Washington state admiral key planner in bin Laden raid

Adam Ashton | Tacoma News Tribune

A Tacoma native who rose from Stadium High School's Class of 1969 to the highest levels of U.S. Special Operations was at the side of the CIA director as a team of American forces carried out the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, lawmakers said Monday.

Navy Adm. Eric Olson, 59, was a key player in planning the raid, said U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Tacoma.

Olson is the leader of the U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla. That branch supplies and trains outfits such as the Army Green Berets and Navy SEALs.

Olson “was obviously intimately involved in the details of this,” said Smith, the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee. “That’s what he does every day. He keeps track of high-value targets and they’ve taken out a lot of them. This was No. 1.”

Read the complete story at TheOlympian.com

tool goes here

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

We welcome comments. To post one, you must sign in using either your McClatchyDC login or your login for Facebook, Twitter or Disqus. Just click the appropriate box below.

Please keep your comment civil, short and to the point. Obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. If you find a comment abusive or inappropriate, please flag it for the moderator by placing your cursor on the comment, then clicking the "flag" link that appears. Thanks for your participation.