My First Day in Iraq With SEAL Team 3 Didn’t Go as Planned

About this video

A former Navy SEAL recounts his first combat deployment to Iraq with SEAL Team 3. He describes the journey from San Diego through multiple countries, including a bar fight in Newfoundland, before arriving at Al Asad. On his first operation, he struggled with nerves when attempting to fire mortars, missing his target badly after excelling in training, but later composed himself and participated in the firefight. The experience included witnessing a suicide vest explosion that killed partner force members and observing the partner forces’ indifferent treatment of their own dead.

Key takeaways

• The speaker learned that performance under actual combat stress differs drastically from training conditions, as he fumbled a mortar shot despite being highly skilled in the training course weeks prior.
• The speaker observed that perception and stress responses vary greatly between individuals, noting how relaxed partner force fighters took selfies during combat while he struggled with overwhelming nerves.
• The speaker was struck by the lack of camaraderie among partner forces, who looted the bodies of their own dead comrades after a suicide vest attack with what he describes as zero remorse.

Episode details: published April 3, 2026 · 13.4K views · 23:26 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Stories told by Mike Ritland’s podcast guests are the guests’ own accounts, attributed to them — not independently verified. Commentary is Ritland’s, presented as his analysis.

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