Exposé on SEAL Who Killed Bin Laden Called Into Question

Esquire magazine’s recent feature on the Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden sparked outrage from readers when they learned about the veteran’s lack of health care coverage. In the article, writer Phil Bronstein asserts, “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.” But according to a report from the military publication Stars and Stripes, that’s wrong: “Like every combat veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the former SEAL, who is identified in the story only as ‘the Shooter,’ is automatically eligible for five years of free healthcare through the Department of Veterans Affairs.” Bronstein, who also heads the Center for Investigative Reporting, is sticking by his story, saying, “No one ever told him that this is available” and that there wasn’t room in the article to explain that the lack of health care coverage for the SEAL was actually because of insufficient of knowledge about available benefits. He’s saying the point of their story stands: special operations veterans are poorly cared for by the current system. That’s a very true, very sad point, but if you read the original piece, you’ll see that Esquire never made it …