Reflection

I personally enjoyed reading this book because of my interest in the military. I recommend anyone who is interested to read this book because it is about one of the most important operations in US military history. If you aren't interested I believe you still would be interested because of the intense action during the short mission. It may be hard for some people to understand some terms if they aren't familiar with military terms but overall it is a great book and I believe it is worth reading.

Text to text connection

"I have never taken the easy way. I have had to fail several times before I succeed at something, and sometimes it was at no fault of my own. But I run, bike, all of the above because I hate it. By hating it and doing it I grow. I know that people will never understand that, but that is the way I live my life. Why choose something you like to do? Because it’s fun? How do you grow as a person by doing fun things? You grow by testing yourself, by testing your mind to go where it doesn't want to go. If you take the easy road, you get easy results. You don’t expect anything out of yourself. If you take the hard road,and you make yourself get through it, you will expect more out of your everyday life. If you don’t achieve and let people keep you down, you will stay down. Not me… I choose to get back up. I choose to look the unwanted in the face. I choose to go after the unwanted with a smile. I choose to suffer. And from suffering I grow." -US Navy Seal David Goggins

This poem relates to Mark Owen because he experienced the same hard times in his training, he worked hard to become one of the few brave men to serve in the US Navy Seals.

Burial

After Osama was shot, the seal team evacuated in Chinook helicopters and flew back to base where they were transfered to the USS Carl Vinson where they buried Osama Bin Laden at sea.

Death of Osama Bin Laden

Osama hid in the third floor of the compound. When Mark and the team ran up the stairs, two of the girls ran at them terrified, One of them grab them and ran off while Mark and another seal breached. They opened fire on Osama's wife and him. Osama's wife was shot in the leg and Osama was shot twice fatally.

Operation Neptune Spear

This is the diagram of Osama Bin Laden's compound. At 1430 hours (2:30 PM US Time) Operation Neptune Spear began. 79 commandos and 1 trained military dog was used in the operation. 2 modified Black Hawks and 2 Chinooks flew into the compound. Without alerting the Pakistan government of the raid, they flew below the radar. Just as the helicopters approached, Mark's helicopter experienced a airflow problem known as vortex ring state. The helicopter crashed inside the compound, the other landed outside of it. The seals immediately recovered and breached the compound using explosives. 

Mark Owen (Character Analysis)

Throughout the book Mark Owen is seen as a man who can never give up no matter what. He is courageous and brave. An example in the book that shows this is he managed to exit the helicopter wreckage and continue his mission with ease. He also had troubles in boot camp, the physical training he took was one of the hardest in the US Armed Forces. He barely passed a few of the physical exams near the end of his training.

Text to self connection

My entire family has served in the United States Navy. Like Mark, my uncle Eddie was a navy seal. He was deployed in Somalia few years back. He was deployed in several missions, few endangering his own life. At one point he was sent to secure a large cargo ship so he fought at close range. His scariest moment was he was ambushed by a pirate armed with an AK-47. He was in a hand to hand fist fight to disarm him. The pirate wasn't properly trained like my uncle. Eventually he knocked the firearm out of his reach and shot him instant. Mark was assualted and went through the same senerio that he had gone through.

Classified material

Mark Owen was charged and punished for revealing classified content. This book was then banned from stores but I have found out one of the details. The US Military has recently declassified these details and has allowed media to expose them. The book released details about the top-secret M-60 Stealth blackhawk helicopter used in night stealth raids. Their special fuselage design and cloaking paint prevents them from radar detection. The design allows the aircraft to absorb radar signals instead of sending them back to enemy beacons and giving away the element of surprise. The book also released classified details about seal weaponry and tactics.

What would you do in your last seconds?

During the raid on Osama Bin Laden, an Stealth blackhawk helicopter unexpectedly went down. It suffered from turbulance, the pilots on board had never experienced this in multiple landings they acomplished before. Mark Owen was one of the men on board the helicopter. The helicopter spun out of control and plunged to the ground. When the helicopter went down, everyone was claimed to be inside the helicopter in the middle to avoid falling out and being crushed. They suprisingly recovered and breached the complex unharmed.

Life can go in a matter of seconds

"Everything slowed down. I tried to push the thoughts of being crushed out of my mind. With every second, the ground got closer and closer. I felt my whole  body tense up, ready for inevitable impact." (Mark Owen pg. 9) This is an intense quote from my book about the helicopter crash in the raid.

No Easy Day

I am reading the book "No Easy Day" by Mark Owen. Mark Owen is a US Navy Seal who is in the infamous Seal Team Six. He was deployed in the mission that killed Osama Bin Laden.