What They Don’t Tell You About SEAL and Delta Force Joint Ops

About this video

Mike Ritland interviews a former Navy SEAL who served with SEAL Team 8, discussing his career path from completing BUD/S in 2008 through multiple deployments to Iraq. The guest recounts earning his sniper qualification as a new team member, detailing the stress of sniper school’s stalking exercises. He describes his 2010 Iraq deployment working alongside Delta Force in Baghdad, including a firefight where he shot an AQI bomb maker with green-tip ammunition—an experience that later informed the guest’s preference for different rounds.

Key takeaways

• The guest attributes his positive SEAL career trajectory to his first platoon’s mentorship and atmosphere, emphasizing how initial team experiences shape a operator’s entire career
• According to the guest, sniper school’s stalking evolutions were more stressful than combat due to the pressure of the coveted billet and fear of failing in front of senior teammates
• The guest recounts discovering through post-mission X-rays that green-tip ammunition proved less effective than expected, with a target surviving three center-mass hits—leading him to advocate for 77-grain rounds instead

Episode details: published August 29, 2026 · 43.5K views · 21:58 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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