I'm writting this as we finish the after action review (AAR). We began the environmental recon for a new project. Five of us spent the lsat 7 hours around the customer's area and buildings trying to learn as much as possible. This will be repeated several times in order to learn any patterns. The same was already done during office hours.
Fortunately, we have a visiting friend, a retired recce guy from the UK, and he brought some invaluable analysis of our plans and provided us with some great ideas. This is why it's always good to have an outsider help you red team the plans. Especially someone with experience in the field.
originally we were going to move from one point to the next and observe, however our friend suggested that we leave 1 team memeber on a fixed position, overlooking the entire target, and then the other 4 separated in two 2-men teams that can move more fluidly around the area, reporting back to the person overlooking all. This way, he can paint a good overall picture of the environment. It was a great idea and it worked great.
During the AAR, our friend really made us walk through all the recon, making sure the things we saw different were noted for further observation the next time we went out.
So, as always, it's is great to learn new things. This was a simple suggestion, but one that made complete sense and made our recon more fluid and better.
