Army is a big organisation; and it's been around for a long time. Often, others have learnt and recorded lessons so that we don't need to learn things the hard way.
There are a range of resources to help you easily learn the hard lessons of others. These include The Cove, other PME websites, Army doctrine, history books, and The Army Lessons Online.
Watch the video below to get a better understanding of Army Lessons Online and how this site can help you easily learn the lessons of those who have gone before us.
My next comment relates to responsibility. I saw no mention of this in the video, only reference to “ideally” and “perhaps”. Surely, we need someone to be designated as being responsible for ensuring that lessons learnt are recorded and doctrine and training revised accordingly. My tank driver in Vietnam should never have been wounded. Drivers in each of the preceding three squadrons had been wounded in exactly the same way, but we had no idea. There was just one of the many failures in such command responsibility.
The British system of Operational Analysis (OA) has much to commend it. Sub-unit elements responsible for recording lessons learnt are imbedded in operational units. Their OA command headquarters receives reports from theatres and ensures that solutions are found and implemented both in-theatre and the home base. Responsibility is sheeted home to ensure that this happens. An optional system without anyone having direct responsibility (for which they are specifically held accountable), will not work.
Saying that responsibility is vested in all levels of command will not cut it either. The ADF is the archetypal hierarchical organisation; mandates come from the top and are acted upon automatically and without question. It is taken for granted that the way things are done has successfully evolved over time, as a result of the combined experience of those in charge; i.e. it is assumed that all options have been considered. In many cases, however, nothing could be further from the truth. Someone must be held specifically accountable if battles are to be won and lives saved.
BTW. At the end of the Video, did I see someone prodding for an IED with a metal bayonet? Surely that lesson has been learnt and fibreglass prodders are now used.