UNMASKED: The Navy SEAL who shot Osama bin Laden

We know a special Navy SEAL team six conducted the operation in which Osama bin Laden was killed in a house in Abbottobad,Pakistan on May 2, 2011. But the identity of the soldier who shot him remained under cover until recently.

MailOnline reports that the man who fired the shot has been unmasked. He is Rob O’Neill, a highly-decorated 38 year old, who quit after 16 years in service. 

He was personally congratulated for killing Bin Laden at close range with three shots to his forehead during the two-minute raid.

He had previously been referred to as “The Shooter” since the raid and his identity has been kept secret by US officials to ensure his safety.

His decorations include two Silver Stars, four Bronze Stars with Valor, a Joint Service Commendation Medal with Valor, three Presidential Unit citations, and two Navy/Marine Corps Commendations with Valor.

According to the online report, he is scheduled to make an appearance on Fox News later this month. Is he or his family not worried that he is being exposed?

His father, Tom O’Neill, was quoted as saying: “People are asking if we are worried that ISIS will come and get us because Rob is going public. I say I’ll paint a big target on my front door and say come and get us.”

O’Neill is now the second SEAL of the 23 involved in the raid to make his identity public.

The other is Matthew Bisonnette, who wrote an inside account of the mission that killed Osama bin Laden. Bissonnette released his controversial book No Easy Day in 2012 – under the pen-name Mark Owen – and immediately faced the ire of the Pentagon and fellow SEALs.

How tensed President Obama and his cabinet members followed the operation on satellite

O’Neill has gone for more than a dozen tours of duty in active combat, in four different warzones, including Iraq and Afghanistan. He has undertaken more than 400 separate combat missions. He is currently a public speaker