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

you have to pull the trigger, make sure the people you kill are bad.”
With that, the brief concluded and SEALs streamed out of the
building. Everyone jocked up in their op gear, loaded vehicles, and
conducted final equipment checks in a hurry. Jocko and I were the only
ones left in the mission planning space talking through final big-picture
details of our plan.
Suddenly, Butters burst into the room. “We just got some new intel,”
he said, in a concerned and excited voice. “They have IEDs buried in the
yard and bunkered machine gun positions in the house.” It meant the
terrorists holding this hostage were ready for a fight, and the risk to our
force was high. Butters stared at us with a grave look of concern.
Jocko looked at me. “I guess you guys are gonna get some,” he said
with a confident smile and a nod. He fully understood the risks. But he
also knew our plan was sound and our assault force and supporting assets
were well prepared to meet the enemy threat.
“I guess so,” I said, smiling back at Jocko and nodding in agreement,
adding a phrase we used when facing anything particularly challenging
or miserable: “Good times.”
We walked out to the vehicles, where our SEAL assaulters and
vehicle crews were standing by, ready to depart.
“Here’s the latest intel update,” I passed to the troops. I told them
about the reported IEDs in the yard and bunkered machine gun positions.
“Roger that,” came the response from several SEALs. “Let’s get
some.”
They were fired up. That was the Task Unit Bruiser way.
It wasn’t cockiness or overconfidence. On the contrary, each man
knew this was a dangerous operation and that he might very well come
home in a body bag. But despite the new intelligence, we were confident