I heard someone saying he was born in UK. Montana is correct. He went to Butte High School.
Actually, he went to Butte Central High School. Butte High School is the public school. Butte Central is the private high school run by the Roman Catholic Church. There are a lot of politics involved in this distinction. Our kids went to the Catholic school in Butte, but I will leave it at that.
Regarding XL's comments, I think he is right. The deal is, 20 years for a pension, and if he didn't want to serve more than 16 years, then there's no pension.
I doubt that he needs to worry about benefits. Apparently, he was going to reveal himself in a Fox News interview and his name was leaked to scoop Fox. However, as I understand it, there was not much of a leak -- many people knew who he was. Who knows how this whole thing will play out? The SEAL who wrote the book may face charges. People involved in this sort of work often sign a lot of things commiting them to withhold certain information, and these commitments last for life. If the book author violated these commitments, he may be in trouble.
The shooter here is in another situation. Even if he has revealed things, it is highly unlikely that he would be charged. You note his appearance with politicians, donating his uniform at the 9/11 memorial. If this man was charged, the public's fury at the charges would know no bounds.
Politicians have and will want to hobnob with him. He's already a motivational speaker and will be able to command much more money at this than he has up to this point, so his need or desire for medical benefits is pretty much a non-starter: he should make plenty of money for many years.
At this point, I would like to say how disappointing I find this whole business. Our society is so keen to find "heroes," and the news media is always trying to hawk the latest hero, that it is a national obsession here. Everyone is in on some sort of money-grabbing scheme when it comes to this "hero" business. The news media will go to tremendous lengths to find someone to hawk, but they aren't the only ones to blame: people suck this sort of stuff up like crazy.
As for me, I will not buy or read the book that the one SEAL wrote or have anything to do with any of this sensationalism. There is no doubt, as XL says, that these men are brave, resourceful, and amazing in many ways. But they chose a job that is "dark" -- none of this is supposed to go public and there are many men who gave their lives, became disabled, and probably more than a few who are homeless and on the streets who kept their silence and were not rewarded with fame, notoriety, and money.
Also, while I in no way feel that anything wrong was done in hunting "that person" who plotted 9/11 down and punching his ticket to eternity, there is an unseemly aspect to capitalizing on killing a person. Did "that person" deserve to be shot? Undoubtedly, in my mind. But I think that taking a life is a sobering thing, and while the man who did the deed deserves respect for the duty he performed, it isn't something that should be cheered in a stadium at halftime, in my opinion. I'd like to be spared of flag-waving and macho statements, too. Close the chapter on the end of a manifestation of evil and remember the victims. Shun the money-makers, promoters, and publicity seekers.
But everyone wants to snuggle up to "heroes" and Butte has had experience at this. The airport in Butte is named Bert Mooney, for the man who built the Mooney civil aircraft of note years back. Out front on three concrete plinths is an F86D Saber fighter. One year, some character drove into Butte and claimed he flew the jet in combat while in Korea. The business people found this out and he was hailed as a hero, wined and dined at Lydia's (a famous and expensive restaurant) and loaded with merchandise. For his part, the character claimed he was going to find a new cockpit canopy to replace the one on the F86, which was cracked. Supposedly, he was headed to an Air Force base and promised to contact old cronies or something and find a good canopy.
Some time later, someone checked the serial number of the F86 with the Air Force and found out that it had never left the USA.
I tell the story, not to comment on the guy who made the claim, but on the people who are so eager to jump on the bandwagon of these sorts of things when there is a dollar to be made.