Company Command: Building Combat-Ready Teams

To: Company Commanders

From: Company Commanders

Switching Gears in the Counterinsurgency Fight

The battlefield faced by our Soldiers today can be chaotic, complex and volatile. We are often called upon to operate independently, and we face the challenge of waging a counterinsurgency (COIN) fight that requires the successful and simultaneous accomplishment of two overlapping objectives-to kill the enemy and to win the support of the local population. An ongoing conversation on the CompanyCommand professional forum is focused on how the conduct of COIN operations affects the nature of leadership, and conversely, how leadership, for better or for worse, can impact the …