This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 at 3:48 pm and is filed under Military, Special Ops Troops, U.S. Army, USMC, Vietnam Rings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
The point man is the soldier, special operator, or marine who leads his element during a patrol operation or a movement to contact. He is the first to make contact with the enemy and has the most dangerous job in his element.
This is a position which should be rotated between team members because of its stressful nature. In case of enemy contact the point man will almost certainly be lost because he is the first one in. In many cases a smart enemy will allow the point man to pass so that he can more effectively engage the remainder of the group.
Since the point mam will be the first to make contact with the enemy all eyes are on him as he moves forward. The point man will communicate with the rest of his unit with hand signals although they can tell by his body language when there is trouble ahead. My Infantry and Special Operations ring customers will be most familiar with this term.
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