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

and his staff weren’t bad guys out to make our lives harder and stifle our
operations. They were good people trying to do their jobs the best they
could and give us what we needed to accomplish our mission. But they
weren’t on the battlefield with us. They didn’t fully understand the
threats we dealt with on a daily basis and how hard we were working to
mitigate every risk we possibly could. Still, this was combat and there
were inherent risks. In Ramadi, U.S. troops were killed or wounded
almost every day.
“We waste our time answering question after question,” I said. “It
takes effort away from our planning and preparation for the actual op
itself. It’s actually dangerous!”
Jocko knew I had a point. But he needed me to see beyond the
immediate front-sight focus of my team—Charlie Platoon—and
understand the bigger picture. Jocko tried to calm me down and help me
see our combat operations through the CO’s eyes; from the perspective
of his staff in the special operations task force. “The CO has to approve
every mission. If we want to operate, we need to put him in his comfort
zone so that he approves them and we can execute,” Jocko said.
“The more we give them, the more they ask for,” I fired back. “They
want an updated seating chart for our vehicles five minutes before the
launch of every op, even though we have to make last-minute changes.
They want the names of every individual Iraqi soldier working with us,
even though I won’t know that until just prior to launch.”
Jocko just nodded, realizing that I needed to vent. He knew I was a
capable and already proven leader. He had trained and mentored me for
the past year to prepare me for the rigors of combat operations and then
unleashed me to lead Charlie Platoon on the battlefield. But he also knew
I needed to see the importance of pushing information up the chain,