SEALS: U.S. sent the best

When you care, send the best. Navy Seals with CIA and DOD support took out Osama bin Laden and then fed his body to the fishes in the Northern Arabian Sea.

The only failing in this whole operation was a failure to sew his body up in a pigskin before dropping him over the side.

I had the privilege of operating with Navy Seals in the Rung Sat Special Zone (Forest of Assassins) in Vietnam. Typically, a two boat river patrol unit would load three Seals on each boat. We would motor along the side of the jungle in the pitch dark. When a designated waterway showed on the radar, I would raise my hand and drop it. The Seals could see me in the reflection of the radar and would step backward, enter the water and turn 90 degrees and swim up the canal. The second boat with its Seals would follow suit.

The water was filled with poisonous sea snakes, sharks and saltwater crocodiles. Once they got ashore it was alive with poisonous snakes, poisonous centipedes and spiders, punji sticks, booby traps and mines.

The night would pass and we would patrol our section of the main shipping channel. At dawn we would beach one boat at the pickup zone while the other covered. Most of the time it was routine. The mud was so deep and cloying that it was nearly impossible to move. When it wasn't routine, it was noisy, smoky and a madhouse with both boats and all the Seals firing for everything they were worth.

Our patrol boat crews had been trained by Seals prior to arriving in Vietnam and they knew we were going to be giving them close support so they trained us hard and with utter disregard to our comfort (there is one big understatement).

Seal Team members are special and we should be proud as hell of them. I am glad that the Marines were not deeply involved because their egos are already big enough. The Marines have the best uniform and song, they really don't need anything more.

ROBERT B. HUNT,

QMC, USN, Ret

Post Falls