Green is a veteran of the Global War on Terrorism, now Vice President at Jones Memorial Hospital
By JOHN ANDERSON
As a Senior Master Sergeant in the Air Force, Wellsville’s Kristopher Green would be flying with Navy SEAL members on missions during the Global War on Terrorism after 9/11.
Green specialized in military police service and worked with the canine unit around the world, including the war in Iraq. During his 20-year career that ended five years ago, he also served on the presidential detail.
On Sunday, Green had no idea he would meet the man responsible for shaping his military career to a point he could return to the United States and get back to his family. He thought it was just going to be a fun morning in Orchard Park at Gameday Hospitality Buffalo‘s tailgate party with a chance to meet former Bills quarterback Doug Flutie and a host of musicians and famous Buffalo Bills Mafia members.
“Meeting Doug Flutie was so cool and I was having so much fun with my family and friends at the Gameday Hospitality event when all of the sudden I saw someone familiar in a white hoodie and a Yankees hat,” Green said. “I pulled out my phone and Googled Rob O’Neill and sure enough, it was him!”
“Him” is Robert J. O’Neill, a former U.S. Navy SEAL from 1996 to 2012.He’s also the person who killed Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011 when his U.S. Navy SEAL Team 6 raided the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, resulting in the defeat of al-Qaeda.
“I introduced myself, I wanted to say thank you, and told him I have been in the Air Force as a canine carrier for 20 years,” Green said. “While I didn’t do what he did, I took SEAL members where they had to go.”
O’Neill’s visit to Gameday Hospitality’s event was not publicized for security reasons and his visit was not announced on stage. He spent time asking Green about his military career and what he is doing today (Green is the U of R Medicine Jones Memorial Hospital Vice President of Human Resoucres).
“He wanted to know where I was in Iraq. He wanted to know what I did, where I am at,” Green said. “We talked about being away from home a lot while in the military. He was just a regular person, you would not have known who he is. He doesn’t say ‘I’m a seal and better than everyone else.’ He was just a guy at the Buffalo Hospitality Tailgate party. If I didn’t know who he was, in conversation, it would’ve come up as, ‘You were in the military?’ ‘Oh yea, me too.”
O’Neill also rescued Merchant Mariner Captain Richard Phillips from Somali pirates who hijacked his cargo ship in 2009. O’Neill was a lead jumper/paratrooper for the rapid-response rescue team and later, a movie starring Tom Hanks was made about the incident.
Green and O’Neill also talked about the terrorists attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
“When it comes to Sept. 11, everyone has a story. I was stationed in Washington, D.C. at Andrew’s Air Force base when it happened,” Green said. “I was not at the Pentagon. But in 2004, I was in the Pentagon, and they have a name in the chapel of all the people who were killed there that day. As I met him on Sunday, I was thinking about that.”
Green continued, “He participated in one of the most consequential missions in the post-9/11 era. That mission really demonstrated we didn’t forget 9/11, who caused it, and all the people who lost their lives.”
The 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City recently ran a story for the 25th anniversary of 9/11 and Jordan Friedman interviewed O’Neill.
O’Neill said his motivation for the mission was, “I remember talking to the guys; there was never a hesitation. We’re going now, we’re going to do this for – the person I always bring up is the single mom that went to work on Tuesday morning and then decided it’s better to jump to her death than burn alive. We went for her. We went for the firefighters who were running up as everyone was running down. We went for everybody.”
O’Neill told Friedman they knew there was a chance of death. He said, “We accepted it; we weren’t afraid. We had been fighting since 9/11 almost to a point to get to a spot of preparedness to be good enough to get this mission done. This was a means – proof of concept, ‘we’re going to be able to do this,’ and we’re not coming back.”
On killing bin Laden, O’Neill said, “A foot and a half in front of me was Osama bin Laden. And I shot him twice, and then once more. And it didn’t really sink in; the wife sort of came at me and there was like, two-year-old kid there. So I pulled her over to the bed and grabbed the kid. And I remember thinking to grab the kid because he had nothing to do with this. I don’t want him to be afraid. So I picked him up, put him with the wife. I turned around, other SEALs were coming in the room, and I kind of stopped there and looked at them. … (One of the SEALs) was looking at me, and said ‘Are you OK?’ I said ‘What do we do now?’ And he laughed and put his hand on my shoulder, and he said, ‘Now we go find the computers.”
