The Combat Studies Institute is pleased to present Scouts Out! The Development of Reconnaissance Units in Modern Armies by CSI historian John J. McGrath. Scouts Out is a wide-ranging historical survey of the theory, doctrine, organization, and employment of reconnaissance units since the era of mechanization in the early 20th century. Reconnaissance and counterreconnaissance are battlefield missions as old as military history itself and missions for which many armies have created specialized units to perform. In most cases, these units were trained, equipped, and used differently from the majority of an army’s fighting units. Horse cavalry performed these missions for centuries, for it had speed and mobility far in excess of main battle units. Once the horse was replaced by mechanization, however, the mobility advantage once enjoyed by the horse cavalry disappeared. Since the early 20th century, the search for the proper mix of equipment, the proper organization, and the proper employment of reconnaissance units has bedeviled armies around the world. This survey uses a diverse variety of historical cases to illustrate the enduring issues that surround the equipping, organizing, and employment of reconnaissance units. It seems that these specialized units are either too heavily or too lightly equipped and too narrowly specialized or too conventionally organized. Prewar reconnaissance doctrines tend to undergo significant change once fighting begins, leading to postconflict analysis that reconnaissance units were “misused” in one way or another. McGrath ends his study with an intriguing conclusion about the role that specialized reconnaissance units should have in the future that may surprise many readers. Scouts Out is a thought-provoking historical study that we believe will contribute to the Army’s current and future transformation efforts.

About the Author

Boston native John J. McGrath has worked for the United States Army in one capacity or another since 1978. A retired Army Reserve officer, Mr. McGrath served in infantry, field artillery, and logistics units, both on active duty and as a reservist. Before coming to work at the Combat Studies Institute, he worked for 4 years at the US Army Center of Military History in Washington, DC, as a historian and archivist. Before that, Mr. McGrath worked full-time for the United States Army Reserve in Massachusetts for more than 15 years, both as an active duty reservist and as a civilian military technician. He also served as a mobilized reservist in 1991 in Saudi Arabia with the 22d Support Command during Operation DESERT STORM as the Command Historian and in 1992 at the US Army Center of Military History as a researcher/writer. Mr. McGrath is a graduate of Boston College and holds an MA in history from the University of Massachusetts at Boston. He is the author of numerous articles and military history publications. In 1994, the Army Material Command published his book Theater Logistics in the Gulf War. The US Army Combined Arms Center Combat Studies Institute Press has published the following books written by Mr. McGrath: The Brigade: A History (2005), Crossing the Line of Departure: Battle Command on the Move (2006), Boots on the Ground: Troop Density in Contingency Operations (2006), and The Other End of the Spear: The Tooth-to-Tail Ratio (T3R) in Modern Military Operations (2007). Mr. McGrath was also the general editor of the proceedings of the Combat Studies Institute’s 2005 Military History Symposium, An Army at War: Change in the Midst of Conflict, and contributed to CSI’s anthology In Contact! Case Studies From the Long War. Aside from a general interest in things military and historical, his areas of particular interest include modern military operations, the German Army in World War II, August 1914, and the Union Army in the Civil War. He has a keen interest in ancient history, historical linguistics, the city of Boston, and baseball. He is also a PhD candidate at Kansas State University.

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