Those communicative projects are extensive and successful. And these men, along with Seth Stone, who died years later in a training accident, are prominently mentioned by Jocko in his writing and podcasting efforts.

Chris Kyle, the legendary sniper and subject of the award-winning film American Sniper, was also under Willink’s command. Three members of that team died in the battle: Marc Lee, Mike Monsoor, and Ryan Job. In Ramadi, his beloved Task Unit Bruiser (part of Seal Team Three) paid a high price. To stand by in civilian contexts means to take a breath, pause briefly, but in Ramadi, Jocko says, it meant get ready and get low: hostile fire incoming.Īnd it was Ramadi where Jocko as a commanding officer would exercise the full panoply of his combat and leadership skills developed over a nearly two-decade Navy career. In fact, the radio call “Stand by to get some” had become a way not only of alerting but of steadying combatants before another bout, so common had skirmishing become. The fighting was intense for SEALs, Marines, and Army forces, replete with numerous casualties. Willink commanded SEAL forces in the 2006 effort to prepare the way and offer protection to the more numerous conventional allied forces whose goal was to take and hold Ramadi. Willink and Babin are former Navy SEALs and veterans of the Iraq War. “Stand by to get some.” So begins Jocko Willink’s account in The Dichotomy of Leadership, co-authored with Leif Babin, of one in a series of clashes during the battle of Ramadi in the Iraq War.

Jocko leadership