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

reminder that this was dangerous territory, and we were sitting right in
the middle of it.
The night before, Leif and his SEALs from Task Unit Bruiser’s
Charlie Platoon had inserted from U.S. Marine Corps Small Unit
Riverine Craft (SURC) boats manned by a great crew of highly
motivated Marines. Charlie Platoon’s SEALs, accompanied by an expert
team from the 2nd U.S. Marine Air-Naval Gunfire Liaison Company
(ANGLICO) with which they often worked closely, a small Army sniper
team, and a partner force of Iraqi Soldiers had hopped from the SURC
boats onto the riverbank. They quietly sneaked into this enemy-
controlled neighborhood—one of the most violent areas of Ramadi. Our
SEALs were the first U.S. boots on the ground. They led the opening
salvo of this massive operation involving hundreds of U.S. Soldiers,
tanks, and aircraft to establish a combat outpost, literally in the center of
enemy-controlled territory. Within minutes of their arrival, Charlie
Platoon had killed an armed insurgent fighter patrolling the
neighborhood in the early morning darkness. SEALs then seized and
cleared the building complex that was to become COP Falcon and held it
for a few hours into the night while SEAL snipers provided cover for the
dozens of U.S. Army tanks and vehicles that followed the IED clearance
teams along the road into the area. I had ridden in with the U.S. Army
battalion Task Force 1-37 Bandits (1st Battalion, 37th Armored
Regiment, 1st Armored Division) in an M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle
early in the morning before the sun had risen, to link up with Leif and
Charlie Platoon. My job was command and control of our SEALs. I
would coordinate their efforts with Task Force Bandit’s Soldiers.
Shortly after our arrival, Charlie Platoon’s SEALs turned the
buildings they had cleared and occupied over to the U.S. Army company