Osama Bin Laden Operation Geronimo Film

Osama Bin Laden: Why Geronimo?

By Kathryn Westcott
BBC News

The lawmaking name for the operation to capture Osama Bin Laden is thought to take been Geronimo. Why was information technology named after one of the all-time-known Native Americans?

Geronimo. The Apache warrior's name conjures up an prototype of the American Wild Due west, the world over.

In the best-known photograph of him - taken in 1887 - he glares defiantly into the photographic camera, gripping a rifle. Information technology was this fearless warrior that led the concluding band of Apache resistance to the white Americans.

The fact that Bin Laden had been killed by US special forces was reported to President Barack Obama on Sunday with the words "Geronimo EKIA" - Enemy Killed In Activeness.

But US officials have refused to comment on whether this was Bin Laden's lawmaking proper name, or the code name of the operation, or why the name Geronimo was chosen - and may never do so.

Old W reincarnated

It was dorsum in 2001 that the narrative for America's hunt for the al-Qaeda leader became strewn with Wild W imagery.

George W Bush'due south phone call for Bin Laden to exist defenseless "dead or alive" mimicked the posters of the old Hollywood westerns, while borderland Islamic republic of pakistan became the Onetime West reincarnated in the minds of many commentators.

Bin Laden was referred to past i as a "21st-Century Geronimo, trying to elude the United states armed services somewhere in a dry mountain range that could easily laissez passer for the American Due west".

Afghanistan's cavern-laced mountains, were easy to imagine using the template of the Sierra Madre mountain range thousands of miles abroad, where the original Geronimo managed to elude Us troops for and so long in the belatedly 19th Century.

Referring to U.s.a. war machine possibilities in the tribal areas of Afghanistan'due south mountainous regions, Allan R Millet, a retired Marine Corps colonel and Ohio Land University professor, said in 2001: "It's similar shooting missiles at Geronimo... yous might become a couple of Apaches, but what divergence does that make?"

The real Geronimo was born in 1829 in what is modern twenty-four hours New United mexican states. As one of the Apache leaders, he inherited a tradition of resisting colonisation by both Spaniards and North Americans.

According to Ron Jackson writing in The Oklahoman newspaper in 2009, Geronimo'due south "legend is rooted in existent deeds of bravery and bloodshed."

Eluding capture

He gained early notoriety for his fearless raids against Mexican soldiers. Mexican troops had killed members of his family afterwards storming his village, and his revenge was to kill every bit many of them as possible.

"By 1872, US authorities officials were keenly aware of Geronimo's fighting exploits when they corralled him and hundreds of his young man Chiricahua Apache people onto an Arizona Territory reservation," writes Mr Jackson.

"Four years later, Geronimo led a large band of Apache dissidents off the reservation and into the Sierra Madre mountains of One-time United mexican states, where they staged raids on anyone unlucky enough to cross their paths.

"Armed services officials soon branded Geronimo a renegade. During the next decade, Geronimo repeatedly returned to reservation life in peace but to bolt with others for the refuge of the Sierra Madres. They often left a trail of blood. Hidden in the myriad mountain passes and caves, Geronimo and his followers embarrassed armed services officers by eluding them time and once more, at one betoken with as many equally 5,000 Usa soldiers on their heels."

It was Apache scouts that helped track Geronimo downwardly in 1886. Every bit a pw he became a celebrity, dictating his memoirs and taking role in President Theodore Roosevelt's inaugural parade in 1905. He died of pneumonia at Fort Sill in Oklahoma in 1909, after falling from his horse.

The chase for Bin Laden was oftentimes portrayed with Wild Due west imagery

His struggle to resist the white Americans has led to him existence depicted in a sympathetic light by many cultural historians.

Ironically, information technology is thanks to the Native American'southward legendary bravery that 2 of the US army'due south elite units take the regimental nickname "Geronimo".

The link to the parachute divisions' monikers and the tradition of shouting "Geronimo" while bailing out of a plane can be traced to Fort Benning in the state of Georgia.

G-E-R-O-N-I-M-O

According to reports, in 1940 soldiers from the parachute division were preparing to test a daring new manoeuvre, in which men jumped from the plane in rapid succession.

The night earlier the jump, a minor group of soldiers left the base to sentinel moving picture at the local movie theater - a western featuring the fearless Geronimo. Equally the men afterward revealed their anticipation near the adjacent mean solar day'south jump, Pt Aubrey Eberhardt appear that he was going to shout "Geronimo" as he leapt from the plane to demonstrate his courage.

The story goes that as he jumped, "G-E-R-O-N-I-M-O" was clearly heard from the ground. The motivational yell was adopted other servicemen and quickly became standard practice for US army paratroopers - and the favoured cry for footling boys performing a daring leap.

The give-and-take "Geronimo" was eventually discontinued by the army in favour of a parachute opening count - "i-k, 2-thousand" - but by this stage information technology was already the name of the the army's first parachute battalion, the 501st Parachute Infantry Battalion.

The nickname Geronimo has likewise adopted by the 1st Battalion (Airborne), 509th Infantry Regiment, which has been operational in Iraq and Afghanistan. By adopting the tactics and techniques of al-Qaeda and the Taleban, they help to railroad train other units to defend themselves.

The original Geronimo is buried at Fort Sill - only one branch of his descendants argue that he should be laid to rest in his tribal homeland of the Gila Mountains of New Mexico. Until the correct sacred burying rite is carried out there, they say, his spirit is still wandering.