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

wasn’t backing down, no matter the pressure to comply.
The company commander’s patience had worn thin. He had a hell of
a lot on his plate managing more than 100 Soldiers, multiple tanks, and
Bradleys as his men cleared through dozens of buildings. Responsible
for the establishment of this new combat outpost deep in enemy
territory, he also had to coordinate Warrior’s movement with his
battalion and the supporting companies. Now all he knew was that we
had reported a potential bad guy with a scoped weapon, possibly an
enemy sniper. And we were asking his Soldiers to leave the relative
safety of the buildings they were in, run across a hostile street in broad
daylight, and risk their lives because we didn’t feel comfortable taking
the shot.
I couldn’t blame the company commander for his frustration. I
empathized. But Chris was one of the best snipers anywhere. He had
already single-handedly accounted for dozens of enemy killed and
certainly didn’t need any urging from me to pull the trigger on bad guys
he could PID. His level of caution signaled that I, as his SEAL platoon
commander, needed to make the tough decision—the best decision I
could—based on the information I had. As the situation developed, if
information suddenly changed, we would still have the opportunity to
engage and could do so with a clearer picture of what was actually
happening. Jocko had always encouraged us to be aggressive in decision-
making. But part of being decisive was knowing and understanding that
some decisions, while immediately impactful, can be quickly reversed or
altered; other decisions, like shooting another human being, cannot be
undone. If we waited to take this shot we could later change course,
while a decision to pull the trigger and engage this shadowy target would
be final.