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

own into insurgent positions. A group of armed insurgents tried to sneak
up even closer to us using the concealment of a sheep pen to hide their
movement. Ryan hammered them and beat back their attempt before it
could even materialize. The sheep in the pen took some casualties in the
crossfire.
“Damn,” I told him. “Those sheep just took heavies.”
“They were muj sheep,” Ryan laughed.
I lobbed several 40 mm high-explosive grenades at a doorway where
Chief had seen enemy fighters engaging us. Whoomph! sounded the
explosion, as one round landed right inside the doorway with a fiery
blast. That should keep their heads down for a little while at least.
Long before dawn broke that morning, before the day’s first call to
prayer echoed from the minaret speakers of the many mosques across
South-Central Ramadi, our group of Charlie Platoon SEALs, our EOD
operators (who were very much a part of our platoon), an interpreter, and
Iraqi soldiers had stealthily foot-patrolled under the cover of darkness
through the dusty, rubble-strewn streets. We had “BTF’ed in,” as our
chief called it. BTF stood for “Big Tough Frogman,” an unofficial
mantra adopted by Charlie Platoon. BTF entailed taking on substantial
physical exertion and great risk and persevering by simply being a Big
Tough Frogman. Pushing deep inside enemy territory was a BTF
evolution. We knew it likely meant a gunfight was in store for us—what
chief called a “Big Mix-It-Up.” Our routine for most of these operations,
in chief’s terminology, was this: “BTF in, Big Mix-It-Up, BTF out.”
Then, once back on base, we’d hit the mess hall for “Big Chow.”
We had patrolled out of COP Falcon in the early morning darkness
through the densely packed urban neighborhood of two-story houses,
adjoining compound walls, and heavy-duty metal gates. We “BTF’ed in”