To reinforce General Benjamin's point, platoon commanders, company commanders, and battalion commanders all have stock checks occurring on a regular basis. When they finish a major operation and get back to one of the four operating bases, or to Kandahar airfield, they take stock. They have a responsibility to make sure the soldiers are successful on the next mission. The NCOs will tell the soldiers to lay out their kits and they'll check their equipment. Some of the inventories that General Benjamin does are outside that chain of command, to make sure we have an independent audit of what's on the ground. These stock checks happen on a regular basis, depending on the operational tempo.
On June 17th, 2008. See this statement in context.