Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

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 ...

By , a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy.
dvidshub.net
dvidshub.net
dvidshub.net

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.

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)

Thomas E. Ricks is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. Twitter: @tomricks1

Read More On History | Military

More from Foreign Policy

Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.
Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.

Chinese Hospitals Are Housing Another Deadly Outbreak

Authorities are covering up the spread of antibiotic-resistant pneumonia.

Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.
Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.

Henry Kissinger, Colossus on the World Stage

The late statesman was a master of realpolitik—whom some regarded as a war criminal.

A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.
A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.

The West’s False Choice in Ukraine

The crossroads is not between war and compromise, but between victory and defeat.

Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi
Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi

The Masterminds

Washington wants to get tough on China, and the leaders of the House China Committee are in the driver’s seat.