They are a “high testosterone group,” - Local Community wants to honor US NAVY SEALS who got OBL....

THE US NAVY SEALS......By Sea, Air & Land.....They are the Nation's best.

The enclosed picture shows the scene of the battle.....nice....almost wish they had hit the place with a few GBUs but then we might not have gotten enough proof that we killed the stupid b@stard....

The CIA and all the other forces we marshalled set the stage, the "double-tap" to the head for OBL was done by a member of the SEALS.....awesome....

Looks like the locals in Virginia where these guys call home want to honor the boys for a job well done....that is proving to be more difficult than you would think...

Secretive Virginia SEALs thrill community by taking down bin Laden
By Annys Shin and Annie Gowen, Monday, May 2 - Washington Post

When Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms learned that a Navy SEAL unit based just outside his city had taken out Osama bin Laden, his first thought was to honor them.

The only problem, however, was he had no idea who they were, or how to find them.

The unit that carried out the raid on bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan Sunday afternoon is renowned for its secrecy.

But while such discretion is a prerequisite for covert operations, it raises practical hurdles for a mayor who is used to the cheering crowds that welcome home aircraft carriers to the naval base in Norfolk.

“This community is extremely proud. I’d like to come up with a way to have a city celebration of some kind. If we can!” said Sessoms, whose initial thought was to include the SEALs in the city’s “Patriotic Festival” in June. “But it’s challenging.”

Other Virginia politicians were able to overlook such details, satisfied with the knowledge that that men who killed bin Laden had a connection to the Old Dominion state. Former Republican Senator and current candidate George Allen tweeted: “As Virginians were hit at the Pentagon on 9-11 & USS Cole, it is appropriate that a VA-based SEAL team brought justice directly to #Osama.”

The Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU) -- long known as Seal Team Six -- was formed in 1980 in the wake of the failed attempt to rescue U.S. hostages from Iran.

The elite counter-terrorism unit deploys from a tiny military facility in Dam Neck, Va., just outside of Virginia Beach. There are six other groups within special warfare and a total of 2,300 active duty SEAL officers.

What makes SEALs special are the grueling training process they endure. After basic training, about 200 candidates make it to Basic Underwater Demolition school. By the end of the entire process, only about 30 to 35 remain. Many drop out after “Hell Week,” when they must train around the clock for six days straight.

The extreme training has another purpose: to create an intense bond between the men that is critical to success in combat situations. Former Navy SEAL commander Mark Divine said the experience is so unique that it can make it harder to relate to someone who doesn’t spend their days jumping out of planes, or swimming two miles in frigid waters in total darkness. SEALs also work in small close-knit groups and because they can’t openly discuss much of their work, they tend to stick together even when they are off duty. Virginia Beach locals refer to them as “team guys.”

“You don’t hardly know they are there unless they are your neighbor,” explained Sessoms. “What’s unique is the burden it puts on these families. ” Members’ wives and children “don’t know when they are leaving and where they are when they are gone and when they are coming home. It’s all quiet and hidden.”

SEALS are not invisible to everyone, however, especially when they roam among couch-surfing civilians.

“You can kind of tell. They’re extremely fit. They all kind of dress in a similar way, wear the same type of sunglasses and Tevas,” Divine said. “You can start to notice these guys by the way they carry themselves.”

They are a “high testosterone group,” said Alden Mills, who was an active duty SEAL from 1991 to 1998. Their ethos is captured by slogans such as “failure is not an option” and “pain is weakness leaving the body.”

Mills summed up the reaction to bin Laden’s death among his former SEAL buddies as “Hooyah!”

“That’s SEAL speak for ‘fired up,’ ” he said.

“The next feeling as someone who used to be there was, ‘Wish I could have been there too.’”

Staff writer Christian Davenport contributed to this report.

© 2011 The Washington Post Company