High-risk operations in remote locations, let alone gun fights, were few and far between.
After the U.S. went to war against al-Qaida, the SEALs and other elite units were called upon for one combat mission after another — in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. O'Neill believes he killed more than 30 people.
His most fulfilling time as a SEAL, he said, came in Iraq in 2007, when he was going on multiple combat missions a night, stalking and killing insurgents and bomb-makers.
One current and two former SEALs, declining to be quoted talking about a sensitive matter, say it is not disputed that O'Neill shot at bin Laden. But Pentagon officials say it's not clear whose shots were the lethal ones.
