TOC. Tactical operations center.
troop. A SEAL combat element consisting of two or more SEAL platoons.
UDT. Underwater Demolition Team. The original frogmen, specializing in maritime sabotage, reconnaissance, and recovering NASA space capsules.
UNODIR. Navy acronym meaning “unless otherwise directed.”
VBSS. Vessel board, search or seizure. Also called an “underway,” this is the operation where SEALs board and seize a ship on the high seas.
wadi. Arabic. A canyon or watercourse.
TOP: Assault elements practiced at secret locations on the East Coast of the United States and at a full-scale mock-up of Bin Laden’s compound at SEAL Camp Alpha outside Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. BOTTOM: TF-160’s Stealth Hawk helicopters were considered so secret they were not used in daylight mission rehearsals. The raid was planned for multiple contingencies. Here, SEAL operators practice HBVI, helicopter-borne vehicle interdiction. At Abbottabad, one of the SEAL elements was prepared to capture Bin Laden if he attempted to flee by vehicle. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)
ALSO BY CHUCK PFARRER
Warrior Soul: The Memoir of a Navy SEAL
Killing Che: A Novel
Chuck Pfarrer is a former assault element commander of SEAL Team Six. He has written op-eds for The New York Times and the Knight Ridder syndicate, and appeared as an author and counterterrorism expert on C-SPAN2, NPR, Alhurra, IPR, Voice of America, Fox News, and America Tonight. Pfarrer serves presently as an associate editor of The Counter Terrorist, the American Journal of Counterterrorism. Pfarrer is the author of the bestseller Warrior Soul: The Memoir of a Navy SEAL. His Hollywood credits include writing and producing work for Navy Seals, Darkman, Hard Target, The Jackal, Virus, and Red Planet. He lives in Michigan.
SEAL TARGET GERONIMO: THE INSIDE STORY OF THE MISSION TO KILL OSAMA BIN LADEN. Copyright © 2011 by Chuck Pfarrer. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available Upon Request
e-ISBN 9781429960250
First Edition: November 2011
SEAL Target Geronimo: The Inside Story of the Mission to Kill Osama Bin Laden Page 27