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

was missed or left behind because no specific person had been
designated as responsible for its collection. The whole search process
took substantial time, generally around forty-five minutes to complete.
Remaining in a target building for that long, after the noise of an
explosive breach and the assault team clearing the building alerted
everyone in the neighborhood to our presence, made us vulnerable to
counterattack from insurgents in the area.
After we had conducted a number of missions like this, a new Iraqi
court system (composed of Iraqi judges and American advisors) imposed
stricter requirements for collected evidence, including a documented
chain of custody and the required paperwork for each item and a written
explanation of where exactly the evidence had come from—right down
to which room in which building. That way, in the new court system, the
evidence could be used with a higher degree of confidence.
Suddenly, our SEAL platoon’s rudimentary and highly undisciplined
method of searching—the ransack—became even more problematic. So I
tasked my assistant platoon commander (known as the assistant officer
in charge or AOIC) with creating a more efficient search procedure for
evidence to ensure our compliance with the new Iraqi court
requirements. A young, enthusiastic, and aggressive SEAL, my AOIC
was fired up to operate and lead. He took the assignment seriously and
dove in.
A couple of days later he presented me with his plan. At first look it
appeared complex, a possible violation of the Simple principle. But as he
broke it down for me, it became clear that each person was assigned a
simple task to execute while other members of the assault force
conducted other tasks concurrently. It was a simple plan and a
systematic method to enhance our effectiveness at searching for