No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden
By Mark Owen
I was waiting for this to become available, and as soon as it did, I snaffled it up... but then due to being engrossed in a six-part sci-fi series, I have only just read it.
It was well written, in an easy to digest way. The focus of the book is not the mission, but rather what led the author to be on the mission. I found it interesting to read about his life leading up to the mission and he, like many other ex-special forces authors I have read, doesn't paint himself as any kind of superman.
I was disappointed by the lack of detail, there was so little that I didn't learn anything about the US Navy SEAL DEVGRU that I didn't already know. Customised weapons, better NVGs and helmets, dedicated training areas etc. It is very apparent when reading that he is deliberately recounting pranks, experiences and BUD/S training to avoid talking about his time in DEVGRU.
He spoke eloquently of the odd kind of dislocation he and many others felt as they went out on the mission, having previously gone on two others to find Bin Laden which failed, then to return to the states in a kind of odd secret/politicians field day about the mission.
In summary, it was a fast, easy ready that was enjoyable and interesting, though lacking in depth. It was particularly interesting to learn that they killed Bin Laden without realising who it was until they were searching the house, and that it was then Plan B by default - as Plan A was capture him. Another point that struck me was the helicopter crash. The author was on the helo that lost power and crashed half onto the wall of the compound, instead of dropping the team onto the roof. This probably saved the lives of the team on board the crashed helo, because of the way that the building was defended.
