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xix Naylor, Bin Laden raid a triumph for Spec Ops.. He was Ahmed al Kuwaiti, one of bin Ladens couriers. She and her husband, Dr. Patrick J. Bingham, have two adult children: Dr. Tava M. Bingham and Mr. Phillip J. Bingham. 2020. Digital Fusion centered on IT initiatives and support for the US Missile Defense Agency. Shortly after that operation, a CIA paramilitary officer named Richard Smethers, who was himself a retired SEAL Team 6 officer, complained to his CIA superiors in Kabul that SEALs were committing atrocities. Among CSER program participants are military, government agencies, the private sector, NGOs, and international organization personnel. The account did not dwell on the fact that ONeill had chosen to separate from the Navy nearly four years before he was eligible for extensive retirement benefits. In 2013/14 he will serve as a Senior Fellow at the Center and as an Adjunct Professor at Washington & Lees School of Law. Prior to this appointment, he was assigned as Director, J6 on The Joint Staff, Pentagon, where he was a direct report to the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, for all policies, plans, and programs for DoD communications, information systems, and cybersecurity. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Association of the United States Army, and the AFCEA Executive Board. A former SEAL Team 6 leader told me that ONeill and Bissonnette originally agreed to cooperate on a book or movie project after the raid was over, but later had a falling out. A battle-hardened SEAL Team set off on a mission to destroy a shipment of US-built Stinger missiles that have fallen into terrorist hands. In the ensuing 17-hour battle with the al Qaeda fighters, six more Americans were killed, and several were wounded. Places Lived: Telluride CO. View Reputation Profile. Slabinski told Vasely, and later, Navy investigators, that there had been no foul play.. In the book, Bissonnette implies that he was directly behind Red just below the third floor when bin Laden was shot, and was one of the next two SEALs who entered bin Ladens bedroom. The Special Operations Forces Nutrition . on about your day, ask yourself: How likely is it that the story you just read would have been produced by a different news outlet if The Intercept hadnt done it? If a SEAL couldnt justify the threat after a shooting, he was quietly removed from the unit. One shot hit bin Laden in the chest and the second shot glanced off his hip or thigh as Bin Laden stumbled backward into his room and fell toward the foot of his bed. Bottom right: Undated photo of Adm.Wyman Howard. We are dedicated to our historic Creeds and Confessions because we believe they are faithful to the Scriptures. Both teams exited the helicopters to find a grim scene. Coming in Part 3: Into the Fire & Get Connected. Important personal traits for SEALs include maturity, self assurance and self confidence. He ordered a pause in most SEAL and JSOC operations over a two-week period in February 2009. The commands top noncommissioned officer placed their names on the SEAL Team 6 rock of shame, the unofficial list of unit pariahs. Moore did not respond to requests for comment. SEAL Team 6 headquarters at Dam Neck naval annex, Virginia Beach, Va., showing the 30-foot trident sculpted from a fragment of the World Trade Center. For some of Howards men, however, the hatchets soon became more than symbolic as they were used at times to hack dead fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan. Captian Pete Van Hooser of seal Team Six and I. Tunnining the engine to get max performance. First, bin Laden was armed, involved in a firefight, and using one of his wives as a human shield. Russia has launched a rescue ship for two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut whose original ride sprang a dangerous leak at the International Space Station. The units elite stature has insulated its members from the scrutiny and military justice that lesser units would have faced for the same actions. Following graduation from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, General Neal was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Marine Corps. We dont have ads, so we depend on our members 35,000 and counting to help us hold the powerful to account. Men, women, and a small girl, motionless and in the fetal position, appeared dead. No investigation into an unjustified killing has ever resulted in formal disciplinary action against a member of SEAL Team 6. Buy the complete article on Amazon.com for .99 cents! I find particularly interesting the story of how the 300 Spartans were chosen. = Debate, Contemplating whether to grace the city of Bonn, Germany with my presence this summer. Peter Vasely, a Naval Academy graduate who had not gone through the advanced assault training of Green Team that the other members of SEAL Team 6 had endured. In that mission, known as Objective Wolverine, Slabinski and his fellow SEALs were sent in Chinook helicopters to follow a convoy they believed was filled with al Qaeda fighters escaping to Pakistan. Among several other languages, he speaks Italian, French, Arabic, and Afghan-Persian (Dari). At SAIS, he specialized in European affairs and international economics. In an interview, Hyder said the man had approached his position with his arms tucked into his armpits and did not heed warnings from other SEALs to stop. Lexington, VA 24450, VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTELexington, Virginia 24450General Information:(540) 464-7230Admissions:[email protected]. xiv Tech. Red Team, known as the Redmen, employed a Native American warrior as a mascot; Blue Team, known as the Pirates, wore the Jolly Roger; and Gold Team, known as the Crusaders or Knights, wore a lion or a crusaders cross. Questions about battlefield atrocities persisted, though some excused these actions in the name of psychological warfare against the enemy. The hatchets Howard obtained were stamped with a Native American warrior in a headdress and crossed tomahawks. One operator, who confirmed Howards remarks, added his own: Thats the business were in.. According to Hyder, the encounter ended there. Inside a heated tent, as many as 40 SEAL Team 6 operators asked themselves how they wanted to treat their fallen enemies. Find your friends on Facebook. Neal recently published a memoirWhat Now, Lieutenant?that is on the Commandant of the Marine Corps Professional Reading list. For many on the raid, including those who had been present in bin Ladens bedroom with ONeill, it was the first time theyd heard anyone in the command say the terrorist leader was standing, posing a threat of any kind. Sources at SEAL Team 6 who were present during the operation estimated the number of dead was between 17 and 20. It was Captain Perry F. "Pete" Van Hooser, III, who actually informed the operators of ST6's Red Squadron that Operation Neptune Spear had been approved. U.S. Navy (retired) Capt. The SEALs in the unit were furious that the White House revealed to the world that Navy SEALs had carried out the raid, violating the traditional code of silence about their missions. He later rewrote it figuratively this time by heading Task Force 121s revolutionary counterterrorism campaign in Iraq while serving under Gen. Stanley McChrystal at JSOC.vi, While McRavens career inside ST6 was indeed over, he pulled an end round. The extreme risks they take forge extreme bonds. Harry Beal - Underwater demolition team member, he was the first to volunteer for the SEAL program at its founding in 1962. His military awards include three awards of the Distinguished Service Medal and three awards of the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious service. A few of his female relatives were nearby. Red encountered and shot bin Ladens son just before the second floor landing, and the SEALs following behind him fanned out into the hallways and rooms on the second floor to search and secure the area. Tactically, there was little about the upcoming raid that was complex. A former SEAL Team 6 leader who has knowledge of the episode told me Moore shamed Slabinski and the squadron for their conduct. CSER is part of the Institute for Defense and Business, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit education and research institute, affiliated with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Bottom left: A Winkler hatchet similar to those issued to Red Squadron. Night after night of kill or be killed. According to three sources familiar with the debrief, Bissonnette never fired his weapon at Kuwaiti. He worked with Tumilson and his team. When he finally entered the bedroom, alone, bin Laden was standing uninjured, a weapon nearby, his wife in front of him like a human shield. The Center designs, organizes, and runs professional education programs for diverse organizational cultures that operate in crisis environments. The distinction was crucial. Lieutenant General (three-stars) Bingham retired in September 2019 from the United States Army following a 38-year career in the military. Its a great way to explain it away, but they have the hatchets to flaunt the law. Frontiers in Neuroanatomy 6. The operations team leader believed that a suicide vest had been detonated by one of the captors, and two Silver Squadron operators initially withheldthe fact that a grenade had been thrown. Top: Capt. Ironically, William McRaven has largely replaced Rogue Warrior Dick Marcinko as the face of SEAL Team Six in the eyes of the general public. According to a CIA officer with direct knowledge of the incident, the CIA requested that the SEALs capture, rather than kill, their militant targets. Others used them to break doorknobs on raids or kill militants in hand-to-hand combat. Theres honor involved and Vic Hyder obviously traipsed all over that, he said. Van Orden joined the Navy when he was 18 and served 26 years before retiring as a senior chief in the SEALs, having been deployed into combat five times, according to his website. Normally, SEAL Team 6s commanding officer, a captain, would conduct a captains mast, a form of non-judicial punishment. The pilot who had warned that one of the helicopters would stall was right. They had bonded over Robertss death. MostSEALs did not commit atrocities, the sources said, but the problem was persistent and recurrent, like a stubborn virus. Captain Van Hooser's Naval career began with qualifications as a Surface Warfare Officer and as a Special Operations Salvage Officer aboard the USS Edenton (ATS-1). Consequently, the SEALs initially reported to JSOC senior leaders that Norgrove had been killed by her captors. The book purported to be a true account of an S.S. officer who with dozens of other soldiers escaped Germany after World War II, joined the French Foreign Legion, and spent years in Vietnam brutalizing the insurgency. He has told at least one former SEAL Team 6 teammate that he hopes to never deploy again. Hyder, who was the ground force commander for the Kandahar operation, was cleared in an after-action review of the shooting. The new rule required a full photographic accounting of who was killed, photos of the entire body, where the targetwas when hedropped, what weapons heheld, the vantage point of the operator when he fired, and other atmospherics. Bissonnette left Red Squadron soon after the raid and retired from the Navy almost one year later. ONeill later implied in the Esquire profile that he shot bin Laden because he wasnt sure Reds shots had hit the target. Its sport., The former SEAL Team 6 leader said that he first noticed canoeing in 2004, and that it does occur accidentally on the battlefield, but rarely. Morale at Red Squadron fell apart shortly after the team returned to Virginia Beach from Afghanistan. Captain Van Hooser then received orders to BUD/S training class 137. His final assignment as a Foreign Service Officer, prior to retirement in 2008, was as the Associate Director for International Liaison at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Mutilation isnt part of the game.. See Photos. Instead, as Red began his ascent to the third floor, they followed him up, hoping to get in on the kill. Richards SEV, Moore AR, Nam AY, Saxena S, Paradis S, Van Hooser SD. Vasely, who was wearing night-vision goggles, looked through a window and saw one of his operators, his back turned, squatting over the body of a dead militant. Were only interested in the very best.xl, Put more succinctly, Some SEALs think BUD/S is fun, but even those guys think Green Team sucks.xli. When you see your friend killed, recover his body, and find that the enemy mutilated him? His superiors believed he had become unglued over the 2007 deployment. xxvii Wasdin and Templin, SEAL Team Six, 145. xxxiii U.S. He even has his own line of clothing. Namedin honor of VMI's 14th Superintendent General J. H Binford Peay III '62, the VMI Leader-in-Residence (LIR) program is an important part of the Center's efforts to educate, engage, and inspire cadets, faculty, and staff to develop as leaders. xxvi Gidget Fuentes Navy steps up search for new SEALs, Navy Times (April 8, 2007), http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/04/navy_sealrecruiting_training_070408w/. All Rights Reserved. Captain Van Hoosers Naval career began with qualifications as a Surface Warfare Officer and as a Special Operations Salvage Officer aboard the USS Edenton (ATS-1). That was the end of that. Hyder said that his single shot had blasted open the mans head. A third of the guys literally think theyre Apache warriors, then you had the Muslim way of removing a head. Mr. Mullaney is the author of "The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education.". The first and best-known was the rescue of Capt. Unlike the SEALs, the man was not wearing night-vision goggles. The residency aspect of the program allows cadets and faculty to explore the full range of leadership issues the leader has faced during their career. In less than a decade he bought and renovated more than a dozen underused historic buildings. Oh my gosh. Mr. Gergen is CEO of Forward Impact Solutions, which holds as its mission to unleash the impact potential of next-generation entrepreneurial leaders. So many dead bodies, so many, everywhere, and so the potential opportunities for mutilations were great.. Moore told his deputy, Szymanski, who was in Afghanistan, to sort things out. Bingham is the recipient of the 2019 White House Correspondents Be Fearless Award; the 2019 Joint Womens Leadership in Excellence Meritorious Service Award; the 2018 Ellis Island Medal of Honor; the 2018 Women in Defense Service to the Flag award and the 2014 Rock of the Year award. Here, commanders returning from a deployment leave their hard drives with technicians who transfer PowerPoints, after-actions reports, and photos of each operation a squadron conducted abroad. The SEALs believe that they can handle the discipline themselves, thats equal to or greater than what the criminal justice system would give to the person, said Susan Raser, a retired Naval Criminal Investigative Service agent who led the agencys criminal division but did not investigate this mission. War is awful and its human to go too far, but this isnt one time. Most of the operators held a meeting to discuss what had happened on the mission. Thats whats wrong with my community, the former SEAL Team 6 leader told me. Red watched bin Laden fall. Local residents and media on May 5, 2011, outside the compoundwhere al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Olson would earn a Silver Star for his actions that day.xv. He is the founder and CEO of Commonwealth Capital Partners LLC, CityWorks LLC, PlaceMakerNation and several other for-profit and non-profit organizations. Synaptic and intrinsic mechanisms underlying development of cortical direction selectivity. Afghanistans Paktia province is about the size of New Hampshire, with 10,000-foot ridgelines and arid valleys with dried riverbeds below, nestled along the border with Pakistans tribal areas. The hatchet says, We dont care about the Geneva Conventions and that we are above the law and can do whatever we want., Critics inside the command were troubled by the combination of battlefield aggression and Howards lack of military discipline. Constantly on call and required to be prepared to travel to any hotspot on the globe in a matter of hours, over the past ten years ST6 has conducted sensitive operations of the highest order in a litany of nations and lawless lands, stretching far beyond the acknowledged war zones. This was a crucial moment: Kill bin Laden now and the war could be over after only six months. With Charlie Sheen, Michael Biehn, Joanne Whalley, Rick Rossovich. Im disappointed he didnt take a knee.. While one former Delta officer described his units method and skill in the area as unmatched by any other force in existence,xlv a former ST6 officer unsurprisingly gave his men the edge. In 2014, ONeill unveiled himself as the man who killed bin Laden in an hourlong Fox News special, just as Bissonnette published a second book. Bissonnette claimed he shot and killed al Kuwaiti and had fired bullets into bin Laden on the third floor. Officers like Hyder, who did not pass through the brutal SEAL Team 6 internal training program, known as Green Team, are often viewed with suspicion and occasionally contempt by the enlisted SEAL operators. If you do the math, that means for all the aspiring wannabe SEALs willing to roll the dice and sign an enlistment contract, just one in 150 will ever join the exclusive ranks of DEVGRU as an operator. According to the New York Times, Afghans accused Blue Squadron of killing civilians during that operation, but a subsequent military investigation determined that all those killed had been armed and hostile. No cuts were visible in the photos, according to a military official who has reviewed the file. After the bodies were recovered, Hyder and the other members of Red Team were forced to reckon with the mutilation and near beheading of their fellow SEAL. A former ST6 operator relayed a story in which a pilot remarked how markedly different ST6 had become in comparison with the loud, obnoxious, gun-waving attitude of Marcinkos SEALs.xi, Still reputed to be more cowboy than their Army counterparts, DEVGRU was perhaps best described by a modern-era operator as a ragtag bunch of professionals.xii, Another of the key leaders who spurred DEVGRUs ascension alongside his own was Adm. Eric Thor Olson. One, led by an enlisted operator, took in the damage to one of the vehicles. SEALs own their space and manipulate the environment around them to ensure mission success." Alex West As a tandem jumpmaster, West giving the final checks on a military working dog prior to jump. He is married to the former Beatrice Ilardi and has two children, Barbara and Giorgio. She was the flagship of Admiral Raymond Spruance while he commanded the Fifth Fleet in battles across the Central Pacific. Van Hooser, a native of Madisonville, Kentucky, remembers the buzz of news coverage leading up to STS-1, the first flight of Space Shuttle Columbia in April 1981. vii Sean D. Naylor, Wide Support for SEAL tapped to lead JSOC, Navy Times (March 4, 2008), http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/03/navy_jsoc_mcraven_030408w/. Capt. Beginning in 2005 and continuing through 2008, as U.S. Special Operations forces became more central to the American military strategy, the number and frequency of operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan increased dramatically. Neal was promoted to four stars and assigned as the Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps before his retirement in 1998. After a short while, he quietly left the base. Cmdr. mother, Toula Van Hooser of Laurinburg; two brothers, Perry "Pete" Van Hooser III who is serving in the United States Navy SEALS and Hans Van Hoover of Ohio; a sister, Marilyn Jo Van Hooser of Ohio; an uncle, Gary Van Hooser of Ohio; an aunt, Sandra Yinglin of Ohio; and a host of friends across the country and around the world. Should they seek revenge for Roberts? "I followed the space program through grade school and high school," she said. As the commander of Army Materiel Command (AMC), he was directly responsible for all logistics, Information Technology, Research and Development, contracting, foreign military sales, and Industrial Base manufacturing and depot operations for the US Army. A veteran of hundreds of raids and assaults during his career, the former SEAL said he disagreed with the order to kill bin Laden, regardless of whether he was armed, and compared it to Britt Slabinskis order to his Blue Squadron men in 2007. With much-admired former ST6 officers holding down the two highest positions in the nations special operations hierarchy, there was little chance that SEAL Team Six would get passed over for prestigious assignments in the way they might have previously. Tensions over Russia's war on Ukraine have. Part 1, And it is not without some merit; ST6 as it exists now is closer to his image and vision than that of Marcinko. She commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Quartermaster Corps. You dont whistleblow on the teams and when you win on the battlefield, you dont lose investigations.. No one was upset that he ordered a beheading or all the men shot even if they were unarmed. Hyder acknowledged that the man likely did not understand English and probably couldnt see very well. Other active-duty SEAL Team 6 operators who worked with Bissonnette on his various consulting deals were punished as a result of their profiteering. The admirals mast was an unprecedented disciplinary action at the command, which had always been allowed to discipline itself. The VMI Center for Leadership and Ethicsis pleased to announce Lieutenant General Frank Libutti, USMC (Ret.) He wasnt surprised. Gary Van Hooser . xxv Iassen Donov, The Difference Between DELTA And SEAL TEAM SIX, SOFREP, http://cms.sofrep.com/5447/differences-delta-and-seal-team-6/. Mr. Craig M. Mullaney was appointed Senior Advisor at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in April 2010. Last year, the command became concerned about his psychological condition, determining that he was medically unfit to deploy again. xvii Eric Blehm, Fearless: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate Sacrifice of Navy SEAL Team Six Operator Adam Brown (Colorado Springs: Waterbrook Press, 2012), Kindle edition. They are officially classified as numbered Naval Special Warfare Tactical Development and Evaluation Squadrons, although they are commonly known by color Gold, Blue, Red, and the recently added Silver.xlviii (For example, Gold Squadron is technically Naval Special Warfare Tactical Development and Evaluation Squadron 3. Photos: www.navyseals.hu; Robert J. Fluegel/U.S. While at the Department of State, Ambassador Litt served as the Director of the Office of Northern Gulf Affairs (Iran and Iraq), and also as Desk Officer for Saudi Arabia. You must become a subscriber or login to view or post comments on this article. The list also includes Britt Slabinski, who was blacklisted in 2015 following the New York Times article that quoted him denying hed ever ordered his men to kill unarmed Afghan targets. As a Lieutenant General, his final assignment in the U.S Army was Director, Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, (JIEDDO) in Washington, DC; charged with developing solutions to counter the improvised explosive devices used against U.S. and Coalition forces in combat. Illustration: Attila Futaki for The Intercept. There were no heroics, and, apart from al Kuwaitis shots, no firefight. Following that WESTPAC tour, he was assigned as Patrolling Tactics Instructor and Staff Platoon Commander for new Second Lieutenants at the Basic School, Quantico, Virginia. The rules of engagement allowed the ground force commander to shoot anyone he viewed as a threat, regardless of whether they were armed at the time of the shooting. A SEAL who spoke Arabic interviewed bin Ladens wives and daughters until he was able to get two positive identifications. Then only a sixth-grader, she nonetheless recalls the spark of excitement it fired within her. The SEALs with Hyder came out and separated into two groups. He met and married his wife, Sara Jane over 27 years ago. Well, they did. Those who cant keep up are promptly RTUd (sent back to their previous unit). They were not the private collection of some individual operator, but the commands official after-action pictures. Way back in 2004, a former commander was already referring to him as the smartest SEAL that ever lived.viii And a prescient Gen. Wayne Downing predicted at the time, If anybody is smart and cunning enough to get (bin Laden), McRaven and the Delta and SEAL Team Six guys he now commands will do it. Yet another colleague compared him to the impossibly perfect superhero Captain America.ix. He is originally from San Antonio, Texas and joined Lockheed Martin in June 2011 after completing 32 years in the United States Army. Although Bissonnette was able to sell a book and tell his story first, ONeill arguably got the better deal. v Barton Gellman, TIME Person of the Year, Runner-Up: William McRaven: The Admiral, TIME (December 14, 2011), http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2101745_2102133_2102330-2,00.html. But neither does DEVGRU have a traditional selection course like the ones found at comparable units such as Delta Force, the British SAS and SBS, and the Australian SAS-R.xxx, Reputation remains critical, although rather than a single commanders unconventional criteria, each potential selectee is thoroughly vetted as dozens of current and former peers and leaders are asked to provide an assessment of worthiness.xxxi Those who receive sufficiently glowing recommendations are invited to endure a three-day screening test.xxxii And those who are accepted following screening are given their orders to attend the demanding selection and training program at Naval Special Warfare Development Group.xxxiii, Once admitted to SEAL Team Sixs Green Team, the candidates enter a carefully guarded world where they are issued an unimaginable assortment of gear and weaponry (with almost anything not included in the initial allotment made available on request). After more than 30 years in special operations, he knew that elite forces would inevitably cross ethical, moral, and legal boundaries if they were given too long a leash. But in 1998, after intervention by a senior officer at Dam Neck, Howard was given a slot on Green Team. Other military and intelligence officials who have served with or investigated the unit were also interviewed. Slabinkski and others in the squadron had fallen under the influence of an obscure war novel, Devils Guard, published in 1971 by George Robert Elford. A U.S. Navy SEAL who died after suffering an incident during a parachute training exercise near Tuscon, Arizona on Sunday is being remembered as an "exceptional teammate." Family and Friends . Derrick and his brother were raised in rural poverty by their beloved mother, Carol, who taught them the importance of hard work and self-reliance. I didnt give their different accounts much thought, the SEAL said. As he approached the third floor bedroom, Red saw bin Laden standing in the doorway, peering out. Ms. Halstead has over 15 years in executive-level leadership and specializes in inspirational and motivational speaking, developing leader training programs, leader coaching and mentoring. On May 1, two stealth Black Hawk helicopters took off from Jalalabad, Afghanistan, and headed east toward Abbottabad. Sign Up. By the time the two dozen Red Team operators departed for Objective Bull, tension had built up between Hyder, a commissioned officer, and the enlisted operators technically under his command. Green Team places particular focus on perfecting the dark art of close quartersbattle (CQB). Bissonnette was much farther back down the stairwell. National Museum of US Navy On the whole, however, the movie depicts . Overall, according to the Navy, only about 35 percent of the men and women . By all accounts, Slabinski, a second-generation SEAL who joined Team 6 in 1993, was an excellent sniper and reconnaissance operator. The guys needed that to get back in the saddle because everyone was gun shy., I mean, talk about the funny stuff we do. 11/21/2022 9 . After blowing open the iron gate blocking the main stairway, the lead assaulters, among them Bissonnette and ONeill, followed the operator known as Red up the stairs. Made up of no more than 200 SEAL operators when the Afghan war began, SEAL Team 6 was the lesser known of the U.S. military's elite "special mission" units. For several years afterward, the leaders at the command limited Slabinskis battlefield exposure assigning him to Green Team as an instructor, for example hoping the psychological wounds from Roberts Ridge would heal. Ms. Halsteads clients include Proctor & Gamble, Mercedes-Benz, CitiBank, Stanford Graduate School of Business and more. War is an adrenaline rush. According to two former SEALs, Slabinski told his teammates and superiors that his remark about wanting a head was figurative and not a literal order.