Jocko Willink

And we had done, Stoner had taken guys out with Claiborne, with Joe Claiborne, like a few days earlier.

And he had gotten a big gunfight.

And when they came back,

I was standing at the gate waiting for him and they came back and I, you know, he's like totally impressed.

And I walk with him to his battalion commander and this guy, this company commander, Joe Claiborne, who's been in Iraq for four or five months at this point, he's lost two guys.

I think he's had a bunch of guys wounded.

I think at that point, like 20% of his guys have been wounded or killed.

And he goes to the battalion commander and he says, I want SEALs with me on every operation I do from here on out.

from one engagement with my guys, he was impressed.

And we were, I mean, I was overwhelmingly impressed with him and his guys.

They were outstanding.

But that's how much we hit it off with these guys.

And I've told him since that that was the best compliment I've ever got in my life, was when an army company commander goes and tells his battalion commander, I want SEALs with us on every operation we do from here on out, after just getting in a major engagement.

So now you fast forward a few days and we're going on this mission.

And as we're driving in, it's eerie.

And what the Mooj would do is they would light tires on fire.

And so you're rolling into town, black smoke everywhere.

There's fires burning, very, very eerie as we roll in.

And I have already have my sniper elements had inserted at this point.

And they were inserting on the mine clearance vehicles.