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Esquire magazine has come out with a piece on the Navy SEAL who shot Osama Bin Laden, telling the story of the assault on the compound in Pakistan where the leader of Al Qaeda had been hiding out.
Included in the first-hand account of the raid is one hell of a product placement coup for EOTech. According to the article, the last view of Bin Laden as a biologically viable entity was through one of the company’s holo sights. According the guy who shot him:
I thought in that first instant how skinny he was, how tall and how short his beard was, all at once. He was wearing one of those white hats, but he had, like, an almost shaved head. Like a crew cut. I remember all that registering. I was amazed how tall he was, taller than all of us, and it didn’t seem like he would be, because all those guys were always smaller than you think.
I’m just looking at him from right here [he moves his hand out from his face about ten inches]. He’s got a gun on a shelf right there, the short AK he’s famous for. And he’s moving forward. I don’t know if she’s got a vest and she’s being pushed to martyr them both. He’s got a gun within reach. He’s a threat. I need to get a head shot so he won’t have a chance to clack himself off [blow himself up].
In that second, I shot him, two times in the forehead. Bap! Bap! The second time as he’s going down. He crumpled onto the floor in front of his bed and I hit him again, Bap! same place. That time I used my EOTech red-dot holo sight. He was dead. Not moving. His tongue was out. I watched him take his last breaths, just a reflex breath.
And I remember as I watched him breathe out the last part of air, I thought: Is this the best thing I’ve ever done, or the worst thing I’ve ever done? This is real and that’s him.
This will no doubt place EOTech high on everyone’s list of must-have tactical gear–and you could do much worse. The company’s sights are tough and work great.
The main gist of the article happens to be that the SEAL who killed Bin Laden, identified as “Shooter” through the article, has been screwed over by the Navy because after 16 years in the military he has no health care coverage to speak of. This has kicked up a firestorm of controversy because, apparently, it is a big pile of steaming B.S.
(related link).