Whitefish man once led SEAL Team 6

The death of Osama bin Laden during a daring raid by U.S. Navy SEALs in Pakistan was an extremely complicated operation and an accomplishment that can’t be overstated, said state Sen. Ryan Zinke, a retired SEAL Team 6 commander.

“I’m just tickled to death,” Zinke said from his Whitefish home on Monday. “A lot of people don’t understand who Seal Team 6 is, who they are and what they represent.”

There are fewer than 2,200 people in the SEAL force and just 10 percent are part of SEAL Team 6, the Navy’s counterpart to the Army’s Delta Force, Zinke said.

It takes more than three years to train a SEAL at a cost of about $1 million per individual. Sailors can interview for SEAL Team 6 after about five years, and after an additional screening only about 10 percent of applicants make the team, Zinke said.

Zinke commanded a SEAL Team 6 assault force. After serving as the acting commander of special forces in Iraq, he retired in 2008.

“I spent most of my career with that group. They are hard charging,” said Zinke, who added that he is certain he knows some of the individuals involved in Sunday’s raid.

“It’s a small community,” said Zinke, who discussed the operation after it happened with a network of retired SEALs that he calls “the broken flipper club.”

Zinke said the death of bin Laden is a major milestone, considering he has been a target for the last 15 years.

“I was involved with looking at Bin Laden before 9/11,” he said. “He was a difficult adversary.”

The counterterrorism efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan marks the “longest sustained combat the U.S. has ever been involved with,” Zinke said. “I think people forget just how long and difficult it has been.”

The death of bin Laden is a culmination of years of intelligence gathering by all service branches and a large supporting cast behind the raid itself, he said.

“The scale of this operation really represented more than just the seals and Delta,” he said. “It represented the U.S. military. Every branch of the service was represented, no doubt.”

The raid involved several helicopters, one of which broke down as it set down at bin Laden’s compound.

“The chances of something going wrong are high,” Zinke said. “But there was a backup helicopter and air assets were available.”

When Delta Force or SEALs are involved in an operation, “the consequences are much greater, because it represents that the nation has failed” if the operation is unsuccessful, he said. “They are on a no-fail, cannot-fail mission every time they go out.”

Zinke said the individuals involved will never be known publicly. “Not by name, but by reputation they will be,” he said.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.