Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win

operating procedure to utilize. With discipline and training, we will be
much more effective in our search procedures than we have been. So we
are going to try this method. Let’s give it some test runs and see how it
works.”
There was grumbling, but the SEAL platoon reluctantly complied.
We jocked up in our op gear and headed out to some abandoned
buildings on base that we used for walk-through rehearsals prior to
missions. Once there, we talked through the plan one more time and then
we ran through it—a full-scale dress rehearsal. The first run took us half
an hour, a substantial amount of time, but still less than the forty-five
minutes it had taken before. We shifted to another building and ran
through it again. Now people knew their jobs and better understood the
flow. The second run took about twenty minutes. We moved to another
building. This time, it took ten minutes. The guys were now believers.
Implementing a disciplined search method drastically improved our
effectiveness and efficiency. It meant we were less likely to miss key
evidence and intelligence. It also improved our speed, which meant we
could spend less time on target, which decreased the risk of enemy
counterattack.
That night we put the new method into practice for the first time on
an actual combat mission in downtown Baghdad. Like clockwork, we
cleared, secured, and searched the target building—all in less than
twenty minutes. When we returned to our compound, all of the evidence
we gathered was placed into neat piles organized by room. Going
forward, we made minor adjustments to our new procedures for even
greater efficiency, like creating ziplock bags that were hung around
prisoners’ necks to hold the personal belongings and evidence found on
their person. With a baseline of solid, disciplined search procedures, it