Last year O'Neill revealed himself, in an interview with the Washington Post, as the member of SEAL Team six who fired the shots that killed bin Laden in 2011. Fox News also profiled him in a documentary entitled "The Man Who Killed Usama bin Laden" in Nov. 2014.
O'Neill came under criticism from colleagues over his choice to go public and break with the tradition of secrecy long maintained among Navy SEALs concerning sensitive missions.
Another member of the same team, Matt Bissonette, wrote a best-selling book about the Abbottabad raid called "No Easy Day" under the pen name Mark Owen, but did not reveal the identity of the individual who fired the fatal round.
O'Neill also came under scrutiny from the The Naval Criminal Investigative Service for possibly revealing classified information in the process of telling his story publicly.