He was an outsider, despite having been at the command for many years. Dr. Neil Roberts, MD is an Orthopedic Surgery Specialist in Seattle, WA. Instead of helping search and secure the second floor, both headed to the third floor, hoping to get a chance for the historic kill. The old sailor put the portfolio down. No officers were present, and the enlisted SEALs used the meeting to address Hyders alleged mutilation of the dead Afghan the previous day. Top left: Red Squadron tattoo. The war was entering its seventh year and had become intractable, with no clear path to victory. Moore told his deputy, Szymanski, who was in Afghanistan, to sort things out. The units elite stature has insulated its members from the scrutiny and military justice that lesser units would have faced for the same actions. After a joint British-American investigation into the operation identified the failures and recommended that only the SEAL who threw the grenade be punished, McRaven personally traveled to Dam Neck and determined that all three SEALs involved in the cover-up should be thrown out of SEAL Team 6. For some of them, what was most troubling was not that Hyder mighthave taken gratuitous revenge for Robertss death on an unrelated civilian, but that on more than one occasion, as ground force commander, he had fired his own weapon to neutralize perceived threats. By 2007, the commands leadership was aware that some Blue Squadron operators were using specialized knives to conduct skinnings. Using the excuse of collecting DNA, which required a small piece of skin containing hair follicles, operators were taking large strips of skin from dead enemy fighters. Should they seek revenge for Roberts? There was no plan for capture, and no contingency for a surrender. But even that rule evolved over time. But the directive had another benefit. The Chinook helicopter was about to set down when machine-gun fire ripped into the fuselage, cutting a hydraulic line. That was the only punishment. Purchased 1998. The truth about what happened in bin Ladens bedroom may never be fully known. One former teammate who served with Slabinski described his effort that day outnumbered and with inferior fire support, taking incoming fire from the moment the helicopter landed as one of the most heroic things Ive ever seen. On the day when SEAL Team 6 lost its first operator in the post-9/11 era, Slabinski became a unit legend. By the time Slabinski entered the room where the dead militant lay, according to three former SEAL Team 6 leaders, the operator had severed much of the dead mans neck. Over the years, he had worried about battlefield discipline and retaliation after Neil Roberts had been nearly beheaded, and he had feared his men would seek retribution in Iraq during the height of the violence there. Neighbors recall him as a nice kid - kind of a tough kid who didn't let things bother him. According to two former SEALs, Slabinski told his teammates and superiors that his remark about wanting a head was figurative and not a literal order. Gold Squadron was set to redeploy to the U.S., and the SEALs promised to rein in their operators. An internationally recognised, highly experienced, talented and motivated freelance artist with over 20+ years experience in art, illustration, game art, leading teams and art direction. You really do. Red Squadron snipers killed three pirates who were holding Phillips in a lifeboat. Roberts, a petty officer 1st class from of Woodland, Calif., was based in Norfolk, Va., with a Navy SEAL unit. Almost instantly, a second RPG punctured the right-side radar pod. Bissonnette claimed he shot and killed al Kuwaiti and had fired bullets into bin Laden on the third floor. Budget Controller - Corporate Reporting and Budget Management, Management Accounting. Misc. Normally, SEAL Team 6s commanding officer, a captain, would conduct a captains mast, a form of non-judicial punishment. Its a schoolyard mentality. Vasely, who was wearing night-vision goggles, looked through a window and saw one of his operators, his back turned, squatting over the body of a dead militant. Neil Roberts. The kind of reporting we do is essential to democracy, but it is not easy, cheap, or profitable. <br> As they waited for Oscar and the others to arrive, two of Nate's men discovered a deserted enemy shelter just below the chopper. But Neil had a bigger dream. But in the eyes of the enlisted SEALs of Red Team, Hyder had killed a man who didnt have to die. He was flying aboard an Army MH-47 in 2002 trying to land on a snowy mountaintop when the helicopter came under heavy enemy fire from . Roberts survived at least 30 minutes before he was shot and killed at close range. Within two weeks of the apparent beheading, Moore deployed to Afghanistan. According to the New York Times, Afghans accused Blue Squadron of killing civilians during that operation, but a subsequent military investigation determined that all those killed had been armed and hostile. Both should have remained on the second floor. In exchange, Smethers, who never filed an official allegation or complaint, was sent back to the U.S. Smethers did not respond to requestsfor comment. The former SEAL leader said the extensive amount of training for the mission, combined with Bissonnettes planning role, gave both men ample opportunity to find ways to put themselves on the third floor, in a good position to kill bin Laden. Then ONeill canoed bin Laden with a final shot. At that point, Hyder began assessing the damage and surveying the dead. Schmitt, Eric (May 25, 2002). Neil Roberts's income source is mostly from being a successful Actor. Every one of us is issued and carries a suppressed weapon, said one former senior SEAL, referring to the Heckler & Koch assault rifles, equipped with silencers, issued to the operators. Top right: Robert ONeill with his tattoo of two bloody feathers, representing his kills. Top right: Adm.William McRaven. The SEALs believe that they can handle the discipline themselves, thats equal to or greater than what the criminal justice system would give to the person, said Susan Raser, a retired Naval Criminal Investigative Service agent who led the agencys criminal division but did not investigate this mission. In that operation, Hyder led a team of Red operators on a nighttime mission to capture suspected al Qaeda militants in a compound. According to Hyder, the encounter ended there. Slabinski experienced, charismatic, and by now legendary bridged the gap. One shot hit bin Laden in the chest and the second shot glanced off his hip or thigh as Bin Laden stumbled backward into his room and fell toward the foot of his bed. This was a crucial moment: Kill bin Laden now and the war could be over after only six months. Officers like Hyder, who did not pass through the brutal SEAL Team 6 internal training program, known as Green Team, are often viewed with suspicion and occasionally contempt by the enlisted SEAL operators. Fifi was mutilated, said a retired noncommissioned SEAL leader who was involved in internal discussions about how to prevent SEAL Team 6 from seeking revenge. The .257 Roberts was the only rifle cartridge to receive this designator, and the +P status increased its maximum average pressure (MAP) from 54,000 psi to 58,000 psi. The crew chief reported a donkey positioned at 3 oclock right at the tree line. Howard, who has since risen through the ranks and is currently a rear admiral, was twice rejected by his superiors for advanced SEAL Team 6 training. Illustration: Attila Futaki for The Intercept. Patient information and understanding is of upmost importance to us. These were family weapons, said the retired SEAL. Neil Roberts Net Worth. The extreme risks they take forge extreme bonds. The reason SEAL Team 6 exists is to avoid bombs and collateral damage, said a retired SEAL Team 6 member who was on the mission. In keeping with Red Squadrons appropriation of Native American culture, Howard came up with the idea to bestow 14-inch hatchets on each SEAL who had a year of service in the squadron. This directive had one primary purpose: to protect U.S. forces from accusations of unjustified killings by Afghan government officials. He was quietly removed from Team 6 and returned to a regular SEAL unit. Consider what the world of media would look like without The Intercept. Joining is simple and doesnt need to cost a lot: You can become a sustaining member for as little as $3 or $5 a month. The new rule required a full photographic accounting of who was killed, photos of the entire body, where the targetwas when hedropped, what weapons heheld, the vantage point of the operator when he fired, and other atmospherics. It was just good therapy. That seems more fair. And here were two guys who set out to make money off a mission that required 23 SEALs to pull off: Its dishonorable., Bissonnette and ONeill are no longer welcome at SEAL Team 6 headquarters. He was dying, but he rolled over and I didnt know whether he was armed or not. The left ramp gunner reported a man had popped his head up from cover before disappearing again. It was then that both Bissonnette and ONeill hung back on the stairway. The landing spot was precarious to say the least. The CIA declined to comment for this article. Log In. McRavens new ordersset off a struggle between the JSOC commander and SEAL Team 6s enlisted ranks that played out in a series of high-profile hostage rescues ordered by President Obama. And then we move on, said a former SEAL who was present at the meeting. We didnt hit women or kids. Im not condoning the behavior theres no justification to hacking a body but we didnt prepare them either. There is and was no military reason whatsoever to split someones skull open with a single round, said a former SEAL Team 6 leader. There are 600+ professionals named "Neil Roberts", who use LinkedIn to exchange information, ideas, and opportunities. The second inquiry also uncovered the head on a platter remark as the instigation for the beheading in December 2007, but the commands senior enlisted leader told Slabinski he would not get the promotion or be allowed to serve at the command again because of the Pantera order. The hatchet was too intimate, too closely aligned with a tomahawk, to have been a good idea. The former SEAL, who himself had served in Red during his career, said that by giving operators the weapon of their battlefield persona, Howard sent an unmistakable message to his men: Use it. Bottom: Britt Slabinski, left, and Capt. One operator, who confirmed Howards remarks, added his own: Thats the business were in.. His superiors believed he had become unglued over the 2007 deployment. Freedom Isnt Free!! All of us were upset. Theformer SEAL Team 6 leader told me that for the units operators, the greatest punishment was being kicked out of the unit in front of their peers. neil roberts bent riflefrankie ryan city on a hill dead. They didnt know it, but Roberts was already dead, shot at close range in the head shortly after his helicopter departed the mountaintop. But what happened during Objective Bull, the assault on the convoy in the Shah-i-Kot Valley, has never been previously reported. #VeteranOfTheDay Navy Veteran Neil C. Roberts - VA News Today's #VeteranOfTheDay is Navy Veteran Neil C. Roberts, a member of SEAL Team Six and the first casualty of Operation Anaconda. People named Neil Roberts. These topic labels come from the works of this person. Neil Roberts. He was Ahmed al Kuwaiti, one of bin Ladens couriers. Neil Roberts grew up in the farmlands of Yolo County, CA, one of 12 children, including a twin brother named Galen. The two weapons found on the third floor were not discovered until the rooms were searched. And afterwards, we added the psychological warfare.. On May 1, two stealth Black Hawk helicopters took off from Jalalabad, Afghanistan, and headed east toward Abbottabad. Sitting with old friends, the retired SEAL was handed a ring-bound portfolio. Bissonnette and a small team of SEALs moved from the helicopter to a small building adjacent to bin Ladens main house. [2] He slipped on some oil as the helicopter took off and was thrown from the helicopter, dropping about 5 to 10 feet to the snowy ground below.Roberts was armed with a M249 SAW, pistol and several hand grenades. We just slaughtered those dudes. After describing one particular fighter who from a distance had resembled Osama bin Laden, Slabinksi continued: To this day, weve never had anything as good as that. With more extensive photographic documentation, SEAL operators had less time to fire unnecessary rounds into the dead, and they had to use the photos to explain why they fired their weapon. (The Intercept is withholding the name of the operator, who believed he was following an order. Office of Industrial Relations, +6 more. Three weeks after the incident, NCIS closed its investigation, concluding that there was no evidence the SEAL had violated the laws of armed conflict. He said canoeing became big in 2007. ONeill was closer to Red, one of the first five assaulters. The SEALs had been specifically asked to avoid shooting bin Laden in the face. Bissonnette was much farther back down the stairwell. Bottom right: Candid photo of U.S. Navy SEAL Neil Roberts. Both Bissonnette and ONeill declined to answer questions for this article. He was born on April 07, 1978 in Wrexham, Wales. Then, as two of bin Ladens eldest daughters began to scream, Red quickly corralled themat the doorway, a move considered heroic by other SEALs on the mission. That operator, known as Red inside the unit, is still an active-duty member of SEAL Team 6 and has never been publicly identified. Questions about battlefield atrocities persisted, though some excused these actions in the name of psychological warfare against the enemy. Photos: U.S. Department of Defense; Screengrab from video by U.S. Department of Defense; U.S. Navy by the Roberts family. See Photos. In March 2002, Roberts participated in the opening phase of Operation Anaconda, the U.S.-led offensive in the high mountains of eastern Afghanistan to surround and destroy a large group of al-Qaeda fighters. We needed that there was not a better group of people to go and do that. I assessed he was nearing a distance where he was within an area where he could do damage with a grenade. Hyder said that a week earlier, a militant had detonated a concealed grenade after approaching some American CIA officers, seriously injuring them. View Neil Roberts' business profile as Business Development Manager - Konecranes at Impact Handling. (L-R) Lian Clayton, Logan Pritchard and Scott Patel. One former SEAL Team 6 senior leadersaid that he and others at the command were concerned that the scale and intensity of the violence in Iraq was so great that U.S. operators might be tempted to engage in retaliatory mutilations, a tactic al Qaeda and the Iraqi insurgency sometimes employed. Had the daughters been wearing explosives, Red would have died while shielding his teammates from much of the blast. Several weeks earlier, in January 2002, Hyder killed an unarmed Afghan man north of Kandahar during the units first ground assault of the war. It wasnt complex, and had it been several one-off events, a guy chopping a head off it wouldnt be such a failure. neil roberts bent rifle. That was the end of that. Hyder said that his single shot had blasted open the mans head. Our job is to ensure that we conduct ourselves in a way befitting the American people and the American flag. Slabinski has not responded to multiple queries and requests for comment, though he did deny to the New York Times in 2015 that he gave the illegal pre-mission guidance to kill all males. 1,800 bounces. When they reached the hilltop, the operators looked down in disbelief at women and children, along with the man all were dead or mortally wounded from the spray of gunfire from the Chinooks gunners, who had unloaded after the free fire zone had been declared. Bissonnettes bestselling book, No Easy Day, was published in September 2012, four months after he retired and less than two weeks after ONeill got out of the Navy. After the publication of No Easy Day which in one chapter describes in great detail the specialized gear, along with brand names, Bissonnette wore on the bin Laden mission the Navy opened several inquiries into Bissonnettes outside business contracts. the Kansas Emergency service Ribbon and the Expert Rifle Marksman Badge . Then the bullets came. One of those operators was Neil Roberts. Mr Roberts offers a detailed consultation and will discuss all treatment options with patients and their families. The craft jerked and jarred as it lifted off, and Neil Roberts, wearing an 80-pound and holding a 27-pound SAW, tumbled out of the bucking chopper. I deny it, he said, adding that he didnt understand why Heath would have claimed to have witnessed it. After a short while, he quietly left the base. We knew what needed to be done to police the kids. The former senior enlisted leader said he pressed several commanding officers to address what he believed were war crimes. Tactically, however, the command was winning on the battlefield, and despite McRavens directives, there was no serious internal scrutiny of the SEALs most excessive conduct. He became a Navy SEAL in 1992. The admirals mast was an unprecedented disciplinary action at the command, which had always been allowed to discipline itself. Antique (Pre-1899) Rifles - Ctg. These small teams of CIA, Seal Team 6, and Afghan commandos operated under the agencys Title 50 authority, which governs covert activities. The beauty of what they have constructed, said a former teammate about how Bissonnette and ONeill cornered the market on the bin Laden raid, is that there is only one guy, essentially, who can come forward and say theyre lying and he wont ever talk.. See Photos. When it was commissioned, the Navy had only two SEAL (Sea, Air, and Land) assault teams, but founding officer Cmdr. Id almost wish theyd beaten him to death. After leaving the compound and returning to their base in Kandahar province, Vasely reported to Moore, his superior officer, that he believed he had witnessed a war crime, a mutilation. - Use Code: SHOP2023 [SHOP HERE], The man who gave the Battle of Roberts Ridge its name. The book purported to be a true account of an S.S. officer who with dozens of other soldiers escaped Germany after World War II, joined the French Foreign Legion, and spent years in Vietnam brutalizing the insurgency. Howard, who declined to answer questions from The Intercept, rallied his SEALs and others before missions and deployments by telling them to bloody the hatchet. One SEAL I spoke with said that Howards words were meant to be inspirational, like those of a coach, and were not an order to use the hatchets to commit war crimes. Then, in October 2010, SEAL Team 6 set out to rescue a British aid worker named Linda Norgrove, who had been taken captive in Afghanistan. 1 Similar Profiles; Magnetic Resonance Imaging Medicine & Life Sciences 100%. Chief reported a man had popped his head up from cover before disappearing again bissonnette and ONeill declined to questions. Was within an area where he could do damage with a tomahawk, to sort out. 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