell. . "I was not some white knight on a horse going with my lance against the windmill," he says. This year, a decade later, their paths finally crossed. Navy Adm. William H. McRaven oversaw missions leading to Osama bin Laden's death. Ill lie down next to the body just to see whether or not the remains are a little longer. "So it broke my pelvis several inches apart, you know, ripped muscles out of my stomach and my legs, fractured my back.". I got on the plane with my aide, Captain Hank Henry. They have just 500 days until graduation. McRaven said in a 2019 interview. McRaven made headlines in August when he wrote an op-ed condemning President Trump saying, "Revoke my security clearance, too." Now Fox News is reporting that last month, just a few days after penning the op-ed, McRaven left a prominent post with the DIB over the incident.. And now the Pakistanis, of course, are waking up to the fact that were there. It is a small task, but I think an important one. Theres a lot of things that go on post operation. Now available in bookstores everywhere, or go to time.com/specialops to order your copy today. Retired four-star Navy Adm. William McRaven discusses why he finds it hard to be a Democrat or a Republican with CNN's Chris Wallace. "It was hard to watch it from afar, at the White House, but at the time, because I was still broken up pretty bad, I'm not sure I could have done much to help," he says. She was seriously injured in a parachute accident. MCRAVEN: So by the time the helicopters had passed back over the border, now Im on the video with President Obama and his team. I was heading out of Iraq, heading to AL U.D.(?) Unfortunately, an SCDF paramedic pronounced a person dead on the scene. I'm not exactly sure what's happened. He also explains how giving up isn't an option no matter what you're going through. But he was not going to have outside contact with any of his former Iraqi leaders. Caption. And we had a plan to do that. A hard landing off to the side. INSKEEP: You're in a command position in Iraq, in a senior position in Iraq. I had a moment of relief, you bet. When I went to visit guys in the hospital, they always said, I want to get back in the fight. Youre watching PBS. McRaven and his four SEAL teams had trained for such a moment, but it was all he could do to follow the news in bed. But having been through these missions before, what I always know is, you know, you really have to sit down with the operators. MCRAVEN: Yeah, I mean, even to this day, the impact of Moki Martin is with me every day. You told the SEAL Team Six, This mission is to capture or kill bin Laden. His story with the near fatal jump accident and, before that, the ignominious loss of his first command fit the narrative of setback and redemption in the special-operations community writ large. McRaven speaks respectfully of Bush as Commander in Chief, saying he "made some very, very tough decisions." The president thanks us for the mission and then reaches behind the presidents desk and hands me a plaque. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. Why is that, Admiral? Tell me about the impact that Moki Martin had on you. The planning and decisionmaking for the bin Laden raid, he volunteers, "was really everything the American public would expect from their national leadership." So I understood pretty quickly that the guys were a little banged up, but they were OK. And so we went from plan A to plan B. So Im getting radio calls from the ground force commander. He said, well sir Im six two. William McRaven: The Admiral. HOOVER: Admiral William McRaven, welcome back to Firing Line for a special edition episode honoring Independence Day. You know, he ate as well if not better than a lot of the soldiers that we had. Having said that, I knew bin Laden was about six foot four And I thought, well Im six foot two. After jumping from the plane, McRaven noticed the jumper below him had pulled his chute, and it was coming at him fast. I mean, it showed that we as Americans can do the hard things and do them well. We werent going to put him in a cell with other people, that his days as the leader of Iraq were over. A couple of months later, al-Qaeda terrorists attacked New York City and Washington, DC, but then-Capt. And now I'm tumbling out of control towards the ground.". What do we need to do next? may not know about the raid on Osama bin Ladens compound or the rescue of Captain Phillips. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. Retired Adm. William McRaven earned fame for leading US special-operations forces on some of their most well-known missions. So Rob ONeill and his teammate, when they came up Again, there were no helmet cams. The first of Admiral McRaven's 10 lessons is: start your day with one successful task completed, such as making your bed, and you will find the motivation to tackle others. How was it that you came to be inside Iraq, though, on the day that Saddam Hussein was captured? MCRAVEN: In Iraq and Afghanistan, of course, you saw these horrific injuries. You wrote, quote, as long as I could wiggle my toes, I was going to stay a SEAL. You share the story of Moki Martin, the Vietnam era SEAL, who was partially paralyzed from a head-on bike accident. He served in the first Gulf War and wrote the book on special warfare, "The Theory of Special Operations." The general theme of his speech is that anyone can change the world; all you need is the courage to do it. But it wasnt the first time Id had a, quote, premonition. What happened was the down blast from the helicopter hit this 18 foot high wall, created a vortex, kind of a vacuum over the blades, caused the helicopter to lose lift. In 2014 Admiral William H. McRaven gave the commencement address at the University of Texas at Austin. He graduated in 1977 with an ensign's commission, signed up for SEAL training, married Georgeann and deployed to the Philippines. And I thought it was a fair question, and it's a question that needed to be answered. STEVE INSKEEP, BYLINE: If I don't mistake this, your boss, Admiral Eric Olson, kind of bypassed a form that would say whether you were physically fit or not. Commentary. Ill lie down next to the body just to see whether or not the remains are a little longer. If bin Laden had his hands up and he clearly was not a threat which was going to be difficult because you dont know whether or not theyre carrying a suicide vest underneath but if he had come out of that room with his hands up and clearly not a threat, we had an obligation, a legal obligation, a moral obligation to capture him. You know, when we stood up an all volunteer force, I remember thinking initially, well, this will never work. Tell us about that. MCRAVEN: I had a moment of relief, you bet. And to this day, Moki oversees the triathlon that we run every year as part of our underwater demolition team and our SEAL fraternity. MCRAVEN: Yeah, well, he knew that I was in charge. Now, I would offer that I use the word premonition, but it was probably the fact that my brain was connecting the dots. When after a bad parachute accident McRaven stoically refused pain medication, he writes that "the imposing face of . What happened was the down blast from the helicopter hit this 18 foot high wall, created a vortex, kind of a vacuum over the blades, caused the helicopter to lose lift. HOOVER: We all remember those images of Saddam Hussein the moment that he was captured. "We do raids. HOOVER: The story of identifying the body is such a memorable one. McRaven: He went from being pompous and arrogant to frankly, just being, : The first people I want to thank are the SEALs. Did you actually ever think that he would be captured alive? It begins by stating matter-of-factly that Carl von Clausewitz, the Prussian strategist whose On War is a standard text, was wrong about two of his central maxims. MCRAVEN: You know, nobody goes through life and is successful all on their own. "He walked again, which was amazing," sister Nan recalls. That is not exactly the same as choosing two commandments to rebut in church, but it is provocative. Adm. William McRaven, who oversaw the raid on Osama bin Laden's home, says as it went beyond the planned time, he feared Pakistani forces might find U.S. troops . MCRAVEN: Yeah, well, having done thousands of missions before, you know, this was not an overly complicated mission. McRaven: I was just honored to be part of the operation. On May 17, 2014, Admiral William H. McRaven addressed the graduating class of the University of Texas at Austin on their Commencement day. William H. McRaven. INSKEEP: Admiral William H. McRaven is author of "Sea Stories: My Life In Special Operations." Copyright 2019 NPR. But again, to your point, I had a moral and legal obligation to make sure that we took good care of him. And as I say in the book, kind of inexplicably, I just had this feeling that this was going to be the night that we got Saddam Hussein. And you write that you, quote, had an obligation, both morally and legally to keep him safe. As they neared the release point, one of the men below McRaven drifted directly underneath. So I reflect back on that 10 years ago and Im just proud to have been a small part of it. So if you want to change the world, start off by making your bed. Moki, to me was this kind of quintessential Navy SEAL. I mean, if thats not service, I dont know what is. But I also knew at that moment that life was about to change. 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