It was definitely one of those nights where everybody remembers where they were.
It was a Sunday night and I was hanging out at my usual dive bar with some friends and our college police chief. The TV was on behind the bar, and a breaking news alert came on the screen that President Barack Obama would be holding a press conference.
This late at night? Something big must be going on.
Well rumors started to spread that the United States had finally killed Osama Bin Laden, and once the press conference made it official, there was no chance that I was making it to class or work the next day. The police chief was buying shots for us as the small crowd in the bar celebrated. We queued up Toby Keith on the TouchTunes. It was an incredible moment.
And somehow, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was the first to get the news.
It was 11:30 PM when President Obama finally took the podium to break the news to the world. But at 10:30, an hour before the official announcement, The Rock already had the news:
“Just got word that will shock the world – Land of the free…home of the brave DAMN PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!”
So how did he know before the rest of the world? Well, he’s never revealed his sources.
In an interview the following year, The Rock only cited “individuals who were there.”
“If I tell you that, I won’t have to ‘kill’ you, but I’ll have to behead you — no, I got my sources. I got friends in high places and low places. It was a very interesting day. …The individuals who were there were proud to let me know.
I knew the president was going to give his speech; I thought he was going to give it at a certain time and so I thought, I think it’s appropriate that I tweet ‘I’m damn proud to be an American’ and keep it in that space without giving away too much information.”
Now, we know that wrestler-turned-actor-turned-wrestler-again has a cousin who was a Navy SEAL at the time, though we don’t know if that’s how he found out.
Personally I like to believe that The Rock was the first call that Barack Obama himself made after it happened. As soon as SEAL Team Six made the shot, gotta get DJ on the line.
Regardless, it makes for a pretty interesting story about a historic day not only for the United States but for the entire world.
Oh and of course, God bless our brave military who made it happen.
