By Dale M. King
BOCA RATON – When it came time to “capture or kill” Osama bin Laden, President Barack Obama turned to the military’s best-trained warriors – the Navy SEALS.
Their pinpoint mission into a Pakistani compound to take out the world’s most notorious terror leader was a charm, and has given Americans relief from 10 years of pent-up anger stemming from the Osama-planned attack on the U.S. on 9/11/2001 that killed nearly 3,000, and other terror acts that killed hundreds more.
NJROTC students at Boca Raton Community High School – the ones already planning careers in the Navy after leaving high school or college – deemed the mission to be something the SEALS had to do – and carried off with precision.
It had particular meaning to Kemberlly Souza, a junior and a Naval Junior ROTC student who not only wants to join the Navy, but hopes to take the training needed to become a SEAL.
“I hope to be ready for the special forces,” she told the Boca Raton Tribune.
After graduation in 2012, she plans to attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona to become a pilot. In the meantime, she’ll work on her physical stamina, emphasize athletic training and also focus on her mental capabilities. She hopes to get used to the idea of someone being “in your face” to make sure the training sticks.
Two Boca High NJROTC seniors who spoke to the Tribune said they do not plan to become Navy SEALS, but admire the courage and fortitude they display.
The attack on the bin Laden compound “was a whole team effort,’ said Austin Haynie, 18, who also wants to become a pilot. He will graduate this year and attend the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., starting in the fall.
Haynie said he knows the process of training for a Navy SEAL team “is very difficult. You have to be physically fit” as well as mentally focused. He noted that during the attack on bin Laden, the SEALs had to deal with a downed helicopter, secured prisoners along the way and shot and removed their target.
“I think it’s awesome what they did,” said Haynie. “It’s a boost for the American people.” He said that if he has to go into battle someday, ‘I’ll be ready to fight. I’ll do what has to be done.”
Jordan Hamilton, 18, also a senior and in the NJROTC program, plans to attend Jacksonville University and, after, will enter the Navy as a commissioned officer.
He said being a Navy SEAL “is one of the greatest honors. President Obama did the right thing by chosing them.” He said the unit had to prepare for every possible scenario, training both physically and mentally for the challenge.
Hamilton wants to be an intelligence office in the Navy, with hopes for a career in national security.
Sousa, who was born in Pennsylvania, but is of Brazilian descent, said Brazilians don’t approve of what Obama ordered. She said they feel bin Laden should have been taken alive – and they scorn the fact that the U.S. entered another country to get him.
The memory of 9/11 is “just like yesterday” for Sousa. She lived in Scranton at the time, about an hour from Shanksville where one of the four hijacked planes went down. She also said she had attended a jiu jitsu competition a week before the attack, an event held in a building near the Twin Towers.
What the SEALs did, she said, “brought some respect back to the United States. We did something to boost people up.”
A Virginia Beach-based team of Navy SEALS is credited with bringing down bin Laden, “Team Six” – a moniker given to the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (or DevGru, for short) – had been undergoing extensive training to ensure that their raids would unfold flawlessly, even practicing their skills in a replicated one-acre compound built on Camp Alpha.
DevGru belongs to the Joint Special Operations Command and reports to the President. Their missions and training are always highly classified.