LAFAYETTE, La. — Robert O’Neill, the ex-Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden, gave the keynote speech at an EMS Week and awards luncheon for Acadian Ambulance personnel.
O’Neill discussed bravery and other lessons from his experience in more than 400 combat missions, including the May 2011 raid on bin Laden’s compound where O’Neill is credited with firing the shot that killed the terrorist leader, reported The Advocate.
“Bravery is not the absence of fear, it’s the ability to recognize fear, push it aside and do it anyway,” said O’Neill. “Actively participate in saving your own life, and don’t just sit there dying of shame while you wait to be rescued.”
Although O’Neill steered clear of the details of the bin Laden mission, he shared stories of rescuing sailors seized by Somali pirates and gunfights on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“Our missions were pretty unique. Basically, someone from intelligence would find out about a house full of terrorists,” O’Neill said. “They would come to us, tell us where it was. We would wait for the sun to go down, we would go to that house and we would break into it and we would kill them.”
Some of the lessons he learned from those missions O’Neill believes are universal and applicable to EMS personnel:
- “No one has ever accomplished anything positive by panicking.”
- “Stress is a choice. Stress is in your mind.”
- “We learned how to take emotion out of the decision-making process.”
- “We know that complacency kills. You know what causes complacency is success. Too much success and people have a tendency to say, ‘Well, this is the way we’ve always done it.’ You can’t do that. You have to stay fluid, see what your opponent is doing.”
Two Acadian employees were honored at the luncheon, Abby Etheridge as EMT of the Year and Oliver Quinn as Paramedic of the Year.