3rd Cav Leads the Way

We've been keeping track of the commander of 3rd Armored Cavalry Brigade in Iraq, Col. H.R. McMaster. The brigade is leaving Iraq this month but the Washington Post says its lessons learned will not be forgotten:

U.S. military experts conducting an internal review of the three dozen major U.S. brigades, battalions and similar units operating in Iraq in 2005 privately concluded that of all those units, the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment performed the best at counterinsurgency, according to a source familiar with the review's findings.

The regiment's campaign began in Colorado in June 2004, when Col. H. R. McMaster took command and began to train the unit to return to Iraq. As he described it, his approach was like that of a football coach who knows he has a group of able and dedicated athletes, but needs to retrain them to play soccer.