Alan,

As a former troop commander I really appreciated reading your article. In our effort to regain proficiencies in security and reconnaissance tasks, we can’t ignore our ability to fight. I think your points about mastering actions on contact and battle drills are spot on. Hopefully as we continue to emphasize reconnaissance operations against a near-peer threat, this becomes second nature.

In your article you say “At the BCT-level, we must regard reconnaissance and security operations as not a tactical task assigned solely to the Cavalry Squadron, but as a ‘whole-of-BCT fight.” I’m interested if you are seeing BCTs embrace this during their DA rotations? And if there is a difference in how the different BCTs (ABCT/SBCT/IBCT) approach reconnaissance and security operations?

~Scott