Those were the Wild West days of special operations, and McRaven did not share his commander's easygoing attitude about rules. On May 17, 2014, Admiral William H. McRaven addressed the graduating class of the University of Texas at Austin on their Commencement day. hour.s about an mr. axelrod: admiral, great to see you again. And as I was descending, I noticed that there was . And Ive seen it in this current generation, the millennials and the Gen Z. HOOVER: In 2003, you were the commander of Task Force 714 in Iraq. We did. HOOVER: You write about a skydiving accident that you were in in 2001 that nearly cost you your life. And then, of course, when we get on target, we didnt know whether or not the entire compound was booby trapped, whether bin Laden was wearing a suicide vest, all those sorts of things added to the risk. And just something said, hey, we got to turn around, weve got to get back, because, you know, tonights going to be the night. As it turned out, in a dark room at night. Downing wanted McRaven on his staff. We had a helicopter with an optical ball on it that was providing our ISR, our video coverage, if you will. He kept tabs on the SEALs who had gone to war without him. Admiral William McRaven is a retired U.S. Navy four-star Admiral. From 2015 to 2018, he was the chancellor of The University of Texas System.. McRaven served from June 13, 2008 to August 2011 as commander of Joint Special Operations . 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. . Take a look at this video. Plenty of junior officers admired McRaven's stand, but most, as one puts it, "thought that was the end of his career." You know, when we stood up an all volunteer force, I remember thinking initially, well, this will never work. You said, quote, As a commander, you would like to be in ultimate control of all of the decisions, but the reality is you cant be. "If I was a loose cannon, he was too rigid. We know that theyre getting ready to launch aircraft to come intercept us. When you make your bed first thing in the morning, you start the day with purpose and confidence. He was later memorialized in an eponymous film starring Tom Hanks. MCRAVEN: If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day and will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. 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. But once again, as I mentioned, with Saddam Hussein, you know, until you can do the forensics on the remains, check the fingerprints, check the DNA, do the facial recognition, you know, Im reluctant to have said, hey, weve got jackpot on this one. But they do know you as the make-your-bed guy. You know, youve got to play four quarters of the game. McRaven, who served as the ninth commander of the U.S. Special Operations command from . He had leadership skills we'd expect from a guy who had 35 years in the military." And to this day, Moki oversees the triathlon that we run every year as part of our underwater demolition team and our SEAL fraternity. By Barton Gellman. You got to find out, one, is everybody OK? November 6, 1955. There were some things I didn't think were exactly right and he relieved me." He was a Vietnam vet. So you visited his room every day to speak with the doctor on guard. I'm not exactly sure what's happened. It was an ideal post for a cerebral commando whose body needed mending. And I think he was probably glad I didn't ask him. there are plenty of public issues right now that i want to ask you about, but i want to defer that for a moment and talk about . But it was pretty clearly bin Laden. . And the answer was, millions of men and women, and particularly after 9/11. And so what we had to do pretty quickly was to make sure he understood that he was a prisoner of the United States and we were going to treat him well. But after SEAL training, we were stationed at the same team and we became very close friends. NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to retired Adm. William McRaven, who may be best-known as the Navy SEAL commander who oversaw the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden, about his new memoir. Below is the text of the Commencement address, as prepared for delivery, by Admiral William H. McRaven, retired U.S. Navy four-star admiral and former chancellor of . "People like McRaven know that.". But I knew immediately the guys were okay. Like most promising midcareer officers, the 36-year-old McRaven was dispatched to the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. I mean, hes just a remarkable, remarkable inspiration. . Bush famously kept a list of al-Qaeda leaders in his Oval Office desk drawer and drew an X over each face as the target was captured or killed. The standard-issue AMC Eagle wagon was no kind of ride for commandos. Image: Wikipedia.org. Theyre the superheroes. And even with that giant beard he had, it didnt take long for us to realize that we had the right guy. You will feel a sense of pride, and that same pride will greet you at . McRaven oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid in Pakistan that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. And as I would find out later, it wouldnt be the last time. Admiral, tell me about that premonition. Now, when I walked in, I made sure that my name tags were off and my stars were off. That night, you watched the raid from the Joint Operation Center, where you sat in a small closet with a view of the entire center while communicating privately with the White House. So if you want to change the world, start off by making your bed. A Navy SEAL who spent 37 years serving his country. Firing Line with Margaret Hoover is made possible in part by and by Corporate funding is provided by. I didnt want to engage with him because, frankly, I didnt want him to, at least psychologically, think that he was a VIP, that he was somebody important enough to be able to engage me in conversation. MCRAVEN: No, I dont think that contributed to his decline. Im absolutely ok with that. I had a medical professional, either a corpsman, a medic or a doctor in the room with him 24/7, along with a security guard. General Stanley McChrystal as JSOC's top commander. But once again, as I mentioned, with Saddam Hussein, you know, until you can do the forensics on the remains, check the fingerprints, check the DNA, do the facial recognition, you know, Im reluctant to have said, hey, weve got jackpot on this one. You write about a skydiving accident that you were in in 2001 that nearly cost you your life. And so I really didnt kind of come off the business end of this mission probably until later that evening when finally I was able to hit the rack. You got to find out, one, is everybody OK? The second helicopter, which was supposed to come in and land on the roof, lands outside. If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. The story did not end there. Once there was a President who called for building up the Green Berets in the same speech, in 1961, that called for landing a man on the moon. You had 60 million dollars for a helicopter, the one we had lost on the raid, and you didnt have ten dollars for a tape measure? And as Ive told folks, it was just the right amount of levity, just at the right time to kind of lower the stress in the room. When I went to visit guys in the hospital, they always said, I want to get back in the fight. (Photo Credit: United States Navy / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain) McRaven's plan was successful and bin Laden was killed by SEAL Team 6 on May 2, 2011. What were you seeing? I can see it on the overhead surveillance. And youve probably seen the iconic photo from Pete Souza. Stay up to date with what you want to know. And of course, it started in SEAL training. And eventually, of course, the SEALs execute a mission that all of these guys, in terms of the tactics of it, had done hundreds of times before. As you point out. Now, what I am getting, of course, is reports from the ground force commander when shots are fired. Bring us back to this moment, will you, Admiral? And they were going out every night, you know, trying to stop suicide bombers. On the downside, "relative superiority" does not last long. INSKEEP: How have people in the military that you have known dealt with the reality that they put their lives on the line, in some places lost arms or legs, for this purpose that turned out to be false? We had a helicopter with an optical ball on it that was providing our ISR, our video coverage, if you will. From there he began an extraordinary rise, moving rapidly through command and operational roles. Yeah, I would say its a little surreal, but, you know, I go back to that whole operation and Ive offered to the American people, regardless of what side of the political aisle you might be on, you know, you would have been proud of the national security team the president, the vice president, secretary of state, secretary of defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, director of national intelligence director of the CIA all of these men and women that came together to do what was right by the nation. 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. But I knew immediately the guys were okay. HOOVER: Saddam Hussein became your prisoner when he remained at your camp longer than originally expected, about 30 days. HOOVER: Admiral, youve led sailors through harrowing missions. The Desert One hostage-rescue mission in Iran that day, aborted in a spectacle of flaming aircraft, left eight Americans dead and the nation's prestige badly burned. So whenever a shot is fired, somebody is reporting through the chain. I mean, if thats not service, I dont know what is. Retired Adm. William McRaven earned fame for leading US special-operations forces on some of their most well-known missions. And sometimes, you know, not our place to overthink it and to trust and rely on the decision-makers who were elected by the American people. And he raised his hands, and he says, you know, I'm Saddam Hussein, the president of Iraq, and I'm here to negotiate. Yeah, I mean, even to this day, the impact of Moki Martin is with me every day. Jocko Willink. So Rob ONeill and his teammate, when they came up Again, there were no helmet cams. News Skydiving Death Australia. Then, as commandos set explosive charges around the wounded aircraft: "We're going to destroy the helicopter.". Television, film and video games have infused popular culture, and the political debate, with the power of special warfare to get the job done on the cheap. HOOVER: On September 11th, 2001, you were still recuperating from your injuries when you watched the terrorist attacks on this country play out on a television screen in your living room. In his Kabul headquarters as outgoing U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus pumped his fist. But again, to your point, I had a moral and legal obligation to make sure that we took good care of him. But having been through these missions before, what I always know is, you know, you really have to sit down with the operators. In fact, we had a plan with what we were going to do with bin Laden if we captured him. In 2001, he became a counterrorism advisor for the National Security Council and soon was fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq. I went back to my little headquarters area, got back on the video with the president and the president said, OK, Bill, let me get this straight. The guy stomped around on the floor and found this trapdoor, if you will. But at the end of the day, you have to confirm the jackpot. Accuracy and availability may vary. The sentiments appear to be mutual, for McRaven and his special-operations units. What do we need to do next? I didnt think much of it. You know, when we first captured Saddam, he was pompous. But here's what I'll tell you. Adm. William McRaven shares anecdotes from his life and military career. Then, I thought, well, you know, thats probably not very distinguished for the three star admiral to be lying down next to the body. They just know me as the make your bed guy. Thank you, Margaret. We did. You told the SEAL Team Six, This mission is to capture or kill bin Laden. And that was pretty evident. And Maybe the World . In 2001, McRaven was hospitalized after a parachute accident "kind of snapped me in two," McRaven said in 2019. OBAMA: Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, // A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. Rescued Captain Phillips from Somali pirates, Phillips: The first people I want to thank are the SEALs. On Sept. 11, 2001, McRaven was recovering at home in Southern California from a freak parachute accident that had nearly killed him four months earlier, crushing his back and pelvis. He's sure he would have surrendered to self-pity and . William McRaven: The Admiral. 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. We always find heroes in the next generation that are more than willing to serve and sacrifice. "If I were to react to a ship takedown in a foreign port or an embassy in a foreign country, the Eagles would stick out like a" O.K., well, that's as much of the quote as you get in TIME. Image: U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Christopher William. I mean, hes just a remarkable, remarkable inspiration. And even though I was broken-hearted at the time, I was intent on getting kind of back in the fight and being able to support my fellow special operations warriors. We fly in by helicopters, we assault compounds, we, you know, we grab the bad guy or whatever is required, and we get out. Published Dec. 27, 2021 Updated Dec. 31, 2021. So there was always concern about the Pakistanis engaging. Of course, as we began to come in to target the one helicopter loses lift as it got over the target. Naval Special Warfare Group 1 began the hunt for Osama bin Laden without its commodore, and he soon stepped down from command. I loved the sense of patriotism. But it wasnt the first time Id had a, quote, premonition. MCRAVEN: Well, the mission wasnt over yet. McRaven, then a 45-year-old Navy SEAL captain, led a jump exercise near San Diego. She's been in the hospital for two months and has years of . Photo by Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Corbis via Getty Images, NOW WATCH: A Navy SEAL commander explains how he learned to never give up, had to watch the American response on television. WILLIAM H MCRAVEN: And all of a sudden, I realize the guy to the left is underneath me. Admiral, Youve just written a book, The Hero Code: Lessons Learned from Lives Well Lived. And your father served in World War Two, and you share memories of him and his fellow service members swapping stories about their missions. And if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made, that you made. Admiral, youve led sailors through harrowing missions. MCRAVEN: So by the time the helicopters had passed back over the border, now Im on the video with President Obama and his team. Of course, as we began to come in to target the one helicopter loses lift as it got over the target. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. INSKEEP: You refer to remembering this incident, this kindness of effectively overlooking the regulations, you think, and how you behaved later as a commander, as the wars began in Iraq and Afghanistan. Cartwright, the Marine general, says, "If every time you knock one off all they do is replace him, how valuable was that, particularly if you could have been watching him? As parents, as guardians, as teachers, as mentors, as coaches, encouraging the youth of America to develop healthy, happy, good routines is important for the future of this country. And now the Pakistanis, of course, are waking up to the fact that were there. Speaking to MS News, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) was alerted to a traffic accident on 1 Mar at about 6.45pm. So it broke my pelvis several inches apart, you know, ripped muscles out of my stomach and my legs, fractured my back, and I landed about two miles from the drop zone. No, I dont think that contributed to his decline. The compound could still be booby trapped. And so what we had to do pretty quickly was to make sure he understood that he was a prisoner of the United States and we were going to treat him well. While encouraging the students to improve the world, . One was to parachute in a SEAL . Admiral William H. McRaven is the ninth commander of United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). It was really about the people that were around me, the people that helped me when I stumbled, the people that picked me up and dusted me off and said, you're going to be OK; keep moving. ", Does killing high-value targets make sense as a recipe to defeat al-Qaeda? it showed that we as Americans can do the hard things and do them well. There was always an understanding that it was about doing what was right for the country. I dont know, as a young boy, whether I thought I would follow in my fathers footsteps, what I knew was I loved the camaraderie. I couldnt see what was going on inside the building. HOOVER: And you think that contributed to his decline in custody? HOOVER: Admiral McRaven, on this Independence Day weekend, thank you for your service and thank you for sharing your stories from your recent books, Hero Code, Sea Stories and Make Your Bed. The drill was to jump at 13,000 feet and once you dropped to 5,500 feet, you pulled your ripcord. McRaven: He went from being pompous and arrogant to frankly, just being, you know, a tired, corrupt old man. MCRAVEN: Well, the Joint Operation Center, we refer to it as the JOC, was probably about a hundred people that are sitting in a room with a lot of computers. But I would go in every day to check on him. The New American Commandos Not your color, not your ethnic background, not your education and not your social status. MCRAVEN: Yeah. NEW YORK (Reuters) - Retired Navy Admiral and former U.S. special operations chief William McRaven has no regrets about criticizing President Donald Trump, though he said on Wednesday . They have just 500 days until graduation. Admiral McRaven, on this Independence Day weekend, thank you for your service and thank you for sharing your stories from your recent books, Hero Code, Sea Stories and Make Your Bed. Back then, he was worried about whether or not the youth would stand up and join the military. By the time U.S. intelligence pinpointed its quarry, McRaven was a three-star admiral atop the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), the U.S. military's clandestine strike force. ), "The President was at all times presidential," he says. And on the plaque is a Home Depot tape measure. Theres a lot of things that go on post operation. HOOVER: Bring us back to this moment, will you, Admiral? Or, I have to be careful, Im not sure From the time the mission started I think maybe its 15 minutes when I got the call from the ground force commander, for God and country, Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo. And Geronimo was the code word for bin Laden. 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. Admiral McRaven also explains how it isn't necessary to change everyone's lives for the world to change. So whenever people begin to lose hope about the future of the country and whether or not the men and women will continue to serve, I think weve seen this movie before. Eric Thor Olson (born January 24, 1952) is a retired United States Navy admiral who last served as the eighth Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) from July 2, 2007 to August 8, 2011. We werent going to put him in a cell with other people, that his days as the leader of Iraq were over. "Look how much of their leadership we've taken apart and how long it's taken, and the movement is still not dead," says Wade Ishimoto, a former Delta Force intelligence officer. SINGAPORE: Four people were taken to the hospital on Saturday (Jul 10) after an early morning accident involving a taxi and a car at the junction of Bukit Timah Road and Selegie . Is that right? Now, what I am getting, of course, is reports from the ground force commander when shots are fired. and will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. The second helicopter, which was supposed to come in and land on the roof, lands outside. as well as other partner offers and accept our. So he lay down next to the body and sure enough, the body was about two inches longer. After jumping from the plane, McRaven noticed the jumper below him had pulled his chute, and it was coming at him fast. "He walked again, which was amazing," sister Nan recalls. But after SEAL training, we were stationed at the same team and we became very close friends. So a static line parachute is where you hook up inside the aircraft, the freefall you jump out with a parachute on your back. This is a disturbing phenomenon to me because I dont believe our democracy long range is going to work unless theres an attitude in our society and particularly among our young, that they have an obligation of service. I mean, who in the world is going to join the military for relatively low pay, to put your life at risk, et cetera, et cetera? So I reached for my rip cord, pulled the rip cord, and the pilot chute comes out of the back of the parachute. Making your bed as easy to do. commander under the obama administration. I had a medical professional, either a corpsman, a medic or a doctor in the room with him 24/7, along with a security guard. But he was not going to have outside contact with any of his former Iraqi leaders. So now I am tangled up in my parachute, falling towards the ground. SEAL training was a great equalizer. And eventually, of course, the SEALs execute a mission that all of these guys, in terms of the tactics of it, had done hundreds of times before. I said, good, come here and. Yeah, I couldnt hear any of that. We werent going to put him in a cell with other people, that his days as the leader of Iraq were over. Good to be with you. Never once did he say, why me? 00:23:10 He knew I'd been in a parachute accident. Ill lie down next to the body just to see whether or not the remains are a little longer. I just didnt want that to occur. McRaven charmed the civilians on staff over late-night beers at the Smith & Wollensky steak house. The compound could still be booby trapped. The planning and decisionmaking for the bin Laden raid, he volunteers, "was really everything the American public would expect from their national leadership." But again, to your point, I had a moral and legal obligation to make sure that we took good care of him. So there was always concern about the Pakistanis engaging. Around that time came a call from Wayne Downing, a retired Army four-star general. Well, I think its interesting when you think about Westmorelands observation in context. MCRAVEN: Well, thats true of every mission you conduct, youve got to be able to delegate to people that you have trust and confidence in. Admiral McRaven has since retired from the military and is now the chancellor of University of Texas. Thornton is a former Navy SEAL that was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during a mission in the Vietnam War. And I really didnt have any relief in terms of the mission until after all the helicopters had come back across the border, the Afghan border and were landing at the back at our base. And every day when I would come in, he would try to engage me. Credits. Did you actually ever think that he would be captured alive? I can see it on the overhead surveillance. "One of the things we made clear to the President and the national leadership was, This is what we do," he told TIME. It is a small task, but I think an important one. The conversation was . And so I really didnt kind of come off the business end of this mission probably until later that evening when finally I was able to hit the rack. Did we inadvertently kill people we shouldnt have killed? Capture him if you can, but if he presents a threat at all, any threat whatsoever, kill him.. Distance?. He also survived a gnarly parachuting accident that broke his back and pelvis in 2001 during an exercise near . 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. So he didnt know my rank or my name. Bin Laden was in American hands, status adjusted: "enemy killed in action." "He was climbing the steps, and it was agony, step by step. HOOVER: Its quite striking because you write that the command center breaks into cheers, but you, quote, had no sense of relief, no internal exhilaration, no feeling of victory. I had received an intelligence brief the night before from one of the great noncommissioned officers that was part of the Saddam hunt. As the chief executive officer of the UT System, Chancellor McRaven oversees 14 institutions that educate 221,000 students and employ 20,000 faculty and more than 80,000 health care professionals, researchers and staff. The DIB, on which McRaven served, was created during the Obama administration by then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter. This year, a decade later, their paths finally crossed. In 2001, McRaven was hospitalized after a parachute accident "kind of . And then in 1983, as you mentioned, he had a head-on bicycle accident and then was paralyzed from the chest down and has been since that time. Now, I would offer that I use the word premonition, but it was probably the fact that my brain was connecting the dots. Patient and ingenious work by U.S. intelligence agencies marked a spot tentative, but more likely accurate than not on the map. McRaven recovered and rose up the ranks. With her father by her side, she laughed off the injury like it was a scratch. You know, youve got to play four quarters of the game. Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations, quote, I was having one of those feelings, again, inexplicable, powerful, eerie, one I couldnt shake and I certainly couldnt rationalize. What I would offer is I think when he finally realized that he no longer had his palaces, he no longer had his generals, he no longer had his handmaidens, he went from being pompous and arrogant to frankly, just being, you know, a tired, corrupt old man. 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