I was never in the Navy.
I would guess that these Sailors received some kind of briefing before they went on this mission. It would be something like the Army’s Five Paragraph Operation Order (OPORD).
They would have been told about possible actions by the Iranians and how to deal with them.
My guess is that there is a written OPORD for this mission.
The Commander of the mission will be measured by how he followed the order.
This was a fairly long mission. The Commander and maybe all of the Sailors would have been briefed before leaving. Everyone would know the score.
I’m betting that there is an order with very strict guidelines for directions and radio procedures and so forth.
The Sailors didn’t just hop in the boats and head south.
Valerie Jarrett arranged this whole thing, soup to nuts.