Ramadi

Ramadi (Arabic: الرمادي‎; BGN: Ar-Ramādī; also formerly rendered as Rumadiyah or Rumadiya) is a city in central Iraq, about 110 kilometers (68 mi) west of Baghdad and 50 kilometers (31 mi) west of Fallujah. It is the capital of Al Anbar Governorate. The city extends along the Euphrates and is the largest city in Al-Anbar. Founded by the Ottoman Empire in 1879, by 2004 it had a population of about 450,000 people, the vast majority of whom are Sunni Arabs from the Dulaim tribal confederation. It lies within the Sunni Triangle of western Iraq.

Ramadi occupies a highly strategic location on the Euphrates and the road west into Syria and Jordan. This has made it a hub for trade and traffic, from which the city gained significant prosperity. Its position has meant that it has been fought over several times, during the two World Wars and again during the Iraq War and Iraqi insurgency. It was heavily damaged during the Iraq War, when it was a major focus for the insurgency against occupying United States forces. Following the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq in 2011, the city was contested by the Iraqi government and the extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and fell to ISIL in May 2015. On 28 December 2015, the Iraqi government declared that it had re-taken Ramadi from ISIL, that government's first major military victory since the loss of Ramadi some seven months earlier.

Jocko Willink

Jocko Willink is a retired United States Navy SEAL, who received the Bronze Star and Silver Star for his actions in the Iraq War. Willink was commander of SEAL Team Three's Task Unit Bruiser during the Battle of Ramadi. Task Unit Bruiser became the most highly decorated special operations unit of the Iraq War.

Willink retired from the Navy in 2010 and formed the company Echelon Front. Echelon Front "Offer[s] practical, experience-based solutions to complex problems based on our own lessons learned through a myriad of dynamic leadership challenges. We don’t teach theory learned in a classroom. [They] offer unique personalized service designed to get your team executing at the highest level possible." As part of the Echelon Front team, Willink co-founded the company with Leif Babin who was also part of SEAL Team Three Task Force Bruiser, serving under Willink.

Based upon their careers in the Navy, Willink and Babin co-authored the leadership manual Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy Seals Lead and Win.

United States Navy SEALs

The United States Navy's Sea, Air and Land Teams, commonly known as the Navy SEALs, are the U.S. Navy's principal special operations force and a part of the Naval Special Warfare Command and United States Special Operations Command. One of the SEALs' primary functions is to conduct small-unit maritime military operations which originate from, and return to a river, ocean, swamp, delta, or coastline. SEALs can negotiate shallow water areas such as the Persian Gulf coastline, where large ships and submarines are limited due to depth. The Navy SEALs are trained to operate in all environments (Sea, Air, and Land) for which they are named. SEALs are also prepared to operate in a variety of climates, such as desert, arctic, and jungle.

All SEALs are male members of the United States Navy. The CIA's highly secretive Special Activities Division (SAD) and more specifically its elite Special Operations Group (SOG) recruits operators from the SEAL Teams. Joint Navy SEALs and CIA operations go back to the MACV-SOG during the Vietnam War. This cooperation still exists today and is seen in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Islamic state (disambiguation)

Islamic state is a type of government based on Islamic religious law (sharia).

Islamic state may also refer to:

United States Navy

The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest, most capable navy in the world, with the highest combined battle fleet tonnage. The U.S. Navy has the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet, with ten in service, two in the reserve fleet, and three new carriers under construction. The service has 328,194 personnel on active duty and 101,199 in the Navy Reserve. It has 272 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 aircraft in active service as of February 2016.

The U.S. Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was essentially disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter. It played a major role in the American Civil War by blockading the Confederacy and seizing control of its rivers. It played the central role in the World War II defeat of Japan. The 21st century U.S. Navy maintains a sizable global presence, deploying in such areas as East Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. It is a blue-water navy with the ability to project force onto the littoral regions of the world, engage in forward areas during peacetime, and rapidly respond to regional crises, making it an active player in U.S. foreign and defense policy.