William McRaven, Supervisor of SEAL Team That Got Bin Laden: A UT Journalism Grad
Don't mess with journalism majors!!
William McRaven: Knows a pyramid lede when he sees one.
A lesson Osama bin Laden learned to his regret recently; the last thoughts through his diseased mind were no doubt about how journalism -- especially University of Texas journalism -- had triumphed again.
That's because the admiral in charge of Special Operations for the U.S., William McRaven, is a UT grad with a journalism degree. (The Daily Texan has a story on this, but traffic seems to have crashed their site.)
It's a common crossroads for anyone setting out to be a reporter: There comes that time when you have to decide whether you really want to cover that Thursday night meeting of some suburb's planning and zoning committee, or become a Navy SEAL.
McRaven isn't a SEAL, but is not only a SEAL, he bosses them. The Washington Post notes:
In his current job, McRaven heads the even more secretive Task Force 714, which [Gen. Stanley] McChrystal himself once commanded. Task Force 714 is a special-operations group that conducts "high intensity hits" on Taliban targets in Afghanistan. An anonymous National Security Council staffer told reporter Spencer Ackerman that McRaven was "McChrystal squared" and described Task Force 714 as "small groups of Rangers going wherever the hell they want to go" in Afghanistan.
Here's the list of people McRaven oversees as head of the Joint Special Operations Command:
JSOC is responsible for the military's most secret, sensitive missions. Its component units include the Army's 1st Spcial Forces Operational Detachment -- Delta (usually known as Delta Force), 75th Ranger Regiment and 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, as well as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group -- the Navy's most elite SEAL force -- and the Air Force's 24th Special Tactics Squadron.
But, you know, he could have become a blogger instead.
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