(Tribune News Service) — Thirteen years ago Thursday, an American special operations unit killed al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden in north Pakistan.

It’s a day retired U.S. Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen remembers well. There’s a famous photo taken by former White House photographer Pete Souza showing the national security team as they followed the mission from the White House situation room. Standing over then-President Barack Obama’s left shoulder is Mullen. At the time, he was serving as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the principal military adviser to the president, secretary of defense and the National Security Council. While the authority to move forward with the operation that killed bin Laden ultimately belonged to Commander-in-Chief Obama, the action came under Mullen’s recommendation.

The man who was the 17th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under two presidents and the former chief of Naval Operations certainly has some insight when it comes to leadership.

Mullen was in town Thursday to serve as the first keynote speaker in the NewDay USA Center of Leadership Speaker Series, a partnership between military veteran mortgage lender NewDay USA and Georgia Military College.

Mullen’s visit was the first fulfillment of the promise to bring eminent speakers to the campus. Cadets first heard from NewDay USA executives in a 30-minute panel discussion before Mullen was brought to the podium by Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, president of GMC.

A Los Angeles native, Mullen served 43 years in the United States Navy before his November 2011 retirement. His military career reached its pinnacle when he became chairman of the Joint Chiefs under former President George W. Bush in 2007. Mullen kept the post through the country’s leadership change from Bush to Obama.

Other than serving as chairman of the Joint Chiefs during the May 2011 operation to kill the terrorist leader bin Laden, Mullen is also well-known for spearheading the elimination of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy from the U.S. military, which opened the door for openly-gay men and women to serve their country.

Mullen spent an hour addressing the packed NewDay USA Center audience Thursday. The venue was full of prep school and junior college cadets, GMC employees and members of the community. It was to the young people in the crowd that Mullen’s message was directed.

“Our future depends on you, our youth, and actually the investment made in you in terms of where we go as a community, as a state, as a country, and as a world. ... We’re living in a world right now — and a country right now — that’s hugely challenged, and we need courageous, determined, accountable, ethical leaders. Courageous, determined, accountable, ethical — those are all characteristics of a great leader.”

After his speech, Mullen engaged with cadets in a Q-and-A session. Some of those cadets are future members of the Navy and could someday find themselves in one of the seats the admiral formerly held.

During his time onstage, Mullen mentioned that once intelligence had been gathered saying bin Laden was in Pakistan following a 10-year manhunt, there were multiple options on the table to eliminate him. The military could use B-52s and “put a crater there,” as Mullen put it, carry out a remote drone strike, or send in the Navy SEALs in a manned operation.

“I actually went out and saw the SEAL rehearsal,” Mullen said. “That’s part of leadership as well. Don’t get stuck behind your machines. ... Get out and see the troops. I met all 50 SEALs, and I looked at them one-on-one. I wanted them to know they had the backing of the senior leadership in the United States military.”

Confidence in those SEALs was one driving factor in choosing the SEALs route. There was another key reason.

“Secondly, if we didn’t positively ID him, there’s a good chance that the enemy would deny we ever got him,” the Navy admiral told The Union-Recorder shortly after his speaking engagement. “We needed to guarantee it was him and that he was dead.”

The newspaper asked Mullen what the feeling was like inside the situation room once the kill was confirmed and the operation was successful. He shared a story that can’t fully be told from Souza’s famous situation room photo from 13 years ago.

“It depends on when you would call it a success,” he said. “In that picture (inside the situation room) you can see then-Vice President [Joe] Biden sitting next to Obama. He and I carry rosary rings. I had one in my pocket that I carried for a long time. I looked down to see him get his wallet out and take the rosary ring off and start to put it in his wallet. I leaned down and said, ‘Mr. Vice President, I’ve got almost 50 operators illegally in a foreign country. We just killed the No. 1 enemy in the world. I’ve got to fly those operators out, which is 90 minutes or so. I’ve got to, no kidding, identify [ bin Laden]. Then I’ve got to put him on a Marine helicopter and fly him through Pakistani airspace to get him out to a carrier to bury him consistent with the Muslim custom. So I’ve got a long way to go. Please put that rosary ring back on.’ It was a long operation from beginning to end.”

Biden did in fact put the ring back on, according to Mullen.

Mullen was just the first of the many distinguished guests planned to grace the NewDay USA Center of Leadership stage. Earlier Thursday, NewDay Executive Chairman Admiral Thomas Lynch revealed that the next speaker is slated to be U.S. Marine Gen. Jim Mattis, former Secretary of Defense under President Donald Trump. Mattis’ visit is scheduled to coincide with GMC Prep’s annual 9/11 ceremony in September.

(c)2024 The Union-Recorder (Milledgeville, Ga.)

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