Robert O'Neill reportedly earned 52 commendations over 16 years in the Navy. He was involved in the 2009 raid on the Mearsk Alabama, the event that inspired the film "Captain Philips." And he now says he was one of the SEALs who shot the most wanted terrorist alive.
The SEALs have some of the highest-pressure jobs in the entire US military and work under almost incomprehensible physical and mental strain. They're better prepared and better trained than just about any other special operations force on earth.
In No Easy Day, his book about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, former SEAL Matt Bissonnette talks about what it takes just to get ready for a combat deployment.
He recalls meeting at SEAL Team 6 HQ in Norfolk, Va. before jumping into the fight. On the day before leaving for the Bin Laden operation, Bissonnette asked a more experienced SEAL what he should bring along.
The senior SEAL stopped, looked at his new teammate and said: "Dude, what do you think you need to bring for deployment? Load it ... Bring what you think you need."
The following list is what Bissonnette brought along.
This post was originally written by Geoffrey Ingersoll and Robert Johnson.