This is a man who shot the world’s most wanted terrorist, revealed for the first time.
Rob O’Neill, 38, was the US Navy SEAL who killed the man who masterminded and funded the 9/11 terror attacks on New York and Washington reported Huffington Post.
“People are asking if we are worried that ISIS will come and get us because Rob is going public,” his father told Mailonline . “I say I’ll paint a big target on my front door and say come and get us.
“My ex-wife gave birth to a man. We shouldn’t be cowering in fear.”
As a member of SEAL Team Six, Rob O’Neill shot bin Laden three times in his forehead at close range, as the team stormed the compound in Abbottobad, Pakistan, on May 2nd 2011.
O’Neill has spoken once before, anonymously, as The Shooter, in a magazine article for Esquire, where he criticised provisions for veterans as he prepared to leave the Navy. He has since been on a motivational speaking tour, though he has not so far mentioned he was the man to shoot bin Laden.
Raised in Montana, O’Neill has taken part in more than 400 combat missions, according to the documentary where he first reveals his identity. He has been personally congratulated by President Barack Obama, and been decorated more than 50 times in his 16-year-career, where he was deployed on dozens of tours of duty, including Iraq and Afghanistan.
He is set to give a two-part Fox interview later in November.
Three of O’Neill’s missions have been turned in Hollywood movies, including ZeroDarkThirty, with Jessica Chastain, about the killing of bin Laden. He donated the shirt he wore during the mission to the 9/11 memorial museum in New York.
But O’Neill was also one of the leaders of the team that rescued Captain Phillips, from the Maersk Alabama that was captured by Somali pirates, and made into the movie with Tom Hanks. He also helped with the mission to rescue SEAL Marcus Luttrell, which was made into the film Lone Survivor.