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NonfictionTheGUYS GOT BWHOThe amazing true story of America’smost elite and secret fighting force:The Navy SealsYas you read, THINK ABOUT:Think about the different waysa person can be brave. As youread the article, poem, andTrue Teen Story on the followingpages, find examples ofdifferent types of courage.4Scholastic Scope September 5, 2011Leif Skoogfors/CorbisCOURAGEBy KRISTiN LEWISou are the most lethal warrioron the planet. You are partninja, part science whiz,part wilderness survivalist,all rolled into a supreme supersoldier.Tonight, you are headed into hostileterritory on one of the highest-stakesmilitary operations in U.S. history. Thehelicopter you’re flying in is loaded withhigh-tech weapons and explosives, not tomention top-secret technology that only a few peoplein the world even know about. The Presidenthimself is watching you from Washington,D.C. Failure is not an option.
NARNONFRI ATIVECTIONReadslbut it’ike fiction—s all trueBIN LADENOnly about 2,500 SEALs areon active duty today. Theiridentities are kept secret.Scholastic.COM/Scope September 5, 20115
Opaque WindowsTrash BurningLocationGateIn recent years, SEALs havecarried out hundreds of high-riskmissions. In 2009, for example,they rescued an American captaintaken hostage by pirates off the18 Feet Highcoast of Somalia. With trademarkskill, the SEALs fired threeseemingly impossible shots from100 yards away in rough seas. Theydisarmed the pirates and saved thecaptain’s life.CHINABut the bin Ladenmission was rom other missions.Bin Laden wasn’tSEALjust another bad guy.Team SixrehearsedINDIATo many, he was aU.S.its missionIRANsymbol of evil.on an exactEQUATORBin Ladenreplica ofArea of mapbin Laden’swas the creatorArabian Seacompound.0 100 MIandleader of aIt was builtterrorist groupbased onphotographs taken bySEALs—an extraordinarycalled Al Qaeda. On 9/11, assatellite (above).PAKISTANThis mightsound like ascene from Call ofDuty, but it’s a lotmore hard-corethan any videogame. This is thereal thing. Realfighting force that operatesAmericans have come to call thatunder a wing of the militaryhorrifying day, he instructed Albullets will fly. Real explosives willcalled Special Forces. But who areQaeda members to hijack fourgo off. Real lives will be risked.the SEALs? And why don’t we knowairplanes. Hijackers crashed twomore about them?planes into the Twin Towers in NewThis is a scene from the historicnight last May when Navy SEALskilled Osama bin Laden.The success of the missionA Symbol of EvilThe SEALs trace their roots toYork City, causing the buildings tocollapse. Another plane was flowninto military headquarters at thewas celebrated across America.World War II, when “frogmen,”Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. AIt brought to an end one of theor combat divers, would clearfourth plane went down in a fieldgreatest manhunts in modernbeaches of obstacles to prepare forin Pennsylvania. Thousands ofhistory. And for some, it brought ainvasion. Today, SEALs still performinnocent people were murdered.profound sense of justice. Osamasea missions, but they do a lotIn a sickening video, bin Ladenbin Laden was the mastermindmore than that. The name “SEAL”openly celebrated their deaths.behind the devastating terrorstands for “sea, air, and land,”attacks of September 11, 2001,because SEALs operate in all threeAfghanistan and overthrew thewhich killed nearly 3,000 men,environments—and in the mostgovernment that was protectingwomen, and children.dangerous, remote places on Earth,Al Qaeda, but bin Laden himselfwhether it’s the scorching desert,escaped. Over the past decade,humid jungle, or freezing Arctic.SEALs and other special-forcesThe bin Laden mission alsoshone a spotlight on the Navy6Scholastic Scope September 5, 2011After 9/11, the U.S. invadedThis Page: AFP/Getty Images (2); MAP: Jim McMahon/Mapman Opposite Page: 1: Karen Kasmauski/Corbis; 2: Lance Iversen/San Francisco Chronicle/Corbis; 3: U.S. Navy; 4, 5: Joe McNally/Getty ImagesKabul
teams have hunted, captured, orhighly disciplined team, along withPakistan, where bin Laden waskilled 2,000 Al Qaeda agents; yeta good deal of brute force. It was athought to be hiding. Theirbin Laden remained at large.mission tailor-made for the SEALs.mission was to capture or kill binAt last, in August 2010,Laden. The element of surpriseThe bin Laden Missionsurveillance teams believed theywas critical. The SEALs had evenOn a warm night last May,outfitted their helicoptershis family living in a compoundmembers of SEAL Team Six—thewith special equipment toin a town in Pakistan. Getting tomost elite of all SEAL teams—him would not be easy, though. Itset out from Afghanistan forwould require an expertly trained,the compound in Abbottabad,had found bin Laden and some ofSealTRAININGIt’s the mostagonizing and gruelingmilitary trainingon Earth. 32145Do You HaveWhat It Takesto Be a Seal?Could you . . .1. Learning teamwork the painfulway. 2. Drownproofing: Studentsare tied up, then expected to swim.Doctors stand by to revive anyonewho passes out in the water.3. The SEAL emblem: The eaglestands for the air, the pistol forland, and the trident of Poseidon(Greek god of the sea) for water.The anchor is for the Navy.4. “Hell Week“ involves hours inthe frigid water. 5. Backbreakingruns on the beach are a regular partof training. Swim in shark-infested waters? do 42 push-ups in 2 minutes? retrieve a mask at the bottom of a pool——using only your teeth? go 5 days without eating?Scholastic.COM/Scope September 5, 20117
211. News of the devastatingattacks of 9/11. 2. After binLaden’s death, people gathered incelebration in front of the WhiteHouse in Washington, D.C. 3. TheNew Yorker published this coverof bin Laden after he was killed.What do you think it means?muffle their sound.But the moment thehelicopters arrived, disasterstruck. One of the chopperslost its “lift,” the force ofair necessary for flight. Itplummeted to the groundand crashed loudly. Thesurprising that only 25 percentelement of surprise was lost.of SEAL students graduate.Now everyone inside theSEAL is taking a series of testswere coming.that measure physical abilityand intelligence. (Only men areTest of Courageallowed to apply.) Those who3When you think of aSEAL, do you picture apass begin six months of trainingthat pushes them to the limit. Itcowboy with machine guns? A guytheir culture. In addition, SEALswith biceps the size of basketballs?must have the mental toughnessknown as “Hell Week.” During anIn reality, a SEAL probably doesn’tto stay sharp in the most chaoticagonizing five days, students arelook like the tough guys you seesituations, even when they haven’tsubjected to severe endurancein the movies. Look around yourslept in days.tests. They are constantly inclass. It might be the little kid in theSo how do they learn theseends with Motivation Week, bettermotion, constantly freezing,back, the one with the glasses andskills? SEAL training. It’s thestarving, and exhausted. GrownHarry Potter T-shirt, who has themost grueling in the world,men break down and weep as theymakings of a future SEAL.designed to identify those whopush themselves to keep going.have tremendous mental andInjuries are inevitable. More thandisciplined. Before a mission,physical strength—as well as theone person has broken his neck.a SEAL will learn everything hecourage to risk their lives on theAnyone can quit at any point bycan about his targets, includingmost dangerous missions. It’s notringing a brass bell, and usuallySEALs have to be smart and8Scholastic Scope September 5, 2011clockwise from top: The New York Times; Roger L. Wollenberg/UPI/Newscom; CartoonbankThe first step to becoming acompound knew the SEALs
A POETRYtwo out of three students dropCONNECTIONout during this week.After Motivation Week, thosewho remain train for anotheryear and a half. They learn toskydive. They build theirwilderness-survival skills andbecome precision shooters. Inthe end, it’s those who have thecourage to confront and mastertheir own weaknesses who becomeSEALs, not those with the biggestmuscles. It’s the ones who havethe mental strength to carry themhave given up.Prepped for DisasterThe SEALs chosen for the binLaden mission spent monthspreparing; meticulous planningis a hallmark of the Navy SEALs.They planned for any possibility,including a downed helicopter. Sowhen the chopper crashed, theyknew exactly what to do.Without hesitation, they climbedout of the helicopter’s wreckage,sprinted toward the wall of thecompound, and placed explosiveson the door. In a matter of minutes,the SEALs stormed the compound,located bin Laden, and executedhim. Next they seized documents,computers, and other materials.These items contained the namesof other Al Qaeda members andplans for another attack on theBettmann/CorbisU.S. This information could savethousands of lives.Then the SEALs boarded anotherinto the night.IfBy Rudyard Kiplingthrough long after their bodieshelicopter and vanishedThe famous author RudyardKipling (1865-1936) wrotethis poem for his son, aboutthe qualities a man shouldhave (though there’s noreason why a woman shouldnot have them too!).Do you think the Navy SEALs possess the qualitiesKipling lists in his poem?If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim,If you can meet with Triumph and DisasterAnd treat those two impostors just the same;If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spokenTwisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools;If you can make one heap of all your winningsAnd risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,And lose, and start again at your beginnings,And never breathe a word about your loss;If you can force your heart and nerve and sinewTo serve your turn long after they are gone,And so hold on when there is nothing in youExcept the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,If all men count with you, but none too much;If you can fill the unforgiving minuteWith sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son. Scholastic.COM/Scope September 5, 20119
Justice Has Been DoneFor the past decade, Americahas lived in the shadow of 9/11.The attacks shook our sense ofsafety. Though the war on terroris not over, in some ways binLaden’s death marked the end ofthis terrible chapter in Americanhistory. President Obama saidas much when he addressed thenation after the SEALs’ mission wascompleted: “We can say to thosefamilies who have lost loved onesto Al Qaeda’s terror: Justice hasbeen done.”As the President’s messagespread across the nation,Americans gathered together, justas they did in the days following9/11. This time, though, theygathered not in grief and horror,but in pride and unity.As for SEAL Team Six? ThePresident thanked them in aprivate meeting—no journalists,no cameras, and no publicrecognition. After all, SEALidentities are secret. We may neverknow the names of the SEALs whokilled bin Laden, but we will alwaysremember them. True Teen StoryI Lost My Dad on 9/11Payton Wall, 14, opens up about the devastatingloss of her father in the Twin Towers.It was September 11, 2001. Terrorists had flown a plane intothe World Trade Center in New York City, and Glen Wall was trappedinside one of the burning buildings. Realizing he would not escape,he called his family to say goodbye. “I love you, Payton. I will alwaysbe watching over you,” he told his daughter, who was 4.Payton never saw her dad again.Now 14, Payton has handled her loss with courage and grace.She does well in school and plays lacrosse and runs track, just as herdad did. But, she says, “I lost a part of me that can’t be replaced.”Payton kept her story to herself—until earlier this year, when shewas inspired by Justin Bieber. Moved to learn that Bieber also grewup without a dad, she reached out to him on Twitter.Undeterred when Bieber did not reply, Payton sent a 1,500-wordletter to the White House about 9/11 and the devastating loss ofher dad. The letter landed on thedesk of President Obama, who wasso stirred that he invited Payton to aceremony at Ground Zero, where theTwin Towers collapsed. The ceremonywas held just four days after binLaden’s death. The President gavePayton an enormous hug and said itwas an honor to meet her.Payton Wall withAs for Justin Bieber? The PresidentPresident Obamapromised to introduce Payton to him.contestIn his famous poem “If,” Rudyard Kipling expresses the idea thatbeing courageous means staying strong even when we feel weak anddefeated. How do both 14-year-old Payton Wall and the SEALs showthis type of courage? (HINT: Reread the section “Test of Courage” onpages 8-9.) Write a paragraph answering this question.Send it to SEALs CONTEST. Ten winners will get The Thingsa Brother Knows by Dana Reinhardt. See page 2 for details.Get thisactivityOnline10Scholastic Scope September 5, 2011Richard Drew/AP ImagesWriting About Courage
SEALs, not those with the biggest muscles. It’s the ones who have the mental strength to carry them through long after their bodies have given up. Prepped for Disaster The SEALs chosen for the bin Laden mission spent months preparing; meticulous planning is a hallmark of the Navy SEALs.
