evidence whether the compound had been declared secure at the time the tunnel was discovered.
377 Person 18 was a member of Person 5's patrol. He gave evidence that 2009 was, what he described as, the commencement of 2 Squadron's introduction "into SSE". He said that the SSE process commenced a year before with the rotations of 103 Squadron and that one of his roles in 2008 was to be 2 Squadron's SSE developers with Person 68. He said that that involved taking the lessons identified in previous rotations and putting them into a process which suited 2 Squadron. He described the main output from the troop's perspective was obtaining a labelling process so that the troop could coordinate moving evidence from the battlefield back to the base.
378 Person 18 described what he called the "fight through". That involved the assault patrols going through assaulting and clearing the compound. He recalls his patrol assaulting up into an open area which was in the northern sector of the compound. From there, they met up with other teams who had gone to the right from the entry point and come to a convergence. At that point, they had cleared the compound and covered off on all the areas. The patrol commanders (or team commanders as they were alternatively referred to in the evidence) then give the order for a fight back. A fight back was described by Person 18 as a more methodical clearance and search of the compound back to the entry point. Person 18 said that during the fight through, the soldiers commenced doing exploitations and that a more thorough search was done during the fight back. There would then be, what he referred to as a "re-org", which involved the patrol/team commanders initiating a conversation with the troop commander to say that areas are complete. An order would then be given as to who was going out on security. He recalls Person 6's patrol remaining outside and doing perimeter security around the northwest corner. Person 44's team was also assigned a security role. The remainder of the teams commenced exploitation inside the compound.
379 The steps in the process then are fight through, fight back and then a re-org. The next stage after that is the exploitation. Person 18 said that once the troop commander had placed the teams out on the ground, compound secure would be declared and the troop commander would say clearly on the radio "to let everyone know, and the officer commanding the squadron" that the target was secure. Person 18 estimated that the time it would have taken to carry out the process up to the declaration of compound secure was no more than five minutes.
