Though the operation was meticulously planned, there were some surprising snafus. One of the Navy SEAL team helicopters accidentally touched down in an animal pen and was disabled. Fortunately, Panetta writes, Obama insisted on sending a backup helicopter on the raid, a move that proved 鈥渂rilliantly prescient.鈥�
As SEAL team members were taking photos of bin Laden鈥檚 face for authentication back at the US military base in Afghanistan, 鈥渙thers tried to measure the corpse,鈥� he writes. But there was a problem: 鈥淣o one had thought to bring along a tape measure 鈥� proof that no matter how much anyone plans, something is always forgotten.鈥�
So a SEAL who was just over six feet tall 鈥渓ay down beside the body and determined that it was a few inches taller than he.鈥�
