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In the 15,000-word account published in Esquire, the unnamed member of SEAL Team 6 describes the huge elation — but also the deep personal cost — that came with being the man who killed bin Laden during the raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2, 2011.

He told Esquire magazine that it was him alone that fired the fatal shots. The SEAL said he was through the doorway of a third-floor bedroom when he saw bin Laden move across the room clutching one of his wives and advancing towards an AK47 rifle on a shelf.

“He looked confused. And way taller than I was expecting,” said the Seal. “He was holding her in front of him. Maybe as a shield, I don’t know. For me, it was a snapshot of a target ID, definitely him. Even in our kill houses where we train, there are targets with his face on them. This was repetition and muscle memory. That’s him, boom, done.

“I thought in that first instant how skinny he was, how tall and how short his beard was, all at once. He was wearing one of those white hats, but he had, like, an almost shaved head. Like a crew cut. I remember all that registering.

“In that second, I shot him, two times in the forehead. Bap! Bap! The second time as he’s going down. He crumpled on to the floor in front of his bed and I hit him again, Bap! same place.

“That time I used my EOTech red-dot holo sight. He was dead. Not moving. His tongue was out. I watched him take his last breaths, just a reflex breath.”

The entire episode was over in 15 seconds, he said.

After the raid, the SEAL said he was offered a place in a witness protection program — delivering beer in Milwaukee. He decided against the offer because “like Mafia snitches” he would lose contact with all his friends and family.

Afraid of reprisals, the SEAL said he had taught his family how to defend themselves should they be attacked. He told his children to hide in the bathtub — the most fortified place in the house — and taught his wife how to use a shotgun. The family also had clothes and provisions meant to last them two weeks in hiding.

SEAL Team Six has been portrayed on screen in Zero Dark Thirty, Captain Phillips and Lone Survivor.

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With files from National Post Staff, The Washington Post and The Daily Telegraph