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

evidence. The plan designated a search team with specific individuals
responsible for specific tasks: one would draw a sketch of the house and
room layout, another would label each room with a number, another
would video and photograph evidence where it was found. Each room
would have a single SEAL operator who was designated the “room
owner,” responsible for everything in the room. Searches would happen
systematically in an organized manner, starting from the floor up, so that
we no longer had to search beneath what had been dumped on the floor.
The room owner would collect any contraband or possible evidence
found and place it into a plastic bag that he carried. He would label that
bag so that everyone would know who had found the evidence and in
what room. For each room, when the search was completed, the room
owner put an “X” through the labeled room number so that everyone
knew the room had been searched. Finally, the room owner would
maintain possession of the bags he collected on target until we were back
on base and he could personally hand them over to the intelligence
exploitation team in an organized manner, following the chain of
custody procedures. Once back at camp, the sketcher and the labeler
would lay out tape on the floor with the room numbers on them. The
assault force would then file through and put their bag of evidence in the
appropriate spot. When the exploitation team started to analyze the
information, they would already know what building and what room it
was found in. They also knew who had collected the intelligence, in case
there were any questions.
While the plan at first sounded complex, when broken down into
individual roles, it was actually fairly simple. In addition, I figured if
each one of these jobs took perhaps ten minutes to accomplish, and they
were all being executed simultaneously, this disciplined procedure