Update at 8:12 p.m. ET. SEAL Is Eligible For Benefits
Stars and Stripes is reporting that all combat veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are "automatically eligible for five years of free healthcare through the Department of Veterans Affairs."
The newspaper also interviews Phil Bronstein, who wrote the Esquire piece. You can visit the Stars and Stripes website to see what he said.
Our original post:
Esquire magazine has quite the scoop today: Phil Bronstein, the former editor of The San Francisco Chronicle and now the executive chairman of the Center for Investigative Reporting, is previewing a profile of the man he says is the Navy SEAL who killed Osama Bin Laden.
First off, the caveats: Bronstein does not identify the SEAL and refers to him only as "the Shooter." He writes that "enough people connected to the SEALs and the bin Laden mission have confirmed for me that the Shooter" was "number two" in the mission. No. 1, Bronstein writes, confirmed the shooting "to another SEAL I spoke with" (emphasis ours).
Now that you know that: Bronstein reports that the "Shooter" is about to leave the SEALs and is facing an uncertain future. He writes:
"The Shooter will discover soon enough that when he leaves after sixteen years in the Navy, his body filled with scar tissue, arthritis, tendonitis, eye damage, and blown disks, here is what he gets from his employer and a grateful nation:
"Nothing. No pension, no health care, and no protection for himself or his family."
"He's taken monumental risks," the shooter's father tells Esquire. "But he's unable to reap any reward."
The full story will appear in the March issue of Esquire.
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