Courage to Execute: What elite U.S. military units can teach business about leadership and team performance

Chapter 1

The Military Response to a Complex World: The New Value of Effective Execution

It was Thursday, March 20, 2003, the first night of the Iraq War.

No moon. Calm seas. Perfect night for a surprise raid by an elite special operations force.

Four Mark V SOCs (Special Operations Craft) were running flat out across the Persian Gulf. Two boats were loaded with Navy SEALs. Their pockets were filled with ammunition; their faces were blackened. They were dead serious. Just hours before they'd launched, their boat team leader—a 26-year-old Harvard graduate—had told them, “We're going to change the world tonight. Let's do it right.” Then his team embarked on one of the first missions in this new war. His men were ready for their task, ready to show the courage to execute.¹

From the boats, they looked out toward their rapidly-closing target: the Mina al-Bakr Oil Terminal, an impressive complex jutting out in the Gulf. The facility handled virtually all of Iraq's crude oil exports and American intelligence assets were convinced that Iraqi forces planned to unleash environmental and financial havoc by blowing up the facility; the SEALs were there to make sure that it didn't happen.

The seconds ticked off the clock, and each second mattered. The raid was supposed to have occurred at the very outset of hostilities, but the air war had started early, so the SEALs knew the Iraqis at the terminal would be on high alert, and more prepared by the minute. Every SEAL had a different scenario ...