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Subject: Where is the CAVALRY?
dynmicpara    10/3/2007 11:36:06 PM
Funny how "strategy" page doesn't even have a Topic on Cavalry, which are units more mobile than the main body to create important effects; no wonder why we are in a monochrome rut of mediocrity getting blown up on roads. One of the reasons we are getting clobbered in Iraq/Afghanistan is that we have become a wheeled road-bound Army/marines---AGAIN: General Gavin asks where is the Cavalry in 1954? We ask where is it TODAY? Being road-bound is not a surprise with gyrenes, but the Army knows better. It has the institutional knowledge and equipment to do better. The solution is within our grasp--use the M113s General Gavin created and form a "Sky Cavalry" that flies by aircraft and goes cross-country instead of driving along roads/trails/streets into land mines. "The easy way is mined", used to be tactical wisdom until Clinton-era Stryker/Humvee trucks fed our laziness and vanity to be seen of men with our "presence".
 
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Blackbird    Here Comes the Cavalry   12/17/2007 8:06:16 AM
I was an officer in the 2/4 Cavalry in 1970-1972.  Never served in combat but, trained as an Airborne Infantry Lt., I learned Cavalry tactics quickly as a platoon leader, support platoon leader and S1 (Adjutant).  Biggest problem with Cav is finding the right vehicles.  From horses, tried motorcycles, jeeps, M114s, Sheridans (M551), helicopters, etc.  Jeeps and M114s were effective but helicopters are and were the best.  Sheridans were absolute junk...expensive, ineffective and unreliable.  The two main missions of the Cav are Reconaissance and conducting delaying actions.  At Gettysburg, Stuart failed badly at the first and left Lee uninformed for the first two days.  I was not a professional soldier.  In fact, I was drafted.  However, one of the things I am most proud of is the time I spent and my membership in the 2nd Squadron, 4th Cavalry.  A Cavalry platoon is the smallest "Combined Task Force" in the Army.  A platoon leader commands an Infantry squad, a mortar squad, three tanks (Armor) and a Recon squad.  My spurs still hang on my office wall.
 
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Patton       12/9/2010 3:04:40 PM

I was an officer in the 2/4 Cavalry in 1970-1972.  Never served in combat but, trained as an Airborne Infantry Lt., I learned Cavalry tactics quickly as a platoon leader, support platoon leader and S1 (Adjutant).  Biggest problem with Cav is finding the right vehicles.  From horses, tried motorcycles, jeeps, M114s, Sheridans (M551), helicopters, etc.  Jeeps and M114s were effective but helicopters are and were the best.  Sheridans were absolute junk...expensive, ineffective and unreliable.  The two main missions of the Cav are Reconaissance and conducting delaying actions.  At Gettysburg, Stuart failed badly at the first and left Lee uninformed for the first two days.  I was not a professional soldier.  In fact, I was drafted.  However, one of the things I am most proud of is the time I spent and my membership in the 2nd Squadron, 4th Cavalry.  A Cavalry platoon is the smallest "Combined Task Force" in the Army.  A platoon leader commands an Infantry squad, a mortar squad, three tanks (Armor) and a Recon squad.  My spurs still hang on my office wall.

Its different now, sir, depending on the organization.  If its hv cav then you have six M-3 CFV's with 18 crew and 12 scouts.  If its light cav, then you have 10 humvees with 40 troops.  In the light cav squadron you have an HHT,  3-troops of humvees, and a fourth troop of 19D scouts and 11B infantry.  The infantry troop has no vehicles and uses CRRC's  for infiltration and raids.  Im not sure if they have a mortar section or not.  The cav squadron is pretty much the same as it was in Nam... an HHT, three troops of CFV's, a tank company, and an SP. Arty bty., (155mm) instead of the old Sp. 105's.  The regiment is pretty much unchanged except that an aviation squadron replaced Troop P and a full bn of Arty is now carried.

 
 
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Patton       12/21/2010 10:36:03 AM
Last I heard the 2nd ACR was converted into a Stryker Cav Rgt... the 11th ACR is somewhere in California, the 4th, 5th, 7th (Garry Owen), 8th, and 12th are all with the 1st Armored Cav Division.   Every BCT now carries a Cav squadron, so the Cav has gone nowhere and its mission(s) remain(s) the same
 
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