Originally Posted by
Kurt Kurageous
I just wanted to say that I, too, am a recovering Army vet. 31 years an officer, retired in previous decade.
The AAR you described is a hot wash. At the battalion+ level these get turned in to the Center for Army Lessons Learned or CALL in a particular format. That format is "Issue, Discussion, and Recommendation."
I say this all to say how right you are about how the military makes mistakes. To murder a previous recruiting slogan, "There's dumb, and there's Army dumb." Where we go really wrong and stay wrong is not enough decision makers actually read the formal AARs written by dwids like me and you.
And this is why this forum is so freakin' valuable to running better games.