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Obama to honor troops, thank raid participants

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-05-06 13:34

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama's carefully calibrated response to the killing of Osama bin Laden is shifting from remembrance to appreciation. One day after laying a wreath at the site of the destroyed World Trade Center, the president is going to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to thank participants in the daring raid of bin Laden's Pakistan compound five days ago.

Special Coverage:  US kills bin Laden

White House officials say that at Fort Campbell, Obama will express his gratitude to the raid participants privately. The president, joined by Vice President Joe Biden, also will address soldiers who have recently returned from Afghanistan, a public forum where the military triumph will be hard to mask.

Obama so far has tried to avoid rejoicing over bin Laden's death. But he has maintained a steady stream of events and activities that have kept the success of the commando operation at the forefront. On Thursday he was in New York, visiting fire and police stations that responded to the September 11, 2001, attack that bin Laden orchestrated, and he met privately with victims' families. He also has given an interview about the operation to CBS that will air Sunday on "60 Minutes."

In New York, Obama did not mention bin Laden's name. He did not have to. "When we say we will never forget, we mean what we say," Obama told firefighters.

At the same time, the White House is wary of overplaying its hand. Obama has decided not to release photographs of bin Laden's corpse because he has said the sight of a man shot in the head is too gruesome.

The fort is home to the 101st Airborne Division and many of its combat teams recently have returned from tours of duty in Afghanistan. Its main draw for Obama is the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the highly specialized Army unit that carried Navy SEALS to bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The unit, known as Night Stalkers, has fought in nearly every U.S. conflict, from Grenada to Afghanistan and they were memorialized in the mission that resulted in the book and movie "Black hawk Down." Many of its missions are classified and among its primary duties are flying special forces commandos behind enemy lines using night-vision technology and low-flying techniques.

They are equipped with Black Hawk, Chinook and MH-6 Little Bird helicopters. Aviation experts said a helicopter used in the bin Laden assault appeared to have been a stealthier, top secret and never-before-seen version of a routinely used special ops helicopter. The helicopter made a hard landing and was destroyed by the military team at the site, leaving behind wreckage for experts to analyze.

White House officials would not offer details on the meeting between the president and the participants of the raiding party.

"The successful mission against Osama bin Laden is a monumental achievement," White House spokesman Jay Carney said. "But the fact remains that we're still at war, that we have 100,000 combat personnel in Afghanistan, we have troops in a support-and-assist role in Iraq, and we have US military men and women in other places around the globe and, in some cases, in difficult situations.

"So it's important to acknowledge that, and for Americans to remember that despite the elimination of bin Laden, we're still extremely dependent upon and grateful to our military men and women for what they do."