A new Esquire report is making headlines for its in-depth profile of the Navy SEAL Team Six member who shot and killed Osama bin Laden. The former SEAL opened up to reporter Phil Bronstein about his role in the mission, but also about the hardships he has faced after he left the military in September 2012, including a months-long wait for his disability claim to be considered and a lack of health insurance.
The shooter says his health insurance halted the day he ended his service, but an article published by the U.S. military's independent newspaper, Stars and Stripes, rebuts that, noting that the SEAL is automatically eligible for five years of free health care through the Department of Veteran Affairs.
On HuffPost Live Monday, Bronstein spoke about the time he spent with the shooter and how it took over a year of relationship-building to gain his trust for an interview.
He also discusses taking the shooter to a screening of the Oscar-nominated film "Zero Dark Thirty." Bronstein said that the bin Laden shooter left the movie with some minor gripes about how things were portrayed. Among his complaints: the tactics were "old-fashioned," the raid was depicted to be longer than it actually was, and the SEALs are shown yelling orders during the action, something they could never do.
"He said, 'We can't do that. If you're yelling when you're going through this house or any territory, people are going to know where you are, they're going to know where to aim,'" Bronstein said. "There's a signal, I guess, where they tap their helmets if they want to breach."
Of his own involvement in the raid, Bronstein said the shooter expressed feeling like he had either done the "best thing" in his life or the "worst thing," since the action has left his family members fearing for their lives.