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

eastern horizon, and South-Central Ramadi began to awaken. Even in
this war-torn city, some semblance of normal life carried on. People
emerged from their houses. Cars and trucks backed out of driveways and
made their way down city streets. Shepherd boys drove their herds of
sheep down the road to graze along the fertile banks of the Euphrates
River. The sun rose with searing heat which would crescendo midday to
baking temperatures of over 115 degrees Fahrenheit.
Over the radio, the Soldiers of Team Bulldog signaled their cordon
and search operation was under way. Dozens of Soldiers (including the
SEAL advisor and Iraqi soldier clearance team) moved out from COP
Falcon accompanied by armored firepower from Abrams tanks and
Bradley vehicles. From our position hundreds of meters away, OP2 could
hear the heavy grind of tank tracks on pavement and the rev of their
powerful gas turbine engines. I checked in with Jocko via radio, as he
moved out with the cordon and search team. All was proceeding
according to plan.
In such a nasty neighborhood, it didn’t take long for enemy fighters
to mount an attack. The first attempts came from the north. OP2 could
hear the report of big rifles as OP1’s SEAL snipers hammered a couple
of armed insurgents moving to attack. Soon, our OP2 snipers observed
three enemy fighters with AK-47s and an RPG rocket maneuvering
through the streets toward the clearance teams. SEAL snipers engaged,
hitting two of the three and sending the third running for cover. With
those shots, the enemy had a good indication of where we were. Within
the hour, the first bursts of muj machine gun fire snapped over the heads
of the two SEALs positioned on the balcony. It was only the beginning,
as the enemy sporadically engaged our building and probed our position.
We knew their attacks would no doubt grow bolder as they pinpointed