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Komandos: Moja służba w Navy SEALS i strzały, które zabiły Bin Ladena
Poruszająca i realistyczna relacja Roberta O’Neilla, komandosa Navy SEAL, który ma na koncie ponad czterysta akcji, w tym uratowanie Marcusa Luttrella (jedynego żołnierza SEAL ocalałego po afgańskiej operacji „Redwing”), odbicie porwanego przez piratów kapitana Richarda Philipsa czy likwidacja najbardziej poszukiwanego terrorysty świata, Osamy bin Ladena, który zginął z jego ręki.
O’Neill opowiada też o szkoleniu podstawowym oraz trudnych i wyczerpujących treningach, gdy dostał już przydział do najbardziej elitarnego oddziału SEAL. Przez ponad dziesięć lat brał udział w działaniach antyterrorystycznych w okresie, który był najgorętszy pod tym względem w dziejach USA. Nierzadko jego oddział niemal co noc stawał do walki i choć sam O’Neill wyszedł z tego cało, wielu z jego towarzyszy broni nie miało tyle szczęścia.
W Komandosie O’Neill przenosi nas do Iraku i Afganistanu, nie szczędzi czarnego humoru związanego z długotrwałym uwikłaniem w walkę i szczegółowo opisuje działania najskuteczniejszych oddziałów specjalnych. Na koniec zaś pozwala nam poznać z pierwszej ręki szczegóły operacji, w której zastrzelił najsłynniejszego terrorystę świata.
O’Neill przedstawia niezwykłą i zdumiewającą opowieść, przy czym druga jej część dotyczy wydarzeń, które śmiało można nazwać najsłynniejszą współczesną operację militarną […]. Najogólniej mówiąc, dowiadujemy się z niej, jak zachować życie i pozostać przy tym człowiekiem, mając tak wiele do czynienia ze śmiercią, zniszczeniem i walką. -Doug Stanton, autor bestsellerów In Harm’s Way i Horse Soldiers
O’Neill opowiada też o szkoleniu podstawowym oraz trudnych i wyczerpujących treningach, gdy dostał już przydział do najbardziej elitarnego oddziału SEAL. Przez ponad dziesięć lat brał udział w działaniach antyterrorystycznych w okresie, który był najgorętszy pod tym względem w dziejach USA. Nierzadko jego oddział niemal co noc stawał do walki i choć sam O’Neill wyszedł z tego cało, wielu z jego towarzyszy broni nie miało tyle szczęścia.
W Komandosie O’Neill przenosi nas do Iraku i Afganistanu, nie szczędzi czarnego humoru związanego z długotrwałym uwikłaniem w walkę i szczegółowo opisuje działania najskuteczniejszych oddziałów specjalnych. Na koniec zaś pozwala nam poznać z pierwszej ręki szczegóły operacji, w której zastrzelił najsłynniejszego terrorystę świata.
O’Neill przedstawia niezwykłą i zdumiewającą opowieść, przy czym druga jej część dotyczy wydarzeń, które śmiało można nazwać najsłynniejszą współczesną operację militarną […]. Najogólniej mówiąc, dowiadujemy się z niej, jak zachować życie i pozostać przy tym człowiekiem, mając tak wiele do czynienia ze śmiercią, zniszczeniem i walką. -Doug Stanton, autor bestsellerów In Harm’s Way i Horse Soldiers
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Published July 18, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
September 18, 2019
TL:DR; Quick, entertaining read that is never boring and always moving quickly. However, questions about O’Neill embellishing or inventing stories prevented me from enjoying this book as much as I would have liked.
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This is an enjoyable book - it is unpretentious, interesting, fast-paced, and tells stories about being a SEAL operator that Americans love to hear. O’Neill doesn’t try to sound like some flawless demigod; he mentions personal shortcomings and issues within the SEALs, although never in enough detail to really tell you anything. It’s a very short read, so it’s not as if he didn’t have space to talk about his family or about actually living as a SEAL.
Generally speaking, I enjoyed this book. However, there is one major issue that really prevented me from loving it.
It is abundantly clear that O’Neill stretches the truth in parts, and even tells a few easily verifiable falsehoods in others. This, to me, is a huge issue in reviewing and recommending The Operator to others.
Throughout the book, O’Neill repeatedly recounts stories that center himself in a heroic role, seeing things no one else on his SEAL team sees or thinking of solutions that no one else does. Is this possible? Technically, sure. It’s possible for one person to always be better than everyone else. However, I highly doubt it. I found somewhat ridiculous that O’Neill’s stories (repeatedly) included entire SEAL teams all making the same mistake or missing the same critical sign, only for Rob to save the day over and over again. It undermined my trust for him as a reliable narrator.
Exaggeration is bad, but the blatant falsehoods were worse. For example, during the section of the book about the bin Laden raid (on p. 313 of the hardcover), O’Neill wrote the following:
“Just then, I looked up at one of the neighboring houses and noticed a guy standing there, tapping something into his cell phone. Turns out, he was the guy who’d become famous around the world for live-tweeting the raid, blaming it on the Pakistani military”.
This man is real - you can read about him all over the internet in global news sources. However, he lived more than a mile from the bin Laden compound, and was tweeting about hearing the sounds of helicopters, and later explosions. He wasn’t even close to the compound, let alone so close he could look down on the SEAL teams carrying out their op.
It seems as though O’Neill read or heard this story after the fact, thought it would add a moment of levity to a very intense story, and added it even though he didn’t actually witness it. It’s a small addition. It doesn’t change the outcome of the raid and it doesn’t make him look more impressive or heroic. So why on earth make it up?
There are plenty of similar instances - times where I looked up from what I was reading with the inescapable feeling that what I was reading was 80-90% true and 10-20% embellishment either for the sake of a better story or for a more glowing tale of personal heroism. O’Neill says all the right things (“it’s not about me” “my brothers - they’re the real heroes”, things like that), but at the end of the day he’s the one who chose to write a book and build a lucrative public speaking career out of this set of experiences. This alone should disqualify him.
I have no doubt that most of this book is accurate, and I did enjoy reading it. But I found it hard to escape the feeling that O’Neill has a bit of an embellishing streak as a narrator, and that the events contained in his book had been given a Hollywood sheen with himself as the main character.
There’s of course a chance that everything is spot-on and I’m unfairly criticizing a Navy SEAL who is telling an important story, but I doubt it.
————————
This is an enjoyable book - it is unpretentious, interesting, fast-paced, and tells stories about being a SEAL operator that Americans love to hear. O’Neill doesn’t try to sound like some flawless demigod; he mentions personal shortcomings and issues within the SEALs, although never in enough detail to really tell you anything. It’s a very short read, so it’s not as if he didn’t have space to talk about his family or about actually living as a SEAL.
Generally speaking, I enjoyed this book. However, there is one major issue that really prevented me from loving it.
It is abundantly clear that O’Neill stretches the truth in parts, and even tells a few easily verifiable falsehoods in others. This, to me, is a huge issue in reviewing and recommending The Operator to others.
Throughout the book, O’Neill repeatedly recounts stories that center himself in a heroic role, seeing things no one else on his SEAL team sees or thinking of solutions that no one else does. Is this possible? Technically, sure. It’s possible for one person to always be better than everyone else. However, I highly doubt it. I found somewhat ridiculous that O’Neill’s stories (repeatedly) included entire SEAL teams all making the same mistake or missing the same critical sign, only for Rob to save the day over and over again. It undermined my trust for him as a reliable narrator.
Exaggeration is bad, but the blatant falsehoods were worse. For example, during the section of the book about the bin Laden raid (on p. 313 of the hardcover), O’Neill wrote the following:
“Just then, I looked up at one of the neighboring houses and noticed a guy standing there, tapping something into his cell phone. Turns out, he was the guy who’d become famous around the world for live-tweeting the raid, blaming it on the Pakistani military”.
This man is real - you can read about him all over the internet in global news sources. However, he lived more than a mile from the bin Laden compound, and was tweeting about hearing the sounds of helicopters, and later explosions. He wasn’t even close to the compound, let alone so close he could look down on the SEAL teams carrying out their op.
It seems as though O’Neill read or heard this story after the fact, thought it would add a moment of levity to a very intense story, and added it even though he didn’t actually witness it. It’s a small addition. It doesn’t change the outcome of the raid and it doesn’t make him look more impressive or heroic. So why on earth make it up?
There are plenty of similar instances - times where I looked up from what I was reading with the inescapable feeling that what I was reading was 80-90% true and 10-20% embellishment either for the sake of a better story or for a more glowing tale of personal heroism. O’Neill says all the right things (“it’s not about me” “my brothers - they’re the real heroes”, things like that), but at the end of the day he’s the one who chose to write a book and build a lucrative public speaking career out of this set of experiences. This alone should disqualify him.
I have no doubt that most of this book is accurate, and I did enjoy reading it. But I found it hard to escape the feeling that O’Neill has a bit of an embellishing streak as a narrator, and that the events contained in his book had been given a Hollywood sheen with himself as the main character.
There’s of course a chance that everything is spot-on and I’m unfairly criticizing a Navy SEAL who is telling an important story, but I doubt it.
March 23, 2019
THE OPERATOR: Firing the Shots that Killed Osama bin Laden and My Years as a SEAL Team Warrior
-- ROBERT O’NEILL
First off, this is an amazing read, well-written, interesting as all get out and funny. One of the first things you realize: SEALs are funny -- creative funny. And they love talking about their BUD/S training in San Diego. I’ve been to San Diego. Seen the beach. Went to San Diego’s spectacular zoo (far as zoos go). No BUD/S for me.
However, I was fortunate to have partnered with a Team Six SEAL for nearly ten years as we managed database development projects all over the country and around the world. So, day-in day-out I heard endless SEAL stories and SEAL jokes. And I learned about patience.
This book tells about some interesting ops: Two very famous ones. The best part was listening to Rob talk about his time in the SEALs with his BUDs. It was just like my old buddy had come back to life.
Thanks for a terrific read. It’s the real deal and I recommend it to everyone. And thanks so much for your service!
There were a bunch of fabulous quotes in the book. Here are my top pics:
** All stress is self-induced. (I certainly heard that one enough times!)
** ...pairing old solutions with new problems is the worst way to run a team. (For sure!)
** Complacency kills!
** Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.
** When the time for fighting with precision is over and you need to fuck people up, you turn to the Rangers, who have black belts in fucking people up. (That’s for my pal, Ranger Ryan!)
Cheers and Happy Reading!
JIM in MT
http://adamjames.blackdogebooks.com/
-- ROBERT O’NEILL
First off, this is an amazing read, well-written, interesting as all get out and funny. One of the first things you realize: SEALs are funny -- creative funny. And they love talking about their BUD/S training in San Diego. I’ve been to San Diego. Seen the beach. Went to San Diego’s spectacular zoo (far as zoos go). No BUD/S for me.
However, I was fortunate to have partnered with a Team Six SEAL for nearly ten years as we managed database development projects all over the country and around the world. So, day-in day-out I heard endless SEAL stories and SEAL jokes. And I learned about patience.
This book tells about some interesting ops: Two very famous ones. The best part was listening to Rob talk about his time in the SEALs with his BUDs. It was just like my old buddy had come back to life.
Thanks for a terrific read. It’s the real deal and I recommend it to everyone. And thanks so much for your service!
There were a bunch of fabulous quotes in the book. Here are my top pics:
** All stress is self-induced. (I certainly heard that one enough times!)
** ...pairing old solutions with new problems is the worst way to run a team. (For sure!)
** Complacency kills!
** Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.
** When the time for fighting with precision is over and you need to fuck people up, you turn to the Rangers, who have black belts in fucking people up. (That’s for my pal, Ranger Ryan!)
Cheers and Happy Reading!
JIM in MT
http://adamjames.blackdogebooks.com/
November 1, 2019
This was awesome! So much more than just the Bin Laden mission, and incredibly well done. YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO THE AUDIO BOOK! Robert O’Neill narrates the book he wrote, and he does an amazing job. Think of a really good storyteller actually having a conversation with you about the story… that’s this audio book. I got this book after meeting Robert O’Neill at a business event. He was so well spoken and so funny, I figured the book had to be great, and it was!
Before meeting Robert, I assumed Navy Seals must be like terminator robots. That couldn’t be further from the truth. He does an amazing job explaining becoming a Navy Seal and various missions. All great stuff. When it got to the point of the Bin Laden mission, I waited for an opportunity to listen to that whole piece straight through. Most of the book I stopped and started as I would drive places.
Anyway, I highly recommend this book and think, like Trevor Noah’s “Born a Crime”, you need to listen to the audio book!
Before meeting Robert, I assumed Navy Seals must be like terminator robots. That couldn’t be further from the truth. He does an amazing job explaining becoming a Navy Seal and various missions. All great stuff. When it got to the point of the Bin Laden mission, I waited for an opportunity to listen to that whole piece straight through. Most of the book I stopped and started as I would drive places.
Anyway, I highly recommend this book and think, like Trevor Noah’s “Born a Crime”, you need to listen to the audio book!
September 28, 2019
I absolutely loved this audio book! It was read entirely by the author and, very surprisingly, it was simply amazing! Navy SEALs are absolutely bad to the bone and the best of the best. This book is an incredible story of what one can do when they refuse to quit or give up hope. It was eye opening and awe inspiring to hear all that they have to go through in order to become a SEAL. Hearing the stories of BUDS training makes me cringe and wonder how it is humanly possible to complete such incredible ordeals. Thank God for the men who pursue this and refuse to give up. SEALs are absolute bad asses!
August 14, 2018
This is a fascinating book. I do think that it takes a special breed to what what O'Neil chose as his military career, and I am amazed that anyone would do that, but he did. I cannot imagine the fear that "normal" people would have, but people like O'Neil are not normal, maybe. He did use restraint in some areas, and that kept his reiterations from being sensational. I have heard O'Neil interviewed on TV, and I noticed that he was articulate and confident. I am amazed of the organization that goes being all of the missions on which he took part. Go America!!!!
December 5, 2019
Witty, interesting, good build up, great description of the actual event. Despite the controversies behind it I have the utmost respect for the guys and what they've done for their country, their allies and the free-world.
February 5, 2019
Completely enthralling. Nice humorous touches as well.
February 8, 2019
Good book. Moves along well, and has some insight that is helpful, but the last 50 pages get it to 5 stars, no doubt.
September 12, 2019
what an ego!
Only last 10% of so of the book covers the mission to kill bin laden.
Only last 10% of so of the book covers the mission to kill bin laden.
July 27, 2020
I listened to the audiobook version which was read by the author.
April 6, 2021
In my opinion this book deserves for much higher rating than these 5 stars ❤
December 29, 2025
very exciting...!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews