There's a pretty darned good piece in the most recent issue of the New Yorker magazine that reveals details of the bin Laden raid. Some folks I'm talking to say it's got a lot of BS in it, but it's still a damned good read.
Here's a little bit of the gear piece...
The helicopters traversed Mohmand, one of Pakistan’s seven tribal areas, skirted the north of Peshawar, and continued due east. The commander of DEVGRU’s Red Squadron, whom I will call James, sat on the floor, squeezed among ten other SEALs, Ahmed, and Cairo. (The names of all the covert operators mentioned in this story have been changed.) James, a broad-chested man in his late thirties, does not have the lithe swimmer’s frame that one might expect of a SEAL -- he is built more like a discus thrower. That night, he wore a shirt and trousers in Desert Digital Camouflage, and carried a silenced Sig Sauer P226 pistol, along with extra ammunition; a CamelBak, for hydration; and gel shots, for endurance. He held a short-barrel, silenced M4 rifle. (Others SEALs had chosen the Heckler & Koch MP7.) A “blowout kit,” for treating field trauma, was tucked into the small of James’s back. Stuffed into one of his pockets was a laminated gridded map of the compound. In another pocket was a booklet with photographs and physical descriptions of the people suspected of being inside. He wore a noise-cancelling headset, which blocked out nearly everything besides his heartbeat.
Seems weird that they'd be carrying MP7s, though I did hear a rumor that they were.
The story goes on to say that three of the guys on the raid were part of the Maersk Alabama takedown shot and that actually three of the DevGru guys who participated in the Norgrove non-rescue were booted from the team.
The one thing I'm kind of bummed out about is that the author keeps talking about night vision goggles. So maybe they weren't wearing the Cat Eyes -- but I still want to believe it.
(Hat tip to JRD for the link love)
