The killing of Osama Bin Laden on May 1, 2011, was celebrated in the streets. The operation by SEAL Team Six brought a kind of celebrity that was at odds with the tradition SEALs being a "quiet professionals." "They should never have said, 'Navy SEALS did this,'" retired SEAL Eric Deming said. With nearly two decades as a SEAL, Deming did tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and said that the Navy SEALs became a "brand," to their detriment. Hollywood told the story of the raid in the film "Zero Dark Thirty," and CBS has aired four seasons of its own prime-time series, "Seal Team." Online, former SEALs have monetized their newfound fame, including with autographed photos for sale online. Members of SEAL Team Six were disciplined for serving as paid consultants to a video game company. Another was punished for writing an unauthorized account of the raid. "It's not everybody doing it. Most guys in the SEAL Teams want the books to stop. They want the movies to stop. The TV shows to stop," one of the SEALs said. Asked why the elite troops shouldn't make some money off their service when it's finished, one of the SEALs said: "'Cause this isn't going to Harvard to get a business degree. You serve to uphold the Constitution of the United States and to protect our country. The military and our operations, they're not for sale."
Catherine Herridge, Andrew bast, Jessica Kegu, ‘Navy SEALs tell CBS News "lawless" members plague teams with criminality, drug abuse and profiteering’, CBS