Head of the Snake Part 1: The Road to Afghanistan

In May of 2011, Mark Owen crossed the Afghanistan-Pakistan border on a mission to capture/kill Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda - to decapitate “The Head of the Snake.”  But that night in Abbottabad, Pakistan is just a part of Mark’s story. 

In this special four-part series of Danger Close, Jack sits down for an extended interview with Mark to discuss the story you haven’t heard. Starting with Mark’s childhood in a remote Alaskan community to his early days in the SEAL Teams to 9/11 and the sustained combat that followed to his selection and training for a team at the highest echelons of special operations, this is Mark Owen unfiltered, candid, and uncensored. Mark would go on to take part in high-profile operations like the mission to rescue Captain Richard Phillips from Somali pirates and the search for Bowe Bergdahl. He would later work his way up a stairwell in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan and into a hallway where the most wanted terrorist in the world waited…   But, as Jack and Mark discuss, the aftermath of the raid would not only change the public profile of Naval Special Warfare, it would also alter the course of Mark’s life in ways he could have never anticipated.  

IRONCLAD and SIG Sauer proudly present, The Head of the Snake: The Killing of UBL, a special Danger Close event.   

Mark Owen’s books: No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama Bin Laden and No Hero: The Evolution of a Navy SEAL 

Sponsors: Today’s episode is presented by SIG Sauer. 

Today’s episode is also brought to you by Black Rifle. Purchase at http://www.blackriflecoffee.com/dangerclose and use code: dangerclose20 at checkout for 20% off your purchase and your first coffee club order!

Part 1: The Road to Afghanistan  

Long before he was a part of one of the U.S. military’s most high-profile missions, Mark Owen was the child of Christian missionaries living in a remote village in Alaska. It was there that he would begin to learn the survival and shooting skills that would become major assets in some of the most dangerous operations conducted in the War on Terror.  In part 1 of the Head of the Snake series, Jack hears about Mark’s childhood, his early days as a Navy SEAL, and how the 9/11 attacks would revolutionize special operations.