Sensitive items are anything that is considered classified or a mission essential item. These items can include protective gear, maps, or a piece of paper designating patrol routes. The importance of securing sensitive items comes down to maintaining accountability for operation security, mission success and a soldiers over all readiness. The habits of exercising security and accountability of a soldiers items allow the soldier and their team to operate to the highest standards or have items be accessed by an opposing adversary creating loss of overall mission success.

Operational security is a process that denied critical information to an adversary. If one were to obtain the information presented it could be used against friendly
Not all incidents involving loss of sensitive items involve espionage, some times persons not maintaining their equipment or not utilizing proper storage procedures are the cause of the loss of sensitive items. Theft due to improper accountability of sensitive items is also a cause of loss of equipment. In some cases a mis accountability of equipment can cause it to fall into the wrong hands. It has been documented that $1B of military equipment has come up missing in Iraq, in the process of this accountability failure thousands of small arms that can not be identified may be in distribution through out our adversaries caches. Accountability and properly securing of sensitive items allow even the smallest items at a personal level keep in support of a missions success. Allowing any amount of sensitive items to be can be degrading to mission success and small amounts of information or equipment can be pieced together to form a much larger picture. This decreases the ability and function a particular units mission capabilities in the form of an adversary knowing information that compromises a missions directive or capabilities. Further more unsecured sensitive items lead to problems starting at a personal performance level. Although people are trained to adapt and overcome situations