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

commander had confirmed that none of his guys were in building 127.
Therefore, the man Chris had seen must be an insurgent sniper. And
because the threat of enemy snipers was significant, the company
commander (like me) wanted our SEAL snipers to take out any enemy
snipers before they could kill Warrior’s troops.
But Chris obviously didn’t feel good about the situation, and I
certainly didn’t either. There were a lot of friendlies in the vicinity—
Warrior’s Soldiers—just a block beyond where Chris had seen the
individual. Chris maintained eyes on the window in question through his
sniper scope and waited patiently. He knew what he was doing and
needed no direction from me.
“Just saw him again,” said Chris. He described how, for a brief
moment, the dark silhouette of an individual peered out from behind the
window’s curtain. Chris couldn’t make out anything but the shape of a
man and the faint lines of a weapon with a scope. Then, like a ghost, the
man faded back into the darkness of the room and the curtain was pulled
across the window, blocking any view into the room. We couldn’t PID
the individual.
I again called Warrior’s company commander on the radio.
“We just saw the individual with the scoped weapon again, same
location,” I told him.
“Roger,” the company commander responded. “Take that guy out,”
he insisted in an exasperated tone. It was clear he was wondering, What
the hell are these SEALs waiting for? An enemy sniper is a threat to my
men: kill him before he kills us!
We certainly did not want any of Warrior’s Soldiers to get killed or
wounded. We were here to prevent such attacks, and I felt the pressure to
comply. Was it a bad guy or wasn’t it? I couldn’t say with any certitude.