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

who could see the locked gate got the job done with no direction needed.
With a simple “breacher up” call, a breacher quickly moved forward and
went to work on the gate to break through.
Third, the next priority: ensure a full head count of all personnel and
confirm they had exited the building to a safe distance from the
imminent explosion.
“Head count,” I called to the LPO. Despite the immediate chaos
around him, our LPO remained calm, stayed focused, and ensured a
proper head count of every single person exiting the building.
Within moments, he let me know: “We’re up,” said the LPO.
Everyone was out of the building, which included the operator who had
fallen to the street. It was welcome news.
In less than a minute, the SEAL breacher broke through the locked
gate. Now, we had a way down to our wounded man and we could all get
the hell off the exposed rooftop. If we got shot at here, with no cover, we
would take substantial casualties.
“Let’s move,” I urged, as the voice of our chief joined in to assist in
this effort, directing shooters to fall back to the stairwell down and
keeping shooters with guns up to cover other SEALs as they descended
to the street. SEAL shooters rushed down to the street below and set
security there with weapons pointed up and down the street. Then others
moved to recover the down man. With that, our entire element followed
suit down the stairway and out onto the street. Once down, we moved out
quickly to a safe distance from the impending IED blast. There, we
halted briefly to double-check our head count to ensure no one was left
behind. Fire team leaders reported to squad leaders, who reported to our
LPO, who reported to me: “We’re up.” In only minutes from the time we
exited the building, our SEAL platoon, EOD, and Iraqi soldiers moved