Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win

pursue that option.
Leaving a team in place, we sent a clearance team to the adjacent
building. But what they found was not encouraging: the vantage point
was no better. Positioning adequate security forces in two different
buildings would spread us extremely thin, especially in such a dangerous
neighborhood crawling with heavily armed muj. With this option not
practical, I talked things over with the LPO. It was still dark, but sunrise
was not far off, and the first call to prayer would soon echo from the
mosque minarets and awaken the city. Time was running out to get into
position, especially as the cordon and search teams of Army Soldiers,
our SEAL advisor teams and Iraqi soldiers would commence their
operation soon and were depending on our sniper overwatch team to
cover them.
“No options are good,” I lamented. “But our least bad option is to
pull everyone back to our original building and secure that position as
best we can.” The LPO agreed and immediately executed the plan. We
knew the position had substantial vulnerabilities, but we would have to
do all we could to mitigate such risks. Our SEAL snipers took positions
to best protect the troops on the ground, and then we placed the rest of
our team in positions to protect the snipers, one of whom was somewhat
exposed on the balcony. With the position set, OP2’s SEAL radioman
made a call to our other SEAL sniper overwatch, OP1, reporting our
position. We then checked in on Team Bulldog’s net and passed our
location to Jocko, who was with Team Bulldog at COP Falcon, so he
could coordinate with the other troops on the ground.
“Aaaaallllllaaaaaaaaaahhhhhuu Akbar...” echoed the first call to
prayer from the minaret loudspeakers of mosques throughout the city,
signaling the dawning of the day. Soon, the first rays of light painted the