Alex West on Leading the Bin Laden Assault and Life After

The Shawn Ryan Show sits down with Alex West, a retired Navy SEAL who, by the show's introduction, served 20 years, made 15 combat deployments and led the assault team on Operation Neptune Spear, the 2011 mission that killed Osama bin Laden. The conversation runs from that night to the dark years that followed and the work he does now.

Key points

• The title line: flying out of Pakistan, West says bin Laden's elbow kept digging into his ribs, and he remembers thinking this was the scariest man on earth, and just a brittle old man.
• Getting out: he describes running the body to the helicopter under his gear and a load of laptops, the damaged helicopter being blown, and a makeshift fuel point set up in a Pakistani field because they didn't have the fuel to get out otherwise.
• The aftermath: the show's introduction says the loss of Extortion 17 and years of combat trauma brought on one of the darkest periods of his life.
• Today: West founded One More Wave, a nonprofit providing adaptive surfboards and surf therapy to wounded veterans, and works as an associate mental health therapist in Nashville.

Quick take

The raid details will pull most people in, but West is just as direct about what came after. It's a long sit-down and worth the time for both halves.

Watch the full video: Shawn Ryan Show