CHAPTER 3

Believe

Jocko Willink

SHARKBASE, CAMP RAMADI, IRAQ: QUESTIONING THE MISSION
This makes no sense, no sense at all, I thought as I read through the
mission statement from higher command. We were to execute missions
“by, with, and through Iraqi security forces.” Unlike my first deployment
to Iraq where SEALs worked almost exclusively with our own SEAL
Team and other U.S. or NATO special operations units, my SEAL task
unit had now been directed to work with conventional forces. But not
just any conventional forces—Iraqi conventional forces.
The SEALs in Task Unit Bruiser were like a professional sports team,
exceptionally well trained to perform at the highest level. We knew each
other so well that we could anticipate each other’s thoughts and moves.
We could recognize each other’s silhouettes on patrol in the darkness.
This was the result of years of training, not only in BUD/S, the basic
SEAL training course from which we all had graduated, but in the year-
long training cycle that the entire task unit had gone through together.
That workup consisted of training and practicing as a team: in desert,
urban and maritime environments in vehicles, boats, planes, helicopters,