You want to know how many men are in that camp. You will never see them all at once. So you count the latrines instead.

Field sanitation is planned, not improvised. The number of latrines in a camp has a direct numerical relationship to the number of troops being served. Nobody digs more than they need, and nobody digs fewer. That row of structures at the edge of the treeline is a headcount that nobody thought to hide.

The kitchen answers the same question from a different direction. A field kitchen is manned and equipped to feed a specific number of soldiers — not an approximate one. Watch the queue. Then look behind the kitchen at the stack of empty crates, because that pile is a record of how many were fed yesterday, and the day before.

Then there's what people carry. Lightly equipped soldiers moving without packs can be assumed to be close to their operating base. Men heavily laden with packs and equipment are redeploying somewhere new. Same track, same direction, two completely different reports.

And routine. Every army eats on a schedule, and in a particular order. Three sittings instead of one means they feed in shifts — which means they work in shifts, which tells you something about how the position is manned around the clock. Who eats first tells you who is standing guard while the others eat.

None of this is dramatic. It is exactly the kind of seemingly unimportant information that turns into real intelligence — and the kind only someone on the ground can report accurately.

An enemy is hard to find, but not impossible. Habits and habitats leave definite fingerprints.

A camera sees the latrines. Somebody still has to count them.

Send this to someone who thinks reconnaissance is about spotting tanks.

What's the most useful thing you've ever noticed that nobody else did?

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