The DePuy files (VII): The real role of the leading platoon is reconnaissance

Here’s the penultimate excerpt from the papers and sayings of General DePuy. Again, I have read thousands of pages about this stuff and observed military operations in Somalia, Bosnia, Haiti, Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan, as well as training at Fort Benning, Fort Hood, Fort Polk, Fort Irwin, and Camp Lejeune, and I have never seen it put this succinctly.

When I commanded the 1st Infantry Division in Vietnam, we received hundreds of lieutenants from Fort Benning and OCS, and I have to tell you that almost without exception — this was in 1966 or 1967 — these platoon leaders would, if not otherwise instructed, almost automatically proceed in a column and deploy into a line when the first shots were fired and assault into the enemy position as a sort of puberty rite, a test of manhood.

Instead, a platoon leader should always think of the leading element as being on a reconnaissance mission for the company commander and the battalion commander so he’s out there to find out where the enemy is, try to figure out the enemy strength so that the company and battalion commanders can make decisions. That’s the professional way to fight a war.

(P. 458, Selected Papers of General William E. DePuy)